To think of being trapped forever in the loop of childhood. ( Log Out /  White. In the middle of the essay, in a rather unremarkable passage, White writes the line “summer without end” (117). Early on in the semester, as part of a discussion on descriptive writing, I often assign E.B. The essay moves back and forth between the narrator’s memory of visiting the lake as a child and the present moment when he vacations at the… ( Log Out /  The cycles do not turn. “What is the dominant feeling produced by White’s use of description?” I ask. White; Once More to the Lake study questions; Questions on Rhetoric and Style – The Silent Season Of A Hero by Gay Talese; Rhetorical Devices; Shooting an Elephant Unit Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com. How it feels good to go back. Like White, I too imagine myself as somehow both the child and the parent, existing inside the then and the now. The essay starts as a father and son go to the lake, which was a favorite place for camping and fishing of the father when he was a child. White paints a picture in the mind of his reader which the students recognize as important to the topic at hand. As the years go on, this essay, these rituals, it all gets rimmed in darkness, the creeping sensation that this could be the last bad burger, the last Thanksgiving tableau. What does White mean, they ask, in the scene where he describes fishing with his son: There had been no years between the ducking of this dragonfly and the other one—the one that was part of memory. Change ), You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  . A perpetual state of what is and not what will be. They intuit the disillusion felt by the speaker as the timelessness of the lake begins to unravel: the lake is unchanged, and yet “the sound of the place” (118) altered by the cars that have now replaced the wagons. Comfort, the students conclude. Eat ‘Em Raw! They know about technology interfering with experience more than any other generation. I looked at the boy, who was silently watching his fly, and it was my hands that held his rod, my eyes watching. More Lit Terms; Once More to the Lake style unit. She teaches at St. Joseph’s University as a Visiting Professor of English. Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. by John McMurtry, Critical Analysis of Once More to the Lake, Questions on Rhetoric and Style – The Silent Season Of A Hero by Gay Talese, Study Questions for Kill ‘Em, Crush ‘Em, Eat ‘Em Raw, The Death of Benny Paret by Norman Mailer, Youtube Clip of Benny Paret v. Emile Griffith with commentary by Norman Mailer, The Proper Place for Sports by Theodore Roosevelt (1903), Here’s Some Background of The Catcher in the Rye, Scoring Guide and Sample Essays for Paine Prompt.

And yet. That’s what it’s about. Change ), You are commenting using your Twitter account. White’s classic “Once More to the Lake” to my first-year college students. Once more to the Lake is an essay written by E.B. Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. When I hold my daughter’s hand it’s hard to discern if I am me or my mother, “the one walking at my side, the one walking in my pants” (120). At the same time, it is chilling to think of a summer without end. Early on in the semester, as part of a discussion on descriptive writing, I often assign E.B.

This is too much knowledge to shoulder alone. of all three worlds.” “Once More to the Lake” is autobiographical and intensely personal. in which the author tries to establish the links of his present life with his past experiences when he was a little boy. ( Log Out /  But still a confusion persists. . ( Log Out /  They exist still on the side of the story where there is “jollity and peace and goodness” in all things, a peace that comes from belief in truth and a “father’s enormous authority in such matters” (118). What I come to this essay for, what I come to any writing for really, is to sustain the illusion that “the years were a mirage and that there had been no years” (116). For a while I couldn’t understand the nature of that confusion, or why they overwhelmingly loathed the ending in which White watches his son put on wet swimming trunks and feels his own groin confront “the chill of death” (121). Check here for what we’re doing this week. I envy my students this feeling. The essay moves back and forth between the narrator’s memory of visiting the lake as a child and the present moment when he vacations at the same lake with his son by his side. Never ending summer means that autumn never arrives. Please visit Assay’s website for full resources, including our nonfiction syllabi bank, Best American Essays Database, as well as our journal. This essay, so beautifully constructed, so rich in detail (“we would be tired at night and lie down in the accumulated heat of the little bedrooms after the long hot day and the breeze would stir almost imperceptibly outside and the smell of the swamp drift in through the rusty screens” (119)) celebrates “the American family at play” (118). A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality study guides that feature detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, quotes, and essay topics. My students understand the cultural ache for the collective good times—the “peace and goodness and jollity” (118). They understand intellectually that the narrator is just remembering his time as a boy in that same place. ( Log Out /  The leaves never fall from the trees.

Kay Cosgrove‘s poetry and non-fiction has appeared in the Southern Review, Quartz, the Massachusetts Review, and Prairie Schooner, among other journals. But the description, despite what my syllabus claims, is really beside the point. The students want to talk about the joy of nostalgia, how returning again and again to the same vacation spot is a kind of ritual, a “holy spot” (115). They don’t like it. Welcome to In the Classroom, Assay’s online resource for teachers of nonfiction across disciplines. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account.

It’s just fun, endlessly. Critical Analysis of Once More to the Lake; Once More to the Lake – Details; Once More to the Lake – E.B. As many universities are creating contingency plans in the face of COVID-19, Assay is collecting lesson plans and best practices to help our colleagues make the shift from face-to-face to online teaching as the need arises.