preview

Summary Of Once More To The Lake

Decent Essays

In his essay “Once More to the Lake,” author E.B. White reflects on experiences he has had throughout his life at a family vacation spot. Although he writes the essay as an adult, he focuses on many childhood experiences with his father at the lake, comparing them to experiences he is having at same lake with his son. White begins by recalling his first time at the lake. He examines the similarities and differences between the two generations of lake experiences through rhetorical techniques in his writing style and language One of the many techniques the author uses in “Once More to the Lake”, is cumulative sentences. A cumulative sentence is is a sentence that begins with a main clause (this could stand by itself as a complete …show more content…

Another type of writing technique he employs is the dash. White uses the dash to add information to the clause it follows, like definitions and contrasts. An example of this would be, “I wondered how time would have marred this unique, this holy spot--the coves and streams, the hills that the sun set behind, the camps and the paths behind the camps” (White 405). In this quote, the dash emphasizes the phrase "holy spot” and lets him add details about the “holy spot”. What the reader envisions based on the description can give insight into what the author may consider “holy”. Another example of the use of the dash would be, “After breakfast we would go up to the store and the things were in the same place- the minnows in a bottle, the plugs and spinners disarranged and pawed over by the youngsters from the boys camp, the fig Newtons and the Beemans gum” (White 409). In this sentence, White uses the dash to clarify what he is talking about. I think that the author uses so many dashes in the essay, because it flows well and adds to the descriptive element, especially because he discusses the past frequently. In “Once More to the Lake”, White employs figurative language elaborate on the meaning and representation of the lake. Throughout the essay, White uses a direct writing style, yet when describing the lake, he uses many of examples of

Get Access