The three important people in the essay “Once More to the Lake,” by E.B. White are the author, his son, and his father, and they represent a bond between his son and his father, the author as a child, and death respectively. First, White represents a bond between his son and his father. In the essay, the author recalls his time at the lake stating, “this feeling got so strong I bought myself a couple of bass hooks and a spinner and returned to the lake where we used to go, for a week’s fishing and to revisit
Especially when he had a conversation with Nick, he said, “If we don’t look out the white race—will be utterly submerged.” (13) Even his voice was “a gruff husky tenor, added to the impression of fractiousness he conveyed” (7) Tom wasn’t afraid to speak his opinion, but when it came to himself, he would just ignore it and keep his chin up held high. Throughout the novel it would appear Tom was very hypocritical as well. When he found out about Daisy and Gatsby’s romance, he could not handle his temper and would blow up on the both of them stating, “I suppose the latest thing is to sit back and let Mr. Nobody from nowhere make love to your wife. Well, if that’s the idea you can count me out…Nowadays people begin by sneering at family life institutions, and next they’ll throw everything overboard and have intermarriage between black and white” (130). Even though Tom himself was having an affair with Myrtle, he belittled his wife for falling for another man telling her that her actions would ruin a family, when in fact he was doing the same thing, but he was not in control of the situation also flaring his
White’s essay, “Once More to the Lake”, White comes to realize his own mortality through a visit to the lake, a setting of both White’s past and present. While White initially perceives the lake as unchanged on the surface, he realizes a significant difference – he himself has changed. Through vivid details of the lake, White conveys his realization that time causes change inevitably. Using imagery depicting movement, White presents his initial perception of an unchanging lake. When White takes his son fishing, he enters an illusion that convinces him he is his childhood self: “ I lowered the tip of mine into the water, tentatively, pensively dislodging the fly, which darted two feet away, poised, darted two feet back, and came to rest again a little farther up the rod.
Hurst uses foreshadowing in this story as well. “The doctor said that he mustn’t get too excited, too hot, too cold, or too tired and that he must always be treated gently. A long list of don’ts went with him, all of which I ignored once we got out of the house” (Hurst 345) Brother says himself that he ignores the information that Doodle is very fragile, and later Doodle dies because of his insolence and childish frustration. Another element
White contrasts the sounds on the lake from his childhood with the present ones when mentioning a boating trip with his son: “In the old days the boats were powered by inboards “and when they were at a little distance, the noise they made was a sedative, an ingredient of summer sleep. . . But now the campers all had outboards and these made a petulant, irritable sound” (White), which displays his inability to accept the technological changes that come around with time, in places that felt very remote in his youth. As White walks down the wharf with his son, he mentions “I had trouble making out which was I, the one walking at my side, the one walking in my pants” (White), showing that although he wishes to relive the entire trip through his son, he is gaining a sense of awareness that he is an individual in a different position than in his past and his environment has also undergone change due to
Maybe it was something about the bus, but Hurricane Katrina of thoughts came back into his mind, ravaging his mind and his heart. He couldn't understand any of it. The notion that she liked him, but kissed Tom Phillips was impossible to wrap his mind around, it made him sick, it made his chest feel like one of those stupid elephants was sitting on it. He couldn't understand why it hurt him so much. Sure they only spent a short amount of time together, so it wouldn't bother most people.
MIGRANT HOSTEL A tone of instability and insecurity is set within the first stanza where the accumulation of the nouns “comings and goings”, “arrivals” and “sudden departures” suggests a sense of chaos and highlights the lack of stability within the poet's life. The use of enjambment of “wondering/ who would be coming next” allows the emphasis to fall heavily on “who”, illustrating the transient nature of the hostel environment and putting emphasis on the uncertainty of who is to arrive next. This constant change becomes unsettling and prevents the poet from finding a place of belonging and further hindering his self-identity, leaving him lost and confused. The physical and emotional divisions set up by different nationalities is further
I probably would’ve done it, too, if I’d been sure somebody’d cover me up as soon as I landed” (Salinger 104). He doesn’t really attach himself to anything since Allie’s death. It also shows his loneliness when he talks about how he wants to stay away from everyone. This is stated in the text as “I’d go down to the Holland Tunnel and bum ride, and than I’d bum another one, and another one, and another one, and in a few days I’d be somewhere out West….Everybody’d think I was just a poor deaf-mute bastard and they’d leave me alone” (Salinger 198-9). He doesn’t like people and rather be alone than with people.
Buckley Jr. asserts that “… we are all increasingly anxious in America to be unobtrusive, we are reluctant to make our voices heard, hesitant about claiming our right…” which is why the American people simply deal with unacceptable issues on a day to day basis. Buckley justifies his assertion through multiple examples that include the use of an anecdote (“It was the very last coach and the only empty seat on the entire train, so there was no turning back…”), ironic incidents (“Suddenly my New Year's Eve resolution struck me. It was now or never… ‘If you are not too busy… would you mind handing me a screwdriver?’ Work stopped and everyone turned his eyes on me, and I experienced that mortification I always feel when I am the center of centripetal shafts of curiosity, resentment, perplexity. ‘I am sorry, sir… I am not supposed to move. I have just had a heart attack.’”), and subtle humor (“… fifteen minutes ago she spoke unctuously into the loudspeaker the words undoubtedly devised by the airline's highly paid public relations counselor: ‘If there is anything I or Miss French can do for you to make your trip more enjoyable, please let us – ‘ I have run out of
Nowadays people don’t hold themselves liable for their anger and blame someone or something for their own behavior. Enraged outbursts are likely to happen anywhere no place is exempt in this mad world. Hales states in her essay, “Three things responsible for this angry world are: time, technology, and tension.” When we’re running low on patience and all tensed up, we don’t recognize how we treat or talk to people. We have lost our tolerance for inconvenience. It’s a feeling of weakness that sparks our raving madness and being furious for a moment won’t do us any good.