Once More to the Lake by E.B. White (Important ideas and summary)

Summary of Once More to the Lake by E.B. White

About the writer E.B. White

E.B. White (1898-1985) was an American writer. He was educated at Cornell University. He began his career as a professional writer with the newly founded New Yorker Magazine in the 1920s. He was the author of several highly popular books for children.

Things to remember about ‘Once More to the Lake’

-This essay accounts the speaker’s visit back to a lakefront resort, Belgrade Lakes, Maine, which he visited as a child.

-He revisits his ideal boyhood vacation spot.

-He initially found great joy in his visit but later he compares the time he went fishing with his dad and now he is fishing with his son and feels nostalgia.

-He realizes human live is short-lived and insignificant but the experiences are immortal. That is why the speaker thinks that his son can have the same experiences that he had when he was a boy.

Detailed summary of ‘Once More to the Lake’

The essay ‘Once more to the lake’ written by E.B White in 1941 is a non-fiction narrative personal essay. It is about White’s experiences about his visit to his childhood lake at Belgrade lakes, Maine, USA at two different times.

He visited the place in the past as a son with his father. Recently, he has revisited the lake with his son. Since he is revisiting the lake, the essay has been entitled ‘Once more to the lake’. He experiences a dual existence after revisiting the lake because of the memories he had about that lake. It can also be seen that White cannot distinguish between his memory from the current experience.  The essay goes in a non-chronological way as White travels frequently in and out of the lake.

The writing is one of White’s most saddening as well as inspiring works as it describes how time flies fast and how human lives are temporary, however, experiences are immortal.

The story begins with White reminiscing (सम्झना गर्दै) about his past. It was around 1904, when White was five years old; his father took his children along with White to the lake. White’s father had rolled over the canoe that time. The vacation was such a wonderful that they thought there was no better place to go for vacation besides that lake. After that, they always went to the same lake for a month every year on August 1^st.

As an old man White, presently, missed the lake so much. So one day he took his son to the same lake. His son had never been to the lake. On the journey, he bought a couple of fishing hooks. As he was traveling, he was pondering about the lake: how time would’ve changed the lake which he calls a holy spot as it lets him go back to his childhood self and have peace.

He remembered all of the senses and feelings he felt at the lake: the coolness of the lake and the smell of lumber. He remembered how he sometimes woke up first, dressed up, and sneaked out to ride the canoe. He recalled how the lake was. It wasn’t suited to be called a wild lake as there were cottages here and there. People there normally lived at the shore and ate meals at the farmhouse and that was what White and his family did as well.

Now, he reached the lake. The atmosphere of the lake had changed. The smells and the noises were less energizing. Despite that, he thought the lake was the same as it was before. They settled in a camp near a farmhouse. Instead of viewing the lake as it is, he uses his childhood eyes to perceive the lake.

The next morning Whites experienced a dual existence as his son also sneaked out to go off in the canoe and he felt like he was his son and he himself was his father. It was a very weird experience.

Later in the morning, they both went fishing. While they both were fishing, a dragonfly descended to the tip of his fishing rod.

 He, then, said that everything was still the same as it was in his childhood: the small waves, the boat, etc. It could be seen that he was experiencing an identity crisis and was mentally unstable as he got dizzy and saw himself as his son holding his rod. He also observed the other campers in the lake. He was sure that he saw the man with a bar of soap in his childhood which reassured him that the time hadn’t passed at all and he was still in his camp with his father.

Then, he went to the dinner through the farmhouse. He observed the paths had changed. It was once a three-way path drawn by the horses that drew wagons which had now tarred and decreased into two. He missed the middle choice and realized that time had actually passed. They entered the dining hall and sat down. White recognized the waitresses. It was an illusion and it seemed like they were the same country girls from his childhood: they were still fifteen and the only difference was that their hair had been washed.

 As White spent time in the lake, he was getting annoyed by the sound of the outboards. He missed the sleepy sounds of one-cylinder boats and how one could learn tricks in it if they were spiritually attached to it. But there were just outboards now. He observed that his son was trying to learn how to ride an outboard.

One afternoon while they were at the lake a thunderstorm took place. Whites again felt a sensation of nostalgia as the same as he had seen in his childhood. Other camp-goers rush out of their camp for swimming. His son asked him if he could go as well. After getting his permission, his son went on with his trunks. As he was watching his son change, he realized that his son has grown and accepted his mortality.