White uses description throughout the whole essay to portray the calm, solitary feeling he once had long ago when he visited this lake in Maine every summer. To restore that state of mind, he brought his son along, years after, returning once more. This visit, however, was different from others. He continuously struggled to make out which of them he was. In the early morning, his son would sneak out, and walk along the lake, just as he did when he was young. At the same time, he felt as if he were the boy, and the father.
Assignment Questions:
1. The shift of focus on what used to be there, and what it was now in the story started when White began describing the road they walked up. In much of the first part of this piece, White frequently used the phrase "there had been no years" to illustrate the feeling of familiarity to this place. Once he began to notice changes, and that there were years that passed by, as these subtle changes began to be more bold. The attitude is shifted gently when he indicates that the changes did not feel right, right as in the memory he once had of this place.
2. The inboard and outboard motors were a significant difference in the atmosphere of the lake, as White put it. He found the sounds of the inboard motors sleepy, as they gently moved accross the lake. As for outboard motors, White complained about the loud and whiny noise they made, day and night. This difference in life between he as a child, and now he as a father with his child was summarized by the description of sound in both times.
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