Lake Is White\'s Account of a Trip

¶ … Lake" is White's account of a trip to the lake he visited as a child. On this occasion White returns to the lake with his son. The essay is a simple account of an important moment in his life, where he realizes that his son is growing and this means that he himself is dying. It is the point in his life where he realizes that time and change are constant and inescapable. The realization is heartfelt and yet expressed only mildly. The effectiveness of the essay lies in the fact that the point is not made directly, but left for the reader to sense.

The essay begins simply with White describing his childhood holidays, "One summer, along about 1904, my father rented a camp on a lake in Maine and took us all there for the month of August." At this point in the story, there is no clue that the essay will lead to a moment as significant as it does.

Also relevant to the effect of the essay is the fact that White describes simple and seemingly irrelevant events. For example White says "we all got ringworm from some kittens and had to rub Pond's Extract on our arms and legs night and morning, and my father rolled over in a canoe with all his clothes on." The specific nature of this paints a clear picture of the events. At the same time, it becomes a vacation story that any reader can identify with, with every reader having similar special memories of their own.

White then introduces the fact that this became a regular event, "we returned summer after summer -- always on August 1st for one month." The effect of this is that the meaning of the essay slowly creeps up on the reader. This is similar to how the meaning creeps up on White himself.

White then comes to almost the present, saying "a few weeks ago 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 old haunts." In this statement is a suggestion that this return was significant for some reason. At the same time, the fact that we have first heard of the first trip and then how it became a tradition and now that he has returned, puts the reader in the same frame of mind as White, making it a journey for the reader as much as for White.

White then considers how the lake may have changed, "I began to wonder what it would be like. I wondered how time would have marred this unique, this holy spot..." In this simple statement, is a reference also to how he may have changed. This focus on time and change sets the scene for the realization that is to come.

The change then becomes clearer as White looks at his son who is fishing, "I looked at the boy, who was silently watching his fly, and it was my hands that held his rod, my eyes watching. I felt dizzy and didn't know which rod I was at the end of." Here it is seen how White and the boy have changed places. White has memories of his father and of himself as the son, but now realizes that he has become the father.