Ring of Time

¶ … Ring of Time, by E.B. White. Specifically, it will contain an interpretation of the essay's meaning and theme E.B. White's essay seems simple at the first reading, but it gets more complex as the essay unfolds. The topic of time is common throughout the essay, and is ultimately the topic and theme White is talking about in the essay. He uses locations like the circus to show how time follows us wherever we go.

THE RING OF TIME At first glance, "The Ring of Time" just seems to be an essay about the excitement and magic of the circus, and of circus performers. However, if the reader looks deeper, "The Ring of Time" is really about time, and how time passes so quickly in our lives. White talks about the circus ring, and the horse going round and round, but that is really a metaphor for the circle of time.

Time is measured in a circle of a clock, and our lives also follow a circle of time, from infancy to death. He talks about the passage of time even in the circus, and how in a few days the ring would be different, the girl would be different, and even the horse would be different because of the time that has gone between the practice session and the show.

As White says "Then time itself began running in circle, and so the beginning was where the end was, and the two were the same, and one thing ran into the next and time went round and around and got nowhere" (White 144). Time seems as if it goes on forever, but in reality, there is an end to everything, even our own time on earth. White also talks about how time changes everything, just as it will change the girl in the ring.

She will grow older, although she does not think of that in her youth, but as the older and wiser watcher, White knows that time does not stand still, just as the young girl on the back of the horse does not stand still in the ring. The second half of the essay seems to be totally unrelated to the first, but it also talks about the passage of time, because it talks about a day in the South, from beginning to end.

However, it also talks about something else, and that is integration, or the lack of rights of blacks in the South during the time the essay was written. Just as the circus ring is about time, this topic is about time too, because time has passed, and integration exists, which makes the essay outdated.

The black people are no longer called "colored," and they no longer have to ride at the back of the bus, but time has not healed all the wounds from this unfairness, and blacks still face hatred and bigotry in the South, they are just "equal" now. The essay shows that time changes many things, but some things never change, and some people will always have to hate others so they feel better about themselves.

They might not have any common sense, but that is also normal for those who hate others. White writes, "The only sense that is common, in the long run, is the sense of change - and we all instinctively avoid it, and object to the passage of time, and would rather have none of it" (White 148). He is showing how we are all weak, and how time really rules all of us, because in the end, time is all we really have here on Earth.

The theme of the circle of time is constant throughout the essay. Each day is a circle, and each day brings us closer to the end of our own circle. The ring in the circus is a metaphor for this circle, and so is the circle of days the writer spends in Florida.

These things seem to slow down time because they are enjoyable and a little bit unreal or surreal, but the ultimate theme of the essay is that time does not stand still for anyone, and the circle is never unbroken. White says, "Time has not stood still for anybody but the dead, and even the dead must be able to hear the acceleration of little sports care and know that things have changed" (White 149). Change is the other theme that White uses in this essay.

Just as time cannot stand still, time always brings change, as the end of the essay clearly shows. The area of Sarasota where White spends his summers changes, the policies on integration change, and the circus changes, and does not stay in Sarasota.

Change is just as constant as time passing, and this essay shows this, because everything changes by the end of the essay, even the fiddler crab changes from morning to evening, and continues to change in the laboratory, even when it does not know what time it is outside. Change and time are interwoven, and you cannot have one without the other. It is funny how an essay that starts out about the circus turns into an article about time.

It does not seem as if these two things have much in common at first, but White makes it quite clear how time is common in everything that happens around us. Time, and the passing of time, changes our perceptions as well as our bodies. When we are young, like the girl on the horse, time seems to stretch out in front of us forever, but as we get older, we realize that time does not go on forever for us.

Time might be infinite, but our time is not, and as.