Time and Change in E.B. White's "The Ring of Time"

Overview of the Essay's Apparent Simplicity

E.B. White's essay The Ring of Time seems simple on a first reading, but it grows more complex as it unfolds. The topic of time runs throughout the essay and is ultimately the central theme White is exploring. He uses locations like the circus to show how time follows us wherever we go.

The Circus Ring as Metaphor for Time

At first glance, "The Ring of Time" appears to be an essay about the excitement and magic of the circus and its performers. However, if the reader looks deeper, the essay is really about time and how quickly it passes in our lives. White describes the circus ring and the horse going round and round, but this is really a metaphor for the circle of time. Time is measured in the circle of a clock, and our lives also follow a circle of time, from infancy to death.

White talks about the passage of time even within the circus itself, noting 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 elapsed between the practice session and the show. As White writes, "Then time itself began running in circles, 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. As the older and wiser observer, 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: Time, Change, and Integration

The second half of the essay seems at first to be entirely unrelated to the first, but it too addresses the passage of time through its depiction of a day in the South from beginning to end. It also addresses something else: racial integration, or the lack of rights afforded to Black people in the South during the period when the essay was written. Just as the circus ring is about time, this topic is about time as well, because time has passed and integration has occurred — which makes certain elements of the essay feel dated. 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 that injustice, and hatred and bigotry still persist even when people are legally "equal."

The essay shows that time changes many things, but some things never change, and some people will always seek to diminish others in order to feel better about themselves. 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, in our way, resistant to time's rule, even though time ultimately governs everything.

Conclusion: Depth Behind a Simple Setting

At first, this essay seems light and not very deep, but as it continues, it is clear White had some important things to say, and chose a simple setting to make them even more powerful. The circus is where we go to forget about the real world for a little while. However, the real world is always there waiting, and that is what the theme of time reveals. We cannot escape time, and we cannot escape change, even though we might be able to put them out of our minds for a short while.

This essay is not simple at all, and neither were White's thoughts. But had he announced that from the outset, the essay would not have been as enjoyable to read, and probably would not have been so thought-provoking. By grounding serious themes in an accessible, even magical setting, White ensures that his reflections on time and change reach the reader in the most lasting way possible.

Bibliography

White, E.B. "The Ring of Time." Essays of E.B. White. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1977, pp. 142–149.