Rhetorical Analysis Of Once More To The Lake

Rhetorical Analysis for “Once More to the Lake” Life is fleeting and time moves quickly. In the blink of an eye, childhood becomes only a memory and the difficulties of the world become a factor of everyday life. E.B. White reflects on his earlier years in his personal essay “Once More to the Lake,” a detailed account of his childhood memories with his father at the lake. He carries on the father-son tradition by bringing his own son out to the lake, experiencing flashbacks to his youth. White lost his sense of self, as he began identifying himself as his son, feeling as though he was back at the lake with his father. This trip changed White’s outlook on life, for he finally realized that mortality was closer than he imagined. He was no longer young, and watching his son mature only made this notion more real. One day, he will be only a memory to his son, just like his father is to him. White uses a variety of rhetorical devices to convey the message to his audience that life moves quickly, not stopping for anything, including emotionally-charged diction, imagery, and personification. White uses emotionally-charged diction as a form of pathos to convey his feelings about his past and explain trouble he is having with accepting his old age. “There had been no years between the ducking of this dragonfly and the other one--the one that was part of memory. 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