Once More to the Lake

Nonfiction | Essay / Speech | Adult | Published in 1941

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Linear and Cyclical Concepts of Time

“Once More to the Lake” reflects White’s efforts to make sense of the passage of time in his own life. Using his nostalgic return to the lake as a framing device, White outlines two competing models of time. Most prominently, he invokes a notion of time based on the cyclical, repetitive nature of certain events. This concept of time is linked to natural phenomena, such as the lake itself and the archetypal relationship between father and son. White contrasts the cyclical nature of time with a linear description of time. He also highlights changes brought by time, including industrial development and his own process of aging.

When White writes “I began to sustain the illusion that [my son] was I, and therefore, by simple transposition, that I was my father” (2), he attributes meaning to the repetition of certain important events. In this instance, by inhabiting the role of his father, White feels connected to a cycle of life that exists outside of himself. White views the cyclical version of time’s passage as magical and associates his ability to experience this sort of time with the lake, which he describes as “an utterly enchanted sea” (2).

This discussion of cyclical time contrasts with his descriptions of time’s linear qualities, which White showcases through his frequent concerns about the lake and its surroundings and the changes they have sustained since his childhood. These changes threaten to “break the illusion and set the years moving” (4) in a linear sequence once more. White’s feeling that the lake allows him to escape the march of time is also illusory. The essay’s last line represents a moment of realization in which he can no longer maintain that illusion; he suddenly feels the “chill of death” (5) and becomes acutely aware that time continues to move forward.

Technology and Development

Throughout the essay, White catalogues the ways technology and modernity have changed the lake and its surroundings since his childhood visits. He notices change before he arrives at the lake, when he reflects that he is “sure that the tarred road would have found it out” (1). For White, the imposition of technology, development, and modernity upon his memories of the camp is mostly negative. He worries that the tarred road and other changes will have “marred” or “desolated” the lake, which he recalls as a “holy spot.” When he arrives at the lake, he is glad to find that the appearance of new technologies and development do not ruin the lake for him. Nevertheless, he experiences their appearance as somewhat jarring.

During his dinner at the farmhouse, White notes that the waitresses look exactly the same as the young women he remembers from his childhood, except that “their hair had been washed, that was the only difference—they had been to the movies and seen the pretty girls with the clean hair” (3). The waitresses’ hair serves as a reminder of a changing cultural and technological landscape—when he was a child, the girls working at the farm would not have had access to the movies as they do now. Moments like these make it impossible for White to fully immerse himself in the illusion that he is reliving his childhood.

White reserves a special distaste for the outboard motorboats that crowd the lake, which he cites as “the note that jarred, the one thing that would sometimes break the illusion and set the years moving” (4). However, his displeasure with the motorboats gives way to his own memories about operating older, single-coil style motors. When his son masters the newer outboard motor style, White identifies a continuity based on their mirrored experiences operating these machines. In identifying this continuity, White suggests that his problem is not necessarily with technology itself. Rather, these changes bother White because they serve as proof of time’s passage.