In E.B. White’s essays, “Once More to the Lake “and ‘The Ring of Time”, the author demonstrates two different interpretations of time and how it is used to symbolize meaning to each piece. “Once More to the Lake” is an essay that is derived mostly from White’s personal experience while “The Ring of Time” is mostly examining a teenage girl performing at the circus, in the eyes of someone else. Both of these articles give the reader insight of how the author uses the theme of time to show different aspects to the storyline. In White’s essays, he uses strategies that reflect on the past and foresee the future, use other individuals as vehicles to access an alternative temporality and demonstrate his own perceptions and visions in order to explore the reality or notions of time.
White uses a strategy that reflects on the past and foresees the future to explore the notion of time to show different periods within each story and how the author views that certain interval. In “The Ring of Time”, White writes about the narrator being at the circus and he spots “a girl of sixteen or seventeen, politely treading her way through the onlookers who blocked the entrance…the richness of the scene was in its plainness, its natural condition-of horse, of ring, of girl...a ring of ambition, of happiness, of youth” (2-3). After a week or two “all would be changed, all lost: the girl would wear makeup” (White, The Ring of Time 3) and because of that the narrator, envisions her “twenty-five years ahead, and she was now in the center of the ring…wearing a conical hat and hi-heeled shoes, the image of an older woman, holding the long rein, caught in the treadmill of an afternoon long in the future” (White, The Ring of Time 3). T...
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...in both “The Ring of Time” and “Once More to the Lake”. These strategies include reflecting on the past and foreseeing the future, using other characters as vehicles, and having a personal perception of time. To sum it all up, both stories have similarities such as being written in present text, however they have many differences. Both stories may use a technique of viewing the theme of time, but they are each solitary and not corresponding to each other. Also, each story has a character that isn’t the narrator but however, the one that is used to explore time, whether it is looking back at the past or looking ahead in to the future. White made both of these stories personal pieces of writing; however “Once More to the Lake” is more reflective while “The Ring of Time” is more of a public piece. All in all, each story is quite similar but very different as well.
There are 23 short stories that all together make up the compilation of Ida Finks book “A Scrap of Time and Other Stories”. All very different and unique in their own way, all tell or reveal different hidden secrets to the reader, but the first story is the most important. For in the first chapter of Finks book A Scrap of Time she reveals to the reader a hidden secret that they should carry with them in the back of their minds as they continue to journey through the pages of her book; the significance of time. For in this first story we see the importance of time to Fink. Not only does she spend the whole first page just primarily talking about time, but she also makes a distinction between two types of time. The first type is a time that
It is impossible for anyone to survive a horrible event in their life without a relationship to have to keep them alive. The connection and emotional bond between the person suffering and the other is sometimes all they need to survive. On the other hand, not having anyone to believe in can make death appear easier than life allowing the person to give up instead of fighting for survival. In The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill, Aminata Diallo survives her course through slavery by remembering her family and the friends that she makes. Aminata is taught by her mother, Sira to deliver babies in the villages of her homeland. This skill proves to be very valuable to Aminata as it helps her deliver her friends babies and create a source of income. Aminata’s father taught Aminata to write small words in the dirt when she was small. Throughout the rest of the novel, Aminata carries this love for learning new things to the places that she travels and it inspires her to accept the opportunities given to her to learn how to write, read maps, and perform accounting duties. Early in the novel Aminata meets Chekura and they establish a strong relationship. Eventually they get married but they are separated numerous times after. Aminata continuously remembers and holds onto her times with Chekura amidst all of her troubles. CHILDREN. The only reason why Aminata Diallo does not die during her journey into and out of slavery is because she believes strongly in her parents, husband and children; therefore proving that people survive hardships only when they have relationships in which to believe.
After slavery ended, many hoped for a changed America. However, this was not so easy, as slavery left an undeniable mark on the country. One problem ended, but new problems arose as blacks and whites put up “color lines” which led to interior identity struggles. These struggles perpetuated inequality further and led W. E. B. Du Bois to believe that the only way to lift “the Veil” would be through continuing to fight not only for freedom, but for liberty - for all. Others offered different proposals on societal race roles, but all recognized that “double consciousness” of both the individual and the nation was a problem that desperately needed to be solved.
The way the novel jumps around in time helps it to create a sense of timelessness when it comes to the characters. Because most of the novel takes place in the past (and starts out somewhere near the present), the third person narrator of some chapters isn’t afraid to pull back and look at the grand scheme of the character’s lives. One time where this is particularly noticeable is when two characters are playing on the beach as children, then all of a sudden the reader is given a full look at one of the child’s (mostly tragic) life up to adulthood.
It is commonly said that “life’s too short”, but it feels even shorter when one is forced into the next stage of their life pre-maturely. Alejo Carpentier’s journey through time in Like the Night explores not just the cycle of time, but also the cycle of life. Readers are transported from Ancient Greece, to the Spanish conquest of the new world, to the European Empire, to the First World War, and finally back to Ancient Greece. Instead of focusing on battle strategy, the front lines, or shell-shock; Carpentier writes on loss of innocence. While writing on the night before leaving home and the innocence lost in the sudden transition from boyhood to manhood, Carpentier also toys with loss of sexual
As a European immigrant in the USA, I have encountered many new cultural phenomena in the last 4 _ years that have challenged me to perceive who I am differently. This experience has been even more polarized by the fact that I have lived most of that time in Los Angeles, a melting pot to be reckoned with. Coming to America, I expected these adaptations to my Irish self but the intensity of becoming cognizant of my label of 'whiteness' has mocked the limitations of my anticipations.
From slavery being legal, to its abolishment and the Civil Rights Movement, to where we are now in today’s integrated society, it would seem only obvious that this country has made big steps in the adoption of African Americans into American society. However, writers W.E.B. Du Bois and James Baldwin who have lived and documented in between this timeline of events bringing different perspectives to the surface. Du Bois first introduced an idea that Baldwin would later expand, but both authors’ works provide insight to the underlying problem: even though the law has made African Americans equal, the people still have not.
Within “The Garden of Forking Paths,” Borges manifests new ideas of time, questions the standard understanding of a novel as well as contemplates the concept of fate. Time, one of Borges’s favorite topics, is easily manipulated. In “The Garden of Forking Paths,” Borges attempts to make a visual model of an abstract idea. Adding to this, the title in itself is a metaphor to aid readers in imagining Ts’ui Pen’s idea of time - infinitely veering (Borges 126-127). Borges works Ts’ui Pen’s notion of time into a rather unique book that not only discusses the idea of time, but does it in a way that causes confusion and chaos among its readers. This textual labyrinth forks in time rather than space, creating infinite futures with completely different outcomes (Borges 125). Through these infinitely different futures, Borges brings up his ideas of fate. By actions and thoughts, it is made obvious that the protagonist is a firm believer in fate, saying “the future is as irrevocable as the past” (Borges 121). All the seemingly unrelated events in his life - Captain Madden, his arrival at Dr. Albert’s house, and the novel itself - all appear to come together for a single purpose, for Yu Tsun to signal where the artillery park was located. This combination of themes had rarely been written about before, leaving Borges as the creator of new
Chopin, Kate. “The Story of an Hour.” Approaching Literature: Reading + Writing + Thinking, Third Edition. Ed. Schakel, Peter J, and Jack Ridl. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martins, 2012. 233-234. Print.
Elias Boudinot’s speech “An Address to the Whites” was first given in the First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, in May 1826. The speech sought white American support of the Cherokees in further assimilation into white society and for aid in this endeavour, as well as making a case for coexistence in an effort to protect the Cherokee Nation. Specifically, the “Address to the Whites” was part of Boudinot’s fundraising campaign for a Cherokee assembly and newspaper. Boudinot himself was Cherokee, though he had been taken from America and educated by missionaries at the Foreign Mission School in Cornwall. This upbringing gave Boudinot a unique perspective on the issue of the Cherokee position
Nanberry, Black Brother White is a captivating novel based on historical events. From the Language Jackie French uses and the emotionally deep human elements and even more so for its basis in truth. I believe based on the novel, ‘a person’s identity is shaped by the world around them’. .This statement is mainly targeted at Surgeon White and Nanberry. Surgeon White’s environment and his surroundings shape him. He likes to characterise himself to a point where he not comparable with other individuals around him. Nanberry on the other hand, is a boy that is Cadigal and is shaped by his environment
After the Civil War, African Americans encountered great discrimination and suffering. During this era, two influential leaders emerged from different philosophical camps. Brooker T. Washignton of Virginia and William Edward Burghardt Dubois of Massachusetts proposed, different means to improve African Americans’ conditions. These men had a common goal to enrich the black community. However, the methods they advocated to reach these goals significantly differed.
In E.B. White?s The Ring of Time, the author gives a narrative account of his trip to a circus rehearsal where he describes a fascinating scene of a young girl practicing a horse act for an upcoming show. As a writer, he feels it is his obligation to record the events he is witnessing, and convey this to his readers without leaving anything out. However difficult this may be, the beautiful and fleeting moment is something he wishes to ultimately capture. When he arrives on the scene, White senses something magical about the surroundings of this circus as it undergoes a rehearsal, but he is primarily fixed on a young woman who passes by him. The young ?cleverly proportioned, deeply browned by the sun, dusty, eager, and almost naked'; girl is the one thi...
Many of our today as “normal” considered values are everything but self-evident. One of the most striking aspects in the novel is time; and our relationship towards it. “ We yearned for the future. How did we learn it that talent for insatiability. ” In this particu...
In “Once More to the Lake,” E.B. White expresses a sense of wonder when he revisits a place that has significant memories. Upon revisiting the lake he once knew so well, White realizes that even though things in his life have changed, namely he is now the father returning with his son, the lake still remains the same. Physically being back at the lake, White faces an internal process of comparing his memory of the lake as a child, to his experience with his son. Throughout this reflection, White efficiently uses imagery, repetition, and tone to enhance his essay.