Student Question
What are three changes reflected in E. B. White's "Once More to the Lake"?
Quick answer:
Three changes you could include in a thesis statement about “Once More to the Lake” are that the boy who once visited the lake is now a father, that he has “become a salt-water man,” and that the range of beverages on sale in the local store has changed.
Let’s start by discussing what a thesis statement is and then looking at three changes that you can discuss from “Once More to the Lake.” It’s important to understand that a large portion of this story is about the fact that nothing has changed at the lake.
In a nutshell, a thesis statement is a single sentence that tells readers what your paper is about. Since your question says that your thesis statement needs to reflect three changes, you will need to bring all three of the changes you discuss into your sentence succinctly.
The first and obvious change to discuss is that although the speaker in this story feels strongly that nothing has changed, he is in fact an adult now. He is visiting the lake, which he visited regularly as a child and at which he has many fond memories, with his son. He is no longer being...
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shown things by his father, but is now the father himself, introducing his own son to the wonderful world of the lake.
Another change, which we are introduced to in the first paragraph of this great story, is that narrator has “become a salt-water man,” meaning that he no long habitually fishes in fresh water. A sudden urge for a fresh-water experience was part of the impetus behind his decision to head back to the lake in Maine with his son.
Thirdly, while the ambiance of the camp and the store remained exactly as the narrator had remembered it, he notes that the range of beverages on sale had changed, now showing a preference for Coca-Cola products.
What three specific changes does E. B. White notice in "Once More to the Lake"?
The structure and length of an essay are related to the writer’s goals. An essay that is five paragraphs long will usually consist of an introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion. For an essay concerned with change in “Once More to the Lake,” the introduction should address how author E. B. White handles the theme of change as well as identifying three significant changes that the author includes. Among those that he mentions are the tarred road that has replaced the dirt road, traveling by car instead of by train and horse-drawn wagon, and the fact that he is now an adult rather than a child. Each of the body paragraphs would state one of those changes in its topic sentence and then present and interpret White’s text. The conclusion should not merely restate the introduction. Rather, it reveals how the discrete elements connect to the theme and include the writer’s ideas about how those elements of the essay might affect the reader.
In his essay, White both looks back on the experiences of his childhood and explores his present situation: that of a father who wants to share a positive experience with his own child. White comments on physical changes that he observes. Notably, even arriving at the lake is different. Where there had once been a dirt road, now there is a tarred road. Closely related to this change is the mode of transportation. In childhood, his family had traveled by train and completed the trip in a horse-drawn wagon. White drives his own car. Beyond the physical changes, White reflects on the changes that he has undergone, both in growing up and becoming a father and in developing a nostalgic attitude toward bygone days and even toward mortality.