1. This is a narrative essay.

It both tells a story and supports a main idea indicated in a

thesis and developed throughout the writing, but unlike a traditional essay, the thesis
may not be explicitly stated. This is known as an implied thesis. With that in mind, what
is the thesis of this essay?

I think that the thesis of the essay is how our life is short, and how things change over
time. White talks about how his experience at the lake is different to his sons.

2. Cite three examples of what you consider to be effective word choice. In each example,
suggest a synonym and explain why the author’s word choice was more effective.

“I have since become a salt-water man, but sometimes in summer there are days when
the restlessness of the tides and the fearful cold of the sea water and the incessant wind
which blows across the afternoon and into the evening make me wish for the placidity of
a lake in the woods”. In this quote, White uses the words restlessness, fearful and
placidity to describe certain things which I think are all effective word choices. A
synonym for restlessness is restiveness. To explain the tides, restiveness would not
have worked because it does not describe the tides in the right way. Restiveness can be
compared to uneasy or fidgety which does not make sense when describing tides.
Whites word choice was much more effective because it describes the tides in a better
way, and makes it easier to understand why he felt a certain way about them. White also
used the word fearful to describe the water and its temperature. A synonym for this is
afeard. This word can be compared to afraid, which also would not make sense in this
case when describing the temperature of the water. The word choice White used makes
much more sense and gives the reader a sense of how cold the water really was.
Another example is the word incessant, which White used to describe the conditions of
the wind. A synonym for incessant is continuous. The word choice White used makes
the reader think of how unpleasant the wind really was. The word continuous could
make the reader think something different than what White was trying to convey, which
is that the wind was non-stop and unpleasant.

3. Identify an example of a simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex sentence

from this essay. Choose one of them and explain why the sentence type is effective.

“I took along my son, who had never had any fresh water up his nose and who had seen
lily pads only from train windows”. This is an example of a simple sentence. White
explains that he took his son to the lake because he had not really experienced anything
outdoors. This sentence type is effective because he is just getting to the point while still
explaining why.

An example of a compound sentence would be “A few weeks ago this feeling got so
strong I bought myself a couple of bass hooks and a spinner and returned to the lake
where we used to go, for a week's fishing and to revisit old haunts”. This sentence type
is effective because it helps support an explanation or the writer's thinking.
 We all got ringworm from some kittens and had to rub Pond's Extract on our arms and
legs night and morning, and my father rolled over in a canoe with all his clothes on; but
outside of that the vacation was a success and from then on none of us ever thought
there was any place in the world like that lake in Maine.

4. Identify an effective use of either a dash, semicolon, or parentheses, and explain the
effect the punctuation has in the sentence.

“There had always been three tracks to choose from in choosing which track to walk in;
now the choice was narrowed down to two”. In this quote, you can see White used a
semicolon. As he is talking about how there are three tracks to chose from and how
there are now two. He uses the semicolon to link the idea of the tracks.

5. Find at least five examples of metaphor and or simile. Comment on the effectiveness of
each.

“The boat would leap ahead, charging bull-fashion at the dock”. White uses a metaphor
here to show just how fast the boats would go and how they would go quickly to the
dock. He is trying to show the reader just how fast it was going to jump in a “bull-
fashion”.

“There was a choice of pie for dessert, and one was blueberry and one was apple, and
the waitresses were the same country girls, there having been no passage of time, only
the illusion of it as in a dropped curtain--the waitresses were still fifteen; 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”. In this simile, White is comparing the passage of time to
an illusion. He uses a simile to show how everything is similar and it’s like it was before
when he was a child.

“I wondered how time would have marred this unique, this holy spot--the coves and
streams, the hills that the sun set behind, the camps and the paths behind the camps”.
In this metaphor, White is describing the coves and streams as “holy spots”, he is using
a metaphor to describe just how good of a spot the streams and coves are.

“In the daytime, in the hot mornings, these motors made a petulant, irritable sound; at
night, in the still evening when the afterglow lit the water, they whined about one's ears
like mosquitoes”. This is a simile and White used this to show how the motors were
making sounds and comparing it to the irritable sounds of mosquitos, to make it so
people could relate and get an idea of just how annoying the sound was.

“Then the kettle drum, then the snare, then the bass drum and cymbals, then crackling
light against the dark, and the gods grinning and licking their chops in the hills”. This is
 an extended metaphor, which White used to put emphasis on how the thunder sound of
the thunder sounds like music.

6. What method of organization does the author use? How does this method of
organization allow the author to develop his ideas?

The method of organization White used was chronological. Since he is telling a story, it
helps him organize his ideas because he is telling things as they happen. It also makes
sense for the style of writing he did, because if he were to say that he took his son to the
lake he went to as a child the story wouldn’t make much sense.