Context
This week, we’re examining how writers use place as a container for memory and meaning. E.B. White’s “Once More to the Lake” (1941) and Joan Didion’s “Goodbye to All That” (1967) offer contrasting but equally powerful examples of how place shapes identity and how our relationship to place changes over time. White returns to a beloved childhood location and confronts his own mortality; Didion leaves a place that once enchanted her but has become impossible to inhabit.
Post Requirements (400-500 words)
The following prompts:
The Double Vision White writes about experiencing a powerful sense of doubling at the lake—feeling that he “became” his father and his son became him. He describes “the years were a mirage and there had been no years.” Didion, conversely, writes about New York as a place where she could constantly reinvent herself until she couldn’t anymore.
Analyze how each writer handles the relationship between past and present selves. How does White create that eerie sense of time collapsing? How does Didion show us both the young woman who was enchanted by New York and the older woman who must leave? Which approach to writing about temporal shifts resonates more with you as a potential technique for your own essay?
Grading Criteria
Textual Evidence: Uses specific quotes and examples from Didon/ E.B. White
Analysis: Goes beyond summary to examine HOW the authors achieve their effects
Original Thinking: Offers fresh insights rather than obvious observations. Find moments of realization. Significant experiences that led to personal growth. Find formative places that shaped your identity and worldview. Find influential people in the writing how does it compare to the people that have profoundly impacted your life. Find Pivotal Decisions or Mundane Moments.
Remember
These essays are mentor texts for your own personal narrative. As you analyze them, think about techniques you might borrow, adapt, or consciously avoid in your own writing. What works? What doesn’t? What might you do differently?