Time Elapsed, Refecting the Past

E.B. White has a stellar habit of writing compelling stories. His tale, "Once More to the Lake", is just one example of his vivid and clever writing skills. In this passage, White tells of his experiences at a lake that he, as a boy, visited with his father. The peacefulness of the mornings, the joy of long afternoons fishing on the lake, and refreshing summer swims, White portrays in diverting detail the happenings of his childhood visit to the lake. What seamed like forever after his visit as a boy, after the years had rewarded him with a family of his own, E.B. White tells of how he returns to his childhood vacation sight. Bringing his son along, White is struck by the preservation of the lake. He writes about the strange expeirence as he watches his son repeating his own childhood memories. It was as if he was looking down upon his past self. Like a dream, White watches his son, wondering for a moment whether he himself was the boy or the man he appeared to be. The realization hits E.B. White like a bolt of lightning, the realization that time is a vaipor. White watches the years pass by him, one day a boy and the next a father. Life is short and should be cherished because one moment it's there, the next it's gone. E.B. White portrays this fact through this odd yet compelling tale of his own experiences in "Once More to the Lake".

The Fight in Black and White

Tensions were strained on the day that The Brown Bomber stood in the ring against his white opponent. Maya Angelou's passage "Chapmion of the World" takes place in her Uncles cram-packed store in the 1930s. Angelou clearly tells of the heat in the air that did not just from the closeness of the perspiring bodies, but the anticipation that raged within the onlookers. Everyone held their breath; this wasn't just a fight between two men, but a fight between two races. It is obvious in this story that Angelou wanted to highlight how much the black community needed Joe Louis, their Brown Bomber, to come out on the top. Black on white, the fight was brutal. In the end, Joe did exactly what the blacks needed him to do. He proved to them all that black people were no less than those that had had the audacity to call themselves "masters" over them. They were powerful, they were strong, and no one would trample them. This was the mindset those that witnessed the fight celebrated with. Skin color doesn't make the person, but if there is one thing I have always been ashamed of my race for is their oppression of the black race. Stories from the past that tell of blacks standing up and proving that they were as good as us have always had an affect on me. We were all created equal. Joe Louis's victory rubbed that in the white communities' face that day. Black or white, any one can be "Champion of the World".