Childhood Experiences in the Essays "Once More to the Lake" and "Street Scenes"

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E.B. White versus Ann Hood
Writers are appreciated for what they write, but more importantly for their unique styles of writing. Once More to the Lake essay by Elwyn Brooks White and Street Scenes by Ann Hood are two great retrospective narratives. These two pieces of writing captured childhood memories with the sense of family life and the writers’ pasts. However, the memory of White was about a lake in Maine but Hood’s story was almost about the same aspects except that she dwelt a lot on a road she used frequently. In the real sense, both writers reflect upon their childhood experiences for different reasons and in varied ways. Notably, Hood and White’s essays are sentimental, the memories, perceptions evolve in a similar way, and their stories use significantly descriptive sensory points.
In an evolutionary sense, White writes about how time passes and the changes that come with such. The author takes his son to the lake several years after leaving his childhood locale and eventually starts to ask himself questions about the changes. He continues to tussle with the fact that his flawless childhood did not remain his world forever. However, White finally realizes something important; that the lake could have remained the same in every season but his life could not. Such is because the irony of life is that there is a time for everything which is mainly birth, maturity, and death. This idea comes about when White describes how he revisited the lake with his son. He reiterates that it feels different, but not in a bad way as he reflects that “summertime, oh, summertime, pattern of life indelible (White, 234). White continues to describe a good feeling regardless of changes in time when he says that “the fade-proof lake, the woods unshatterable, the pasture with the sweet fern and the juniper forever and ever, summer without end” (234). These descriptions show how he acknowledges that time has passed and changes have consequences as he does not see himself as a child now but an adult and a father.
On the other hand, Ann Hood is sharing a similar story with almost the same background. Hood describes how, as a middle-aged woman, she is driving along the same street now with a different feeling. She brings to mind her childhood and describes both good and bad experiences. In this story, Hood explains how the railroad tracks directed them to a deserted big lot that was heavily filled with litter all the time. She continues to explain how a carnival visited the town every August to set up flashy rides as well as games that were impossible to win. Hood reflects that she lost her first tooth during a visit to the carnival while trying to bite some candy apple (239). In this narrative, Hood is striving to show her audience how many things could change as time passes by but people will still preserve their intact memories.
Although the two writers narrate their stories inclusive of other geographical parts, for White, this lake represents his childhood. The lake stands for his joyful childhood. White's concern is more about the...