He now understands that the lake will stay the same forever while generation after generation passes on and that he is getting closer to death when he sees his son doing what his younger self would have done. He realizes that old age and death is inevitable. He suddenly becomes aware that he cannot avoid old age or death, even in this ageless place. It is at that moment that his illusion shatters. Because he has done exactly the same thing in his time, the memory of that is so strong and physical that he actually feels the wet swimsuit around his groin. The final enlightenment comes when his son goes swimming in the rain while he languidly sits and watches. This strange illusion kept cropping up all the time. To him, it represents eternity.ĭespite the peace and quiet, he is persistently bothered by the sensation that his son was he and that he was his father. He refers to the lake as a “holy spot” and a “cathedral”, a place of sanctity and peace. The fact that everything remains pretty much the same and his own wish to suspend time inspires in him the illusion that “the years were a mirage and that there had been no years.” He settles comfortably into this calm environment. Other than a few minute changes, “all was just as it had always been.” He was excessively disturbed by the missing middle track of the road and the “petulant, irritable sound” of outboard motors, which he compares to whining mosquitoes. In the woods by the lake, he finds that nothing has changed since his childhood.
![once more to the lake analysis once more to the lake analysis](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ecVW_Gix_bg/maxresdefault.jpg)
Thus, he longs for “the placidity of a lake in the woods” to avoid it. The reason that he comes to the lake is because he is weary of the restless sea, which represents the fast, relentless pace of time and age. White ends with a mystifying sentence, “As he buckled the swollen belt, suddenly my groin felt the chill of death.” He uses this puzzling conclusion as a metaphor for his sudden realization that he could not escape from time and his confrontation with mortality.