White was writing throughout World War II. It was impossible for anybody not to be affected by it. White seems most concerned that the war does NOT impact his life as its magnitude suggests it should. In September 1939, White published a piece titled “Second World War.” At first glance, however, the piece has nothing to do with what is going on in Europe. It begins describing a neighbor who catches lobster for a living. “Six days a week, eight months of the year,” White writes, “in war or in peace, Dameron goes down the bay in the morning and hauls his traps.” The piece continues describing the everyday: repairing the sink pipes, a trip to the grain mill, and comments about the Sears Roebuck catalogue. However, White sprinkles war terms throughout the essays. Dameron’s song is “a song of victory,” the boat “smelled of independence,” and in White’s henhouse, “as in the Third Reich… the individual must be sacrificed to the good of the whole.” By dropping these words in the piece, White is able to achieve a sense of desperation and fear ofthe war: “Early on that Sunday when England and France finally lost their patience, wishing to put my affairs in order, I cleaned my comb and brush…” He is desperately trying to maintain a sense of normalcy. Any comments on the war are lofty—White is usually observing an ideal (like freedom) rather than any specific events. Even as he attempts to connect the war with everyday life, White is searching for his place in it.