The Lake story
Years after his childhood sweetheart died, a young man returns to the lake where she disappeared. Directed by: Pat Robins. Story by: Ray Bradbury.
11 total · 1 choice · 5 major · 5 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| the need for closure | choice | It seems the point of the story was to illustrate that Douglas got closure by returning to the lake and finishing the ruined sandcastle, which somehow summoned the corpse of his childhood crush who had drowned 25 years earlier. |
| coping with the death of a lover | major | Douglas was so distressed when his crush, Tally, perished in the lake that he demolished half the sandcastle they had built together. Twenty-five years later he felt the need to revisit the site of her death. |
| fear of open waters | major | Douglas had a pathological fear of the lake, as alluded to in the title, which he thought hated people. |
| human childhood | major | Ten-year-old Douglas spent an idyllic summer making sandcastles on the shore of Lake Michigan together with his crush, Tally. The summer ended in tragedy, however, when Tally disappeared in the lake. In his introduction, Ray Bradbury recounted a childhood reminiscence about making "impossible cities of sand" on the shores of Lake Michigan. |
| reminiscence about one's youth | major | Much of the story is told as adult Douglas thinking back to the summer he spent together with his childhood crush. |
| young lovers | major | The story concerns two prepubescent kids who fell in love. |
| creative writing | minor | In the introduction, Ray Bradbury shared with the viewer the wellsprings of creativity that inspire his writing. |
| love at first sight | minor | Douglas and Tally became instantly besotted with each other. |
| mother and daughter | minor | Tally disobeyed her mother and went for one last swim in the lake. She subsequently vanished without a trace. |
| mother and son | minor | Douglas' mother kept silent when he asked her whether Tally was okay. |