Literary artists choose to write for all sorts of reasons: to explain, to persuade, to express, and to entertain. Robert Frost’s inspiration to compose poetry can be traced back to his chaotic personal life; he writes to clarify. WIth a life burdened by early failure and family tragedy, Frost sought after and found solace in the “momentary stay against confusion” (Frost) that poetry provided. Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken” reflects his sorrowful outlook on his past and provides an excellent example of him attempting to make sense of his disorderly life through poetry.
Frost’s childhood struggles were but a speck of dust in comparison to the tornado of his adulthood. He began exhibiting a lack of commitment to school early on. His mother
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The speaker of the poem is reflecting on an event which cause him or her to make a choice. Literally, he or she was out and about one day and came across a split pathway at which the he or she had to decide which path to take; however, Frost intended for the poem to be interpreted on a deeper level. The reader is expected to place themselves in the mind of the speaker, to take the ambiguous words and apply them to his or her own life. The speaker explains that it is often difficult to determine which choice is best when given options: “Then took the other, as just as fair.” Sometimes the answer in life is not clearly defined. The speaker proceeds to say, with hints of reminiscence or regret in his or her voice, that someday he or she will look back on the decision and sigh. Every aspect of this poem epitomizes Frost’s definition of a poem as a “momentary stay against confusion.” Decisions tend to contribute significantly to stress and complications. Frost used his gift of writing to take all decisions and simplify them into a twenty line poem. He essentially said that the right choice is never clear (otherwise it would not be a choice) and that it is often too late to turn back once a decision is made. Every time a choice is made an entire possible future is eliminated and at that point all a person can do is remember what could have been. What Frost communicated in “The Road Not Taken” is applicable to every choice made in a lifetime. He brilliantly simplified something so troublesome and anxiety provoking into a simple process. That was Frost’s goal throughout his career: to create places of safety and clarity in his poetry in which readers would love to stay. Frost also created comfort in his poetry through the use of formulaic iambic pentameter and predictable rhymes: “And be one traveler, long I stood/And looked down one as long as I could.” Even a
The movie, The Perks of Being A Wallflower, released in 2012, is based on the book written by Stephen Chbosky, which was originally published in 1999. The book is all about the main character, Charlie, as he deals with his first year in high school, after the tragic death of his Aunt Helen. The movie opens with Charlie writing in a journal, which is a part of his therapy for the mental illness he suffers from on account of his Aunt 's death. The past year or so before this, Charlie had been suffering from memories and flashbacks of the way his Aunt died in a car accident. He is hopeful that high school will bring new things for him, but after the first day, is disappointed after the bullying and neglect he finds from other students. Things
Firstly, Charlie's realizes that his co-workers aren't his true friends after all. When Joe Carp and Frank Reilly take him to a house party, they made him get drunk and started laughing at the way he was doing the dancing steps. Joe Carp says, "I ain't laughed so much since we sent him around the corner to see if it was raining that night we ditched him at Halloran's" (41), Charlie recalls his past memory of him being it and not finding his friends who also ditched him and immediately realizes that Joe Carp was relating to the same situation. Charlie felt ashamed and back-stabbed when he realized that he had no friends and that his co-workers use to have him around for their pure entertainment. It's after the operation, that he finds out he has no real friends, and in result feels lonely. Next, Charlie unwillingly had to leave his job from the bakery where he worked for more than fifteen years. Mr. Donner treated him as his son and took care of him, but even he had noticed an unusual behavior in Charlie, lately. Mr. Donner hesitatingly said, "But something happened to you, and I don't understand what it means... Charlie, I got to let you go" (104), Charlie couldn't believe it and kept denying the fact that he had been fired. The bakery and all the workers inside it were his family, and the increase of intelligence had ...
Charlie’s confidence grows in his exposure to new music, new friendships and fun. Eventually, he falls in love with Sam. When Charlie is happy and with his friends, he’s fun and
...pposed to kiss Mary Elizabeth but he didn't so she broke up with Charlie) leaving him back at the start, with no friends. This was a bad time because Charlie begins to start going “bad” again which means he starts to have flashbacks, and he gets really depressed. He saves Patrick from a fight at school which is kind of like a forgiveness from his friends to let him hang out and talk to them again. Charlie helps Sam get into a college and soon all of his friends leave to go to college. He gets bad again and ends up going to the hospital. When Sam and Patrick come over to Charlie's house, this is like closure to Charlie and they drive through the tunnel for the closing page. I think that the author did a very good job in choosing when the events in the book would happen. It seemed like a teenagers life and he changed it up some so that the reader wouldn't get so bored.
David Wyatt writes, "Nowhere in Frost is the tension between surprise and anticipation, wayward experience and the form into which it is cast or forecast, more acute than in 'The Road Not Taken'" (129). As the poem is read, one cannot help but be pulled into the questions of which road will be chosen, how they differ, and what will become of the traveler. Perhaps some hope to find guidance for their own journeys by seeking answers in Frost's work. According to Michael Meyer, "The speaker's reflections about his choice are as central to an understanding of the poem as the choice itself." (97) Frost himself admits, "it's a tricky poem, very tricky." (Pack 10)
In the poem, “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost, the narrator comes upon two roads in the woods and he could only take one. “Long I stood and looked down one as far as I could, to where it bent in the undergrowth,” This shows he is looking into the future results of things and thinking about his decision. “Then took the other just as fair and perhaps the better claim, because it was grassy and wanted wear; though as for that the passing there.” This shows the two roads are being looked at even though one is more grassy which is the road no one really takes in life and another one is worn down which is the road a lot of people take. In the end of looking at the pros and cons of each road, he did the right thing and took the one less traveled, “I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”
Sam physically exposes Charlie to new experiences that change him into a more confident person. At the start of the school year Charlie is an anti-social and introverted freshman who is reluctant and unsure of himself. He enters high school with no friends, but soon becomes friends with a small group of seniors, most importantly Sam, that influence him to become a stronger individual. Sam introduces him to many new things that he never would have experienced before. For example, drugs, alcohol, love, sexuality, parties and relationships change Charlie into an more confident person by breaking him out if his comfort zone. Sam plays a huge role in his development from being easily influenced to making decisions for himself. Sam motivates him to explore a new side of life and he realizes that life needs to be lived and not watched. Charlie grows from being someone who sits by and watches life to a person who fully participates in life. Charlie begins to develop and mature as his character is faced with unfamiliar situations that take him out of his s...
There is simply the path one chooses and the path not chosen. Frost ends this poem ironically with the line “I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.” With this line Frost is showing the misconception that most people make after they’ve made a choice. Individuals often look back at their lives, the choices they’ve made, and assure themselves that their decisions have also made all the difference. Reading the poem we, as the reader, know that he didn’t choose the road less traveled by.
This poem by Robert Frost was first read to me in the last year of my high school experience. Back then, not only did I have absolutely no interest in any literary work, but moreover, had no intension to lye there and analyze a poem into its symbolic definitions. Only now have I been taught the proper way to read a literary work as a formalistic critic might read. With this new approach to literature I can understand the underlying meaning to Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken". In addition to merely grasping the author's intension, I was able to justly incur that this poem, without directly mentioning anything about life's decisions, is in its entirety about just that.
“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood and sorry I could not travel both and be one traveler” (Page 756 Stanza 1). This is the beginning of an iambic tetrameter by Robert Frost in which he expresses the thoughts of the speaker as they come to a fork in the road. The speaker faces a dilemma of deciding which path to take. Frost uses a closed form with a rhyme scheme of “ABAAB.” The speaker reaching the fork in the road is symbolism for a particular decision that he must make in life. The first stanza is setting up the situation in which the speaker must observe both choices and make a decision and stick with it. This poem allows the reader to use their imagination and is also relatable in everyone’s everyday lives. In “The Road Not Taken,” Robert Frost uses a good rhyme scheme, description, and symbolism to describe an important life decision as well as show the thoughts of the speaker as he makes this decision.
When most read Robert Frost’s poem, they think that the poem’s theme revolves around the concept of individualism. After all, Frost seems to be referencing a road less traveled; therefore, making his decision more unique and worthwhile. Overall, “The Road Not Taken” is met with much criticism about what the poem is actually about – individualism or rather deception. This has been a frequent topic of discussion among fellow critics including Robert W. French calling the poem “deceptive” because of the use of the simple use of language (French 203). Using a variety of literary techniques, specifically imagery, diction, and tone, Robert Frost successfully characterizes the theme of deception in “The Road Not Taken.”
In the poem, “The Road Not Taken”, the speaker has to make a big decision in his life. This poem talks about a person who comes across an intersection or a fork in the road and he has to choose which way to follow. The road is a metaphor of the choices we make in life. As the speaker ponders his choices, he feels strongly that whatever “road” he takes will be for good. So he must weigh his decision well in order to come up with the best choice and not end up regretting it. The speaker considers his thought wisely. He says, “And looked down as far as I could / To where it bent in the undergrowth”, by giving it a proper thought he weighs his choices well and in the end, chooses to follow the road “less traveled”. “The Road Not Taken” signifies a difficult choice in a person’s life that could offer him an easy or hard way out. There is no assurance of what lies ahead; if there will be success or sorrows. But a person has to take risk making up his mind about which way to choose because this is the first step of head...
In Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken”, Frost shows the everyday human struggle to make a choice that could change the course of one’s life. In his poem, a person has the choice to take one road or the other. One road is worn out from many people taking it, and the other is barely touched, for fewer have taken that road. Throughout the poem, the speaker learns that just because so many other people have done one thing, or walked one way, does not mean everyone has to. Sometimes you just have to go your own way.
The main theme of the poem that Frost attempts to convey is how important the decisions that one makes can be, and how they affect one’s future. In lines 2-3, he expresses the emotions of doubt and confusion by saying, “And sorry I could not travel/ And be one traveler, long I stood”, which explains how the speaker contemplated their decision of which road to take. In the closing, line 20 of the poem further reestablishes the theme when it states, “that has made all the difference”, meaning that making the decision of which road to take for themselves is the important key for a successful future. Frost helps to express this theme by using symbolism to portray a road as one’s journey of life. Using symbolism, Frost suggests that the speaker of this poem is taking the harder of the two roads presented before them, because the road the speaker chooses, “leaves no step had trodden black” (12...
Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” show the readers similar struggles of life. “The Road Not Taken” is about taking control of one’s life and living it aside from how others live theirs. While “Stopping by Woods on Snowy Evening” shows the desire for rest. Sometimes people regret the possibilities of the road not chosen, sometimes people feel proud about the road that they