The Road Not Taken - Essay Example

? The Symbolism of the Journey in Frost’s “The Road Not Taken,” Welty’s "A Worn Path," and Rhys’s "I Used to Live Here Once" Number and of the Course Instructor Date of Submission THE SYMBOLISM OF THE JOURNEY Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken,” Eudora Welty’s "A Worn Path,” (1990) and Jean Rhys’s "I Used to Live Here Once" (1998) are three different works of literature that employs the symbolism of journey to profoundly depict their themes and messages. The use of journeys ands trips in these works are symbolic signifying various meanings ranging from life choices to life processes as well as the challenges and implications that come along with the choices and processes. Background to Symbolism in Literary Works To appreciate the role of symbolism in these works of literature, it would be vital to highlight some background information relating to symbolism as a literary device and the content of the works that are subject of discussion and comparison in this paper. The paper will first analyze symbolism in Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken” and then embark on separate analysis of the two short stories while drawing on the striking and subtle similarities and differences in the use of symbolism of the journey across the three works of literature. In literature, symbolism refers to the use of words, objects, processes or descriptions in a manner that offers a reader a concrete object that essentially has a more abstract and a broader meaning to the work of literature (story, novel ,poetry and so on) (Newton, 1990). In most cases, authors and poets prefer to use symbolism when they wish to depict a theme or a message that is more abstract, so that the symbols enable the reader to have a quicker, more vivid and a sharper grasp of a theme that would otherwise leave the reader oblivious of the author’s ideas. In most cases, the authors will pick symbols that the anticipated audience and readers are familiar to so that they can quickly connect the author’s abstract ideas with they reality. In this way, the author would normally succeed not only in capturing attention of the reader, but also in making the work more vivid and thus enhancing a full understanding and easier interpretation of the literary work by the reader. The symbolism of the journey Throughout Frost’s “The Road Not Taken,” Welty’s "A Worn Path," and Rhys’s "I Used to Live Here Once," one thread is to be found: that of people making journeys from one point to another, either geographically , spiritually, psychologically or otherwise. The Frost work is poetry while the last two are short stories. The authors use symbolism of journey to vividly depict their messages and to construct various themes. Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” Frost’s the “The Road Not Taken” illustrates a lone traveler who in the course of his journey comes to a cross roads and he is bound to choose only one of the roads. The difficulty in choosing the road to take is well captured in the first stanza that reads: Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth (Frost , n.d., 1-5) Thus from the very beginning, Frost introduces the symbolism of a journey, both in the title and the first paragraph, illustrating the value of the symbols to the entire poem. A read must be clear of what the road and the journey is order to understand the rest of the poem. The traveler’s physical journey to a destination that has not been revealed may be interpreted as signifying life processes that people undergo. The fork – “Two roads diverge in a yellow wood” (Frost , n.d.,1) may be viewed as a symbol for the decisions, choices or options that people are faced with as they live their life. Life, like a journey will always present a number of choices which are mutually exclusive. Just as the traveler had to pick on one, in order that he may proceed with the journey, life too demands that people must ultimately make choices in order to make progress in life. As long as one is in state of dilemma and the decision is not made, one may never make progress. The traveler’s reactance to pick on a path signifies the difficulties and dilemmas of arriving at life decisions. The traveler recognizes that the two roads were almost similar, but had to leave one after having “looked down one as far as I could “ and then opts for the other. “… took the other, as just as fair And having perhaps the better claim Because it was grassy and wanted wear, Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same, (Frost, n.d.,6-10) At the end of the day, the traveler acknowledges that the path he had taken had made a difference. The persona states: I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference (Frost, n.d.,16-20 The last Just as the paths never seemed fundamentally different at the time when the traveler was picking on them, and he had to make series of deliberations before settling on one, life sometimes present relatively insignificant and minor choices and at times major ones, whichever the case, a decision that one makes significantly affect one’s life in future. Similarly, while life choices may seem nearly indistinguishable or even similar, they will often lead to different outcomes. At end of the poem, the traveler acknowledges that he is now what he is because of the path he picked. Frost message is that as people make their decisions in life, they constantly determine their future through the decisions, as one decision leads to the next. Just like in a journey one road leads to the next, in life one decision leads to the next, leaving people with questions as to “what if” one took the other path. Welty, Rhys and Frost Whereas Frost only depict a geographical journey as a symbol of his themes and concentrates on the journey processes with little details on the aftermaths and experiences of the journey, Welty and Rhy goes beyond the physical journey and depicts more on the journey experiences and outcomes. Just as with Frost, the two other authors note that a journey is always demanding and pose series of challenges that have to be taken up if one is to successfully go though it. Again, there is connection of the symbolic meaning of the journey in all these work: a journey symbolizes life choices, experiences and activities. Rhy depicts a woman who happens to make a journey back to her old childhood home, although it is not clear the precise place from where she has come from. She notices that some features and landmarks have remains as they were, like the stepping stones, while others have changed. Using these stepping stones, she crosses a river very easily and without having to think, being used to the stepping stones. She observes that “The road was much wider than it used to be..." (Rhy 1998, p. 24). She then takes a road and soon reaches a stone stair that heads to some house. She notices that the environment around the house, like the road leading to it has changed. She is not familiar with the “glassy look” of the sky; the familiar summer house and tree are no longer existent. She finds some children by the house and tells them that she used to leave there, but is ignored by the children who immediately go back into the house. The woman’s journey that is expressly illustrated by the narrator is the mysterious one from a river nearby and down the old uncompleted road till she reaches her childhood home. Through the woman’s statement to the children that “I used to live here once”, another journey is brought forward, the woman must have moved from that place (home) to another place (home). It has been suggested that the mysterious woman is a ghost emanating from a woman lived there one, but died and now in a world of the dead (Hulme 2001). Consequently, there is a journey from the world of the living to the world of death. In the later interpretation, a journey symbolizes radical change, particularly change in form, ideology or affiliation. The implication is that when one undergoes substantial change, as the woman did, one becomes isolated from the former society and friends. This explains why having been way from her childhood home for long, the woman cannot be recognized by the white children, however much she tries to be unpleasant to them. Taking Hulme’s interpretation that the woman is a ghost, an interpretation that comes up is that the living and the dead belong to different world and thus, when the dead makes a journey to the world of living, in form of ghost, they cannot understand one another. The author therefore uses this symbolic journey to depict the theme of transformation. Welty’s protagonist, Phoenix Jackson, is illustrated while being on a journey to town from the old Natchez in order to obtain medicine for her grandson who frequently suffers from a sore throat having swallowed lye some years earlier. She is described to have started her journey early in the morning. This is a new day for another journey that she has been undertaking on several occasions in the past to the extent the path she follows while going undertaking this duty is simply now “a worn path”. However, she undertakes the journey with zeal, her old age not withstanding. Unlike Frost’s traveler in the “path not taken” this lady does not have options at hand; she follows one path day in day out. She also has to go to a specific destination- town- and gets back to her home; to salvage her grandson, she must go to town, as that is where she will get the medicine. The journey of the old woman in this story, as with the case with the formerly discussed authors symbolizes life activities, actions and experiences that people often have to undertake or undergo. The journey is long, recurrent and tiresome, but the old woman has to keep undergoing it to resolve her grandson’s fate. These signify difficult activities and sacrifices that people have to put up with in order to achieve their life goals or to obtain what their heart desire or to counter misfortune that life has put on them. Even after several unsuccessful efforts to resolve the grandson’s fate, she never ceases to make her journey till her path wears out. The treatment of the grandson’s sickness in the foregoing interpretation signifies the results that people seek to arrive at by making their choices and taking a given course of action. Concerning the grandson and the grand mother’s journey Eudora Welty (1990) asserts as follows: “But it is the journey, the going of the errand, that is the story, and the question is not whether the grandchild is in reality alive or dead” (75). In the context of life, this would imply that life; it is not really the result of life that is important, but the life itself. All the three authors recognize that any journey must have obstacle and means of overcoming them. However, their conception of what amounts to an obstacle and the means of carrying them out differs from one author to another. This may be attributed to the difference in the nature of the journey being undertaken and the difference in the author’s perception of life. The obstacles reflect barriers to success in life or the barriers to one’s life goals. Rhys’s protagonist encounters a river, which is a potential barrier to where she is headed to – her childhood home. However, she finds the stepping stones which helps her cross the river. A river in this case is a symbolic obstacle whereas the stepping stones signify spring boards that may help a person go through obstacles to achieving one’s life goals. The woman has mastered the location of the stepping stones and thus crosses the stone very fast. Rhys’ message is that a person who has gone through a problem and leant how to solve it the will easily come through it. To Frost’s journey, the main obstacle is the diversity of paths; there are two diverging paths but a traveler is one. This diversity presents a dilemma as one has to consider the path to take. The solution then becomes a sound sense of reasoning and judgment, in light of the circumstances at hand and what is expected in the course of the road. As Frost writes: And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could.. Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim Because it was grassy and wanted wear… (Frost, n.d.,3-4, 6-7) Thus Frost presents a view that solutions to life obstacle lies within a person and depends on the choices the one makes. Even though one may be in dilemma, by evaluating the potential dangers and rewards of options at hand, one will always go through the difficulties. This is in contract with Rhys’s journey where the nature of the obstacle dictate that a solution comes from the surrounding- the stepping stones. However, her spirited effort is another inner spring board that drives her to reach her destination. In Welty’s "A Worn Path," presents a journey with the greatest number of setbacks and obstacles than with the other two works. To begin with, the traveler, Phoenix, has a number of physical difficulties that make her have problems in carrying out her tasks. She is old and frail, and this makes her faint on her way to town. She has difficulty with her vision and even mistakes a plot of thorns with green bush. She can hardly walk comfortably and has to support herself with stick. In fact at a point, she cannot even manage to bend so as to tie her shoes. Despite her physical limitation, she is not discouraged from undertaking a long journey and tiresome journey to town. By the time the reader comes across her, she has made several trips of this nature. In fact, while admitted at the hospital, she was so frail and could not even talk coherently with the nurse. However, upon being discharged, she is very cheerful and is ready to go through the journey once more. Like Frost and Rhys, Welty shows that the best solutions come from within an individual, how one perceives life: whenever one has a will, a way will always be found. Phoenix, like the traveler in Frost’s poem and Rys’s story, does not stop pursuing the desires of her heart for reasons that a difficulty has emerged. Conclusion Frost, Welty and Rhys uses journey to symbolize life and its processes, challenges and choices. Whereas in Frost mainly depicts deliberations that people encounter when faced with dilemma and the value of being serious with the choices that one makes, Welty and Rhys focuses on the obstacles of the journey hence those of life and how to go about them. A common thread that runs across all the symbolic journeys is that they always come with challenges and one must be ready to consider solutions. The solutions may be right within an individual’s wise choice, as with Frost’s traveler, one’s spiritual and emotional strength as with Welty’s traveler, or strong desire to reach one’s destination as with both Rys’s and Welty’s travelers. The authors have use “journey” and the related objects such as path, toad, river and stepping stone to make their messages more vivid, clear and easier to understand, owing to reader’s familiarity with the image of journey and the associated images. References Frost, R. (n.d.). The road not taken. Retrieved from http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the- road- not-taken/ Hulme, P. (2001, January 21). Jean Rhys. In The Literary Encyclopedia. Retrieved from http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople/php?rec=true&UID=3758 Newton, K.M. (1990). Interpreting the Text: A Critical Introduction to the Theory and Practice of Literary Interpretation. New York: St. Martin?s Press.. Rhys, J. (1998). I Used to live here once. Telling Stories. Ed. Joyce Carol Oates. New York City: W. Norton & Co., 24-25 Welty, E. (1990). “Is Phoenix Jackson?s Grandson Really Dead?” The Story and Its Writer – An Introduction to Short Fiction. Ed. Ann Charters. Shorter 2nd ed. Boston: Bedford Books of St. Martin?s Press, Read More