Robert Frosts The Road Not Taken and A Worn Path by Eudora Welty - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages The two each show how life can change through the perspective of a journey undertaken. The two works however present a common feature in depicting the journey as full hurdles, hardships and the unexpected. A journey means different things to different people. To some people the various aspects of the journey are not included, and to them the journey is only distance travelled. The focus on the destination has many a time caused many people not to take into account the value of the other aspects of the journey. The hurdles and difficulties, the excitement and happiness all form elemental parts of the journey and influence a person’s outlook, fortune and character for a long time (Clugstone, 2010).
Overview
Welty and Frost both put forth their divergent perspectives by the use of different themes of the journey in their work. In the poem “The Road Not Taken,” Frost masterly makes a depiction of how choice at the present has a huge impact in future. The poem puts forth the inevitability of decision making in life (Sarcone & Welty 1998). Decisions can either be made according to the regular way of doing things or through the adoption of novel ways. According to Frost the journeyman must at one time reach a point in which the road branches which means he has to opt for one as he cannot take both. The decision to opt for one path is irreversible and irretraceable and this will affect the final destination and hence the choice has to be weighed carefully. Frost is for the idea of people making their choices not based on societal traditions or time honored ways but rather upon what they believe will lead them to the favorable destination. The thrust of Frost’s poem is that life is a journey in which different people make decisions which have lifelong impacts (Sarcone & Welty, 1998). As opposed to Robert Frost, Eudora Welty’s work “A Worn Path” is a short story on the same theme of life as a journey. The Worn Path is a story of an elderly African American woman who makes a journey through the forest into the city. Phoenix Jackson encounters many hurdles in the jungle such as; being threatened with a gun and tangled brush and fog. All these hurdles do not deter her from her quest to go into the city to look for her grandson. The idea of actions affecting future happenings crops up in “A Worn path” as Jackson is on a quest to find an antidote for a poison ingested by her grandson years back. The story also brings in the element of familial love as exhibited by Jackson besides the symbolism of a journey (Trouard, 1989). Theme The basic theme of the story is that of a journey even as the two writers use different modes of expression and perspectives to bring it out. Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” elemental stand point is that of the inevitability of decisions. Another prominent point that is made by Frost is the assertion by Frost that choices should not be made on tradition but rather from what a person believes is right. Frost as opposed to Welty makes an assertion that a person always has a choice; the road most travelled or the less travelled. Welty on the other hand views life as a journey even though she is of the opinion that a journeyman sometimes does not have a choice (Orr, 2005). She exemplifies this through the determination and grit as shown by Jackson’s commitment to go to town by any means. For Jackson there is no choice in the matter of finding a remedy for her grandson; she will go into town no matter the costly or hindrances on her path. Style “A Worn Path” is narrated form a third person point of view and is intended buy Welty to evoke feelings of empathy in the reader since her actions and feelings are ...Download file to see next pagesRead More