Jean Rhys' and Robert Frost's Use of the Journey Symbol - Assignment Example

 Look Back In Anger? Understanding Jean Rhys' and Robert Frost's Use of the Journey Symbol "If I could choose I would rather be happy than write ... if I could live my life all over again, and choose ..."- Jean Rhys. The lines above, spoken by Jean Rhys during an interview to British Broadcasting Company towards the end of her life, indeed beautifully sum up her attitude towards life, which, it seems, was full of choices made out of compulsion. In sharp contrast to Rhys' statement lies Robert Frost's reply to one Miss Yates who had enquired about the "sigh" in the last stanza of "The Road Not Taken." Frost replied, "It was my rather private jest at the expense of those who might think I would yet live to be sorry for the way I had taken in life. I suppose I was gently teasing them. I'm not really a very regretful person..." (Finger, 1978, p.478-79). Although many critics do not prefer to relate a writer's personal life with that of his or her literary work, there is no denying the fact that an author's personal views indeed get reflected in their works. The two authors, in discussion, are no exceptions and therefore their works provide hint about their attitude towards life. They both visualise life as a journey, a path, and employ nature as a symbol of life. However, there is a stark difference between their take on life and the choices it provides. While Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" portrays life as a journey meshed with choices, Jean Rhys' "I Used to Live Here Once" portrays life as a series of events where the individual has but little control. A thorough critical reading of the texts will further provide a deeper understanding of their point of convergence and divergence on the point of life as a journey. To understand the symbolism of journey in Jean Rhys' "I Used to Live Here Once" and Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken," it is essential to first focus on the content of the two works. In Rhys' short story, an unnamed woman, the protagonist of the story, is seen "standing by the river looking at the stepping stones and remembering each one" (Clugston, 2010). She gradually crosses the shallow river and walks towards a house where she once used to live. She reaches the house only to suffer the epiphany of her non-existence. Frost's poem, on the other hand, has the speaker remembering his decision of taking a path less travelled while "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood" (Clugston, 2010) and contemplating what made him take such a decision. Although it is not clearly mentioned whether the decision turned out to be good or bad, it seems the narrator of the poem had enjoyed his freedom of choice. Despite the apparent simplicity of the theme, both the works consist of labyrinths of meaning as Frost himself mentioned in one occasion regarding "The Road Not Taken", "You have to be careful of that one; it's a tricky poem-very tricky" (Sovoie, 2004, p.7.) Undoubtedly, the writers converge on the use of nature as a mirror of life. Nature is used as the setting for both the works and the elements of nature are rendered with symbolic meaning. In Rhys' work, as the woman progresses in her journey into the past, nature is seen depicting different stages of her life. She is seen standing by the shore of a river, which is symbolic of transience, a threshold, which she must cross to reach the other side. The stones each signify a stage in her life which have led her from childhood to maturity. Similarly, the road and the trampled trees represent the mistakes or hurries of her past life which she now contemplates in a detached manner. The cold breeze again is symbolic of death. The natural setting is established in the very first line of Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken." Discussing the theme of Edward Thomas's "The Sign-Post", Roderick A. Jacobs mentions Frost's "The Road Not Taken" and exclaims that the two bear thematic similarity, that is, both deal with "nature as a link with man's journey through life. (1965, p.569.) Therefore, once again each and every element of nature mentioned by the poet has a symbolic meaning related to life as a journey. However, as pointed out by Waggoner, Frost does not romanticise with nature. He portrays the "impersonal quality" of nature (1941, p. 212). Standing on a split road, Nature here seems to be impersonal trying in no way to influence the decision of the speaker. The speaker mentions that "And both that morning equally lay/ In leaves no step had trodden black" (Frost, 1920, l 11-12). Nature, like life is not biased, it is up to the traveller to decide which path to take. However, as pointed out by James McBride Dabbs in "Robert Frost and the Dark Woods," belonging to modern age, Frost has his own share of dilemma regarding man's position in nature. Human being, although, was "omnipotent, destructive and unyielding", stood puny in front of the dark woods. (1934, p. 514-520). Nevertheless, in this particular poem, the poet celebrates the power of choice and mentions that it is this power which governs the future, "I shall be telling this with a sigh/...I took the one less traveled by,/And that has made all the difference." (Clugston, 2010). Life therefore takes the shape as desired by the traveller. The writers however diverge when it comes to writing the script of life as a journey. Like a journey which has a beginning, a path to follow, and a final destination, Rhys' "I Used to Live Here Once" follows the same pattern. However, in her story everything seems to be scripted by the omniscient narrator with little or no scope for the character to diverge. All that the character is capable of, is fondling with her memory. It seems as if she has a story behind each stone as the narrator mentions "remembering each one. There was the round unsteady stone, the pointed one...." (Clugston, 2010). The adjectives used for the stones signify that they are symbolic of the hurdles she has passed in her life. If one was "unsteady", there was another "flat" and then the "safe stone where you could stand and look around." It is interesting to note that just after mentioning about the safe stone from where one can look around, the narrator mentions of the next unsafe stone that is deceptive even in its dryness. If one is able to pass the deception, the rest of the path becomes smooth. The use of the phrase "other side" after crossing the river is noteworthy. It seems that the character has come to a place which does not belong to her but the "other". The complication or the rising of the story begins with the woman walking through the road. The descriptions of the road's "unfinished look" and the "worn stone steps" leading up to the house, paint a picture of unkempt surrounding that perhaps needed a bit more attention and love. The woman's keen observation of the surrounding and its dilapidated condition suggests that she perhaps could have improved it. However, there is no mention of any planned action to be taken by the character. The apparent journey which seems to have culminated with the woman reaching the "rough lawn" takes a back step when the children playing in the lawn do not answer her call. The climax is reached when the boy looks straight into her eyes and says without any change in expression " Hasn't it gone cold all of a sudden. D'you notice? Let's goin" (Clugston, 2010). The epiphany then dawns upon her with the knowledge of her being non-existent. The line "That was the first time she knew" (Clugston, 2010) hints a resolution, an acceptance of her truth and perhaps the beginning of a new journey. Interestingly, walking down the memory lane, she has actually not come to the final destination but to the starting point. Rhys' "I Used to Live Here Once" paints a somber picture of life, where the protagonist has but little power to change or choose. Her journey into the past seems to be a mere walking down the memory lane where you have no chance of choice. Everything in Rhys' world seems to have a fixed purpose and existence beyond time and the woman perhaps belongs to the same group. The journey therefore is predestined to reach a sad epiphany. The self-knowledge is more saddening than enlightening. The omniscient third-person narrator, who tells the story, suggests that man has but little choice in life's journey. If the path the woman walks on is symbolic of life's journey, then she can only feel bad for not having paid attention to the road when she had time. On Contrary to Rhys's short story, Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" paints a totally different picture of life as a journey. For Frost the journey of life is like a walk through the woods that is meshed with crossroads and spilt-ends where one needs to take a stand. There is ample scope for choices and the poem celebrates individualism like many of Frost's other poems. The title itself suggests the power of the individual as a decision maker who does not choose the usual path. While like the protagonist of Rhys' story, the man in Frost's poem is found standing in front of nature, he has, unlike Rhys' woman, an action to decide, an action which will define his life. He knows that he is about to write the course of his own life as he mentions that in ages to come he would be telling his own story of how his decision to take the path less travelled made all the difference (Clugston, 2010). Interestingly critics are not convinced by this apparent celebration of individualism by Robert Frost in "The Road Not Taken". Since the poet himself mentions that he had to choose between the two only because he could not travel in both the paths "And be one traveler" and that there was hardly any difference between the two paths, most of the critics question Frost's logic behind the celebrated choice. Frank Lentricchia's "Robert Frost: Modern Poetics and the Landscape of the Self" dissects Frost's poem and asserts that there is no apparent logic behind the selection of the path. Yvor Winters in his criticism of the poem mentions that the poem with its apparent loveliness deceives its reader of the ultimate meaning which is usually "sentimental and unacceptable." He calls the speaker of the poem a "spiritual drifter" "mistaking whimsical impulse for moral choice." Winters further mentions that the poet should have borne the burden of "critical intelligence" more fully than passing it over to the readers (Savoie, 2004, p.11). Voicing the same lack of logic, Lentricchia mentions that Frost's poem is a "fully modern and frightening as any more seemingly modern poem" (Savoie, 2004, p.13) because it suggests all the life-changing decisions are basically irrational and that the choices one celebrates to have made are fundamentally out of control. However, what these critics fail to understand is the speaker's power to stick to the choice made. The poem does not celebrate the logic behind the decision but the power of making one. Even if the decision is whimsical, it has been made by the speaker himself and he knows there will be no turning back. He is ready to bear the burden of the decision made in future and relate any consequence there upon to this choice. It is this freedom of choice in the journey of life that is important. Rhys' "I Used To Live Here Once" lacks this freedom of choice and the absence of the same reduces the protagonist to a spectator. Even after being the protagonist of the story, the lack of the power of decision making diminishes her position to a shadow, a thin cold breeze. Life therefore should be vibrant with choices and not a mere looking back in anger. References Clugston, R.W.(2010). Journey into Literature. San Diego, California: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu Finger, L. L. (1978, Nov). Frost's "The Road Not Taken": A 1925 Letter Come to Light. American Literature, 50(3). Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/2925142 Jacobs, R. A. (1965, Sep). Regrets and Wishes. The English Journal, 54(6). Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/811421 Savoie, J. (2004, Mar). A Poet's Quarrel: Jamesian Pragmatism and Frost's "The Road Not Taken". The New England Quarterly, 77(1).Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/1559684 Waggoner, H. H.(1941, Nov). The Humanistic Idealism of Robert Frost. American Literature, 13(3). Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/2921127 Read More