Road Not Taken & Worn Path

Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken”, Eudora Welty’s “A Worn Path”, focuses on the theme “Journey”. While the two literary works share a similar theme the point of view is different. Each story demonstrates a particular journey through which life can evolve. It seems the underlying story is as a person progresses through life there will always be various trials and tribulations that will seek to derail him or her. The key and historical value is the will to persevere. The term journey is relative. Relative in the sense it has different meanings to different people. To some a journey is a distance to be travelled. The problem here most individuals focus solely on the journey neglecting to glean the valuable wisdom available from the experience. The experience provides life altering insight that challenges and tears down the belief system of the individual. Needless to say, journeys are agents of change and maturation in some cases. Within this paper I will utilize Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” and Eudora Welty’s “A Worn Path” to compare and contrast the theme of symbolism of the journey.
Introduction
Robert Frost and Eudora Welty displayed their point of view about journey in their work. Each one defined journey from different perspectives through different themes of journey. In the poem “The Road Not Taken”, Frost’s skillfully displays the impact seemingly small decisions have on a person’s life. The text stated that “Frost’s intention in the poem was to highlight that a decision can appear to be miniscule and have a simple answer, but as one ponders its outcome and effects; the decision is not as simple as it once appeared” (Clugston, 2010). Essentially, as life progresses an individual can potentially be defined by the decisions they made in life. The narrator at the end of the poem states he took the road less travelled by and it made all the difference. The term difference is open for interpretation because the road not taken is unknown and has the...