Compare and Contrast Analysis of “The Road Not Taken” and “A Worn Path”

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Compare and Contrast Analysis of “The Road Not Taken” and “A Worn Path”

Introduction

A common theme of journey is shared by a short story “A Worn Path” written by Eudora Welty and “The Road not Taken”, a poem by Robert Frost. Both of these works used a similar theme in order to express different kind of thoughts through different points of view. Each of these literary works illustrates how life is a journey and the results of the life we live entirely depend upon the journey we undergo. It is also drawn out in both of the works that if life is a journey that it often possesses obstacles and hardships which eventually encourage the traveler to complete this journey. Although, the theme of both works is similar, each of them is written with different characters, symbolism and settings.

The meaning of journey depends upon the perspectives of people because different people comprehend journey in different ways. For some people it is a mere distance which they have travelled to reach their desired destination, while overlooking the fact that each step encloses the hidden significance. They focus on their final destinations and do not identify that some value is also gained through the path they traveled. On the other hand, there are people who are always excited about the anticipation of unpredictable and unknown voyage. It allows them to experience both negative and positive features of events and people they come across while exploration. Journey always has a power which affects the lives of people and also changes their beliefs, thoughts and beliefs, thus changing them ultimately. Many poems and stories and other kinds of literary works have been written with the theme of journey. Sometimes these journeys are spiritual while sometimes they are tangible ones. This paper also discusses and explores the symbolism of journey used and captured by Robert Frost and Eudora Welty in their literary works.

Discussion

The central theme of these two literary works revolves around the symbol of journey, nonetheless, in different ways. The poem by Frost, “The Road not Taken” tells how people are faced by different forks or divergence in their life and the decisions they make while going through different stages of life affects their future. On one hand, this poem speaks about how life offers different courses one can decide to take for their life journey (Frost, 1916, lines 1-2); it also urges readers to think about how opportunities, individualism and chances may influence the results (Bert, 1973). The journey depicted by Eudora Welt in “A Worn Path” is completely different to that of in “The Road not Taken”, the only thing which is similar in both journey is the choice, a choice Phoenix Jackson made many times in the story. This story demonstrates how Phoenix, the central character of the story, decides to travel the dilapidated path again and again for the sake of his grandson's ...