A strong human spirit is essential for journeys. All journeys have unknown hindrances, but an individual’s strong conviction can allow them to bypass these obstacles. The poem The Road Not Taken, written by Robert Frost in 1916 is an imaginative journey about a man in the woods looking at two roads and considering which path to take. On the other hand, William Wordsworth’s 1807 creative poem Daffodils is an individual’s journey of self-reflection. In contrast, Slumdog Millionaire directed by Danny Boyle in 2008 is a film which displays the Journey of two brothers and their separate paths.
I chose to analyze "The Road Not Taken" and "Nothing Gold Can Stay" because of the hidden philosophical views. Essentially, that is what Robert Frost is about, "hiding" his personal feelings, leaving it up to the reader to interpret the meanings. "The Road Not Taken" is such a thought-provoking poem. It reminds me of my own recent choice in changing my life's path to the "one less traveled by." And "Nothing Gold Can Stay" reminds me that not even nature has perfection forever, and to live life to the fullest with those I love most, because life is brief, just like the "early flower."
Just as Chris is trying to overcome the dangers of nature, he is overcoming the doubts that he has within himself, which include his fears of developing close and personal relationships and his fear of being judged. The trip to Alaska pushes Chris to his limits and in the end he finally comes to identify with himself, he comes to grips with his personality, and that he wanted to share his experiences with others. In addition to using nature as a way to find himself, Chris also uses nature as a method of avoiding his own realities, such as his relationship troubles with his parents. Chris
However, the ending is not sad, but full of warm and hope, because Ada’s peaceful family life may imply the possibility of reaching the Cold Mountain. There are many journeys in people’s life that are full of dangers and risks. And we may not be able to finish all of them successfully. Nevertheless, for people, what matters is not if you get to the top, but wether or not you find yourself and have faith in yourself. People can arrive at the Cold Mountain if they strongly believe that the Cold Mountain exists and keep looking for it.
Whatever the reason-and there are just as many reasons as there are people in the world- it’s natural for a human to feel this way at some point or another in their life time, its only our nature to continue to learn about ourselves and improve on that learning as time passes as people journey on from the past. The novels Into the Wild (Jon Krakauer) and Cold Mountain (Charles Frazier) both show how their protagonists, Chris McCandless and Inman, embarking on a journey to reach an ultimate goal they wish to reach, leaving behind a life that drug them down emotionally. Both novels depict the young men departing from a place of possession, with people who are protesting they not leave the place of comfort and familiarity. ” Oh, how one wishes sometimes to escape from the meaningless dullness of human eloquence, from all those sublime phrases, to take refuge in nature, apparently so inarticulate, or in the wordlessness of long, grinding labor, the sound sleep, of true music, or of a human understanding rendered speechless by emotion!” (Krakauer 189). However, the protagonists, Chris McCandless and Inman, feel that
At the beginning of the poem, the speaker regrets that at some point in his life he could not take two roads, and had to be limited to one road only. He tried his best to see what was ahead on one of the roads he could have taken, but there were limitations as the road turned and disappeared in the bushes. Frost uses a ABAAB, CDCCD, rhyme scheme: For instance, wood, both, stood, could, undergrowth from stanza one. In the second stanza, the poet emphasizes that the other road was grassy and less traveled and, therefore, he consciously took that road. He stresses that it was perhaps better, but, not much more than the other road.
Philip Kostelnik July 21, 2010 Mr. Pedrorias Lit. Traditions Into The Wild Our society today is mainly based on knowledge of our surroundings. When traveling to places you are not familiar with can be difficult, and can sometime even be dangerous. Our society has also been very materialistic and usually end up focusing more on ourselves rather than others. Christopher McCandless, wanted to get away from today’s ways and he “no longer wanted to be poisoned by civilization” (Krakauer, 163) or be “unencumbered, emancipated from the stifling world of his parents and peers, a world of abstracting and security and material excess, a world in which he felt grievously cut off from the raw throb of existence.” (Krakauer, 22) We may never
Whenever I encounter unhappy things, I choose this place to go for a while and have a positive attitude about life. Sometimes I am not able to avoid conflict, such as when my friend and I are having a disagreement; at these times, I would rather go on my favorite hike in Torrey Pines State Reserve than argue with her. The most important reason is the smell of the fresh air and the excellent landscape. My purpose is not to focus on hiking, but I am able to ease my nerves through the natural environment and think about how to reverse the adverse situation in the process. As we all know, Torrey Pines is a great place for a relaxing hike.
Each year the two neighbors meet annually at the adjoining wall. Both men walk the length of the wall to assess a repair the year’s wear and tear. Frost’s writing style invites the reader to probe the need for communication or, more precisely, the way people put up walls to create barriers between themselves. The visual imagery of the wall helps the reader to shift from just seeing the wall as a basic, natural setting to an abstract consideration of human behavior. In the first stanza of the poem it establishes the sense of mystery, a true color of atmosphere, “something” that does not want the wall to be there.
It is human nature to want to hold on to pleasure even though it is certain that anything good in life in transitory. Even simply in the act of Blackberry-Picking can we find ourselves holding onto something that will perpetually never change. Behind the literal act of picking black berries, there is a much more figurative and deeper meaning imbedded in the poem, by Seamus Heaney, that proposes questions about life. “Summers blood was in it, leaving stains upon the tongue and lust for picking” Blood usually represents the end or death of something and by staining the tongue, the berries were leaving a mark that would represent the end of a season. This only led to the pickers infatuation to pick more.