The journey symbol in Frost's "Road Not Taken" and Welty's "Worn Path"

¶ … Symbol in Frost, Welty

Symbol of Journey in Frost and Welty

Welty's Journey is Transcendental/Social

Frost's Journey is Satirical/Inspirational

Style

Both Frost and Welty Use Satire in a Gentle Way

Welty's Style Moves From Satire Towards Compassion

Frost's Style Moves From Satire Towards Self-Awareness

Thematic Structure

Welty Reflects all of life in her Thematic Structure

Frost Reflects a simple event, losing one's way

Form and Content

Frost's poetry

Allows for many interpretations

The content can be read in varying ways

Welty's short story

Allows a more intimate connection with characters

The story can be read as allegory, social commentary, or realism

Conclusion

Welty and Frost use the same symbol to reflect different facets of life

B. They initiate a journey for the reader, but the reader's destination is of his own choosing

An Analysis of the Symbol of the Journey in Welty's "Worn Path" and Frost's

"Road Not Taken"

Introduction

Eudora Welty's "A Worn Path" and Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" use the symbol of the Journey to produce separate effects: the former a representation of the transcendent value of love and sacrifice, the latter a representation of the folly of human reason. Although both employ the Journey symbol, Frost's poem is rooted in a spirit of misadventure and fun, while Welty's short story is rooted in a spirit of elevation. Ironically, Frost's poem has taken on a much wider and grander significance than it was originally intended to convey. Commonly viewed as a poem in praise of individuality and self-discovery, Frost's "Road Not Taken" has become a banner of liberality. Welty's short story has also been viewed in varying ways, from a condemnation of racial inequality to a reflection of the journey of the human spirit through a kind of Purgatory on Earth. This paper will compare and contrast the two works in terms of style, content and form, showing how both use the Journey symbol, which can be read with varying degrees of gravity, seriousness, and thematic consequence.

Style

Even though the two works are of a vastly different structure, Frost's poem and Welty's short story share more than the ability to symbolize the Journey in their works. They also share the ability to satirize the human experience in terms of style. Nina Baym (1998), for example, notes how "like Robert Frost, Welty loves gossip in all its actuality and intimacy" (p. 1784). This characterization of the writers is telling for two reasons: first, it shows that both Welty and Frost take inspiration from one of the most common forms of human communication and narrative -- gossip; second, it shows that the two writers are grounded in the familiar human experience.

Yet, both writers approach their subject (the human condition) from a different perspective. Frost tends towards gentle satire and subtle mockery. His poems often provide a needling of another's idea, but in good fun. "The Road Not Taken," for example, was meant to poke fun at Frost's friend Edward, who always failed to choose the correct path when taking walks through the forest (Pritchard, 1993, p. 128). Welty, on the other hand, even though she had a natural flare for satire, her writings are composed not so much in a spirit of derision but rather in a spirit of compassion and love. "A Worn Path" contains elements of humor, but overall it is dedicated to illustrating the virtues of perseverance and the efficacy of a grandmother's love. Baym concurs when she states that "although [Welty's] attitude toward human folly is satiric, it is satire devoid of the wish to undermine and make mockery of her characters" (p. 1784).

Journey of Being Lost

Pritchard attempts to maneuver the poem's "trickiness" by returning the reader to it's beginning, where, in fact, the two roads are nearly indistinguishable from one another: "The two roads [are] in appearance 'really about the same,'…they 'equally lay / In leaves no step had trodden black,' and…choosing one rather than the other [is] a matter of impulse, impossible to speak about any more clearly than to say that the road taken [has] 'perhaps the better claim'" (p. 129). It is clear to Pritchard that what Frost intended was nothing more than a gentle mockery of his friend's inability to stick to the correct path, always taking "the wrong" one -- and that what impressed Meiklejohn was merely Meiklejohn's interpretation of the poem -- or perhaps a projection of his own beliefs onto the poem. Yet, such is understandable, for Frost himself puts the poem on such an ambiguous footing with the last line being uttered in a tone that does not match the rest of the work. The tone may be understood to be one of whimsy and shrugging shoulders -- or it may be understood to be one of solemn pride and satisfaction.

"Road" is a small, satirical poem that became a great, big poem, latching onto a popular kind of youthful ambition and sincerity (the Huck Finn kind -- embracing the wide open; rejecting confinement, rules, tradition). Frost himself seems to have embraced the second reading, taking joy in the poem's effect on individuals who saw it not as man's ineptitude to make his way through life -- but as man's impulsive need to make his own way through life. It is the cry of Berne's child of the ego-state, who wants what it wants and is going to go after it -- or at least try. The reality behind Frost's poem (upon which it is based) is that the attempt is so often unsuccessful -- which is why the poem was written in a satirical vein.

The Journey in "A Worn Path": Form and Content in Welty's Story

Unlike Frost's "Road," which is very childlike in its deportment (regardless of its meaning), Welty's "A Worn Path" is written in the short story form and explores a more mature vein. If one compares the two works in terms of content, one sees instantly a progression from innocence to experience.

From Frost to Welty, life's journey progresses from the symbol of idyllic departures in a wood to a sense of trekking along the same, familiar path -- the so-called straight and narrow to which the wise must adhere in order to get where they wish to go. In Frost's "Road" wandering is expected -- but not frustration. Eudora Welty, however, takes the knowledge that Frost seems to skirt around use it to craft her own support in "A Worn Path."

The first two indications that Welty's tale is one of transcendent value are in the title of the tale and in the name of the tale's main character, Phoenix Jackson. The title "A Worn Path" evokes the image of a path that is neither divergent (and unused or "less traveled") nor wholly destroyed and never to be used. Rather, it is a path that has been used -- that has seen a lot of use -- and has born the back and forth, the trampling of steps (like Caiaphas in Dante's Inferno, who must be trampled upon by all the inhabitants of hell who pass his way) -- and yet has not been obliterated: it is like the old cloth of the gospels that can neither be thrown out or patched over -- but is miraculously made new by Christ's power (a transcendent power). That power is seen in Welty's main character, Phoenix. Her name itself is a symbol of the mythological bird that is reborn out of fire (which, in literary tradition, is another symbol -- of purity -- used from century to century by diverse authors, from the gospels to Dante (the blemishes of the elect are burned away) to Conrad, whose Victory ends with purification by fire). Phoenix Jackson conjures in the mind a symbol of the eternal struggle of a race that is oppressed -- but that overcomes its oppression through spiritual and transcendent rebirth -- over and over again (as many times in fact as the worn path is traversed).

Nor is it incidental that Phoenix is a parent, for, in a transactional sense, Welty's "Path" is the parent in Berne's ego-state. It is the most fully developed and most fully aware of life and what life's journey demands: an ability to overcome obstacles. As Welty herself claimed, "fine story writers seem to be in a sense obstructionists," meaning that obstructions are a part of life, and if the writer's job is to write about life, obstructions must be dealt with (Baym. p. 1784). The obstructions that Phoenix Jackson literally faces are almost Dantean in their imagery and symbolic nature. Her journey is upward on the path where dangers are numerous and inescapable -- but her pleading to a higher power to protect her enables her to maneuver the path over and over. Plenty of objects present themselves to her imagination and frighten her: a buzzard, a scarecrow, a dog (which knocks her into a ditch where she lies until a white man hauls her out, calling her with the kind of gentle mockery of Frost, "Granny!"). She also has to contend with the sun, the length of the journey itself, and her old age (she cannot even stoop to tie her own shoes and must rely on someone else to do it).

Yet there is a turn in Welty's tale -- away from adulthood into parenthood -- for the reader learns that the reason for the journey is not on the old woman's behalf, but on behalf of her grandchild who is sick. The journey is being made for someone else. It is an act of charity -- and relates to the charity of Christ that makes all things new, and to the rebirth of the Phoenix that is reborn through fire. In fact, the entire journey is marked not by disillusionment but by charity. She falls into a ditch, a white man hauls her out. Her laces come untied, a child ties them for her. She arrives at the doctor's office, and the medicine she requires is given to her free: the nurse marks "charity" on her clipboard and the old woman says, "I thank you," not the least put out by the word -- for it is a word that enables her to traverse the road so many times, up and down. Charity is what enables her to transcend the physical hardships that are oftentimes so discouraging -- her own charity for her grandson and others' charity for her.

Welty's narrative is full of imagery and symbolism that combines her appreciation of life's disillusioning struggles with the necessity to keep moving, as Dennis J. Sykes (1998) notes:

While resting on a log, Phoenix has an almost hallucinatory vision: She envisions a boy offering her a piece of marble cake, a proposition, Phoenix says "that would be acceptable." The vision of a slice of black and white cake appears to be a reference to the idea of integration in the South. But "when she went to take it there was just her own hand in the air," an unattainable dream, a utopian fantasy, and Phoenix's struggle continues through the barbed wire and dead corn (p. 151).

The notion that Welty embeds in the narrative is one of perseverance despite rejection. She begins the tale with knowledge (old age is always a symbol of knowledge) and support (the old woman uses a cane and is helped by the various people she meets). Despite the fact that her people retain an ignoble position, there is a nobility that cannot be effaced or destroyed no matter how much it is worn within Phoenix, for she exists in the transcendent state -- the parent state -- the highest level of life's journey.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Welty and Frost offer two variations on the symbol of the journey, each illustrating life in a satirical vein, one for the purpose of friendly teasing, the other for the purpose of admiration and elevation. Both have, however, come to have different meanings for different people. Frost's poem became a symbol of youthful longing for adventure, of departure from the beaten track. Welty's became a symbol of pride and the need for social equality. Still, as the journey narrative is a narrative of growth, the two authors' tales can also be viewed in comparison as a journey from mischievous youthfulness to persevering and transcending parenthood. Thus, the journey of life is symbolized on two alternate and contrasting levels, even as it is comparable in terms of style and symbolism. Likewise, the various interpretations of the two works by Frost and Welty show how no two journeys are ever the same. Each reader is capable of reading his own ideas into the poem or the short story. Behind these readings, however, are the authors' original intentions -- which are enough to set the reader on a journey of his own, but do not guarantee that all readers will arrive at the same destination.

Reference List

Baym, N. (1998). Eudora Welty. The Norton Anthology of American Literature, 5th ed.

NY: W.W. Norton & Company.

Frost, R. (1920). The Road Not Taken, Journey into Literature. [ed. By Clugston]. San

Diego, California: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.

Kearns, K. (1994). Robert Frost and a Poetics of Appetite. NY: Cambridge University

Press.

Pritchard, W.H. (1993). Frost: A Literary Life Reconsidered. MA: University of Massachusetts Press.

Sykes, D.J. (1998). Eudora Welty's 'A Worn Path'. The Explicator, 56(3): 151-153.

Welty, E. (1941). A Worn Path, Journey into Literature. [ed. By Clugston]. San Diego,

California: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.