Journey and Self-Reflection in Frost and Rhys

Introduction: The Meaning of Journey

A journey is much more than just a distance that is traveled. It can be a path we take in life and death. In life, we tend to focus on where our life is going, but often forget the importance of how we get there. In the poem The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost and the short story I Used to Live Here Once by Jean Rhys, there are many similarities and differences that communicate the authors' use of describing a path, which helps them represent life's journeys and self-reflection.

Both Frost and Rhys have captivated readers by utilizing words that provide visual imagery. Although Robert Frost's poems and Jean Rhys's short stories represent different genres, they both discuss issues surrounding life and death. Each literary work takes readers through a journey where they experience different perspectives, which can be seen in the content, form, and style of both works. Before a reader can understand a literary work from any genre, they should learn about the author and his or her background.

Author Backgrounds and Contexts

Robert Frost was a well-known American poet. He was born in 1874. When he was eleven years old, he moved from San Francisco to New England. He returned to the United States in 1915 and proceeded to win the Pulitzer Prize four times. Frost was greatly sought after for his poetic style and use of common language, which made his readings engaging and accessible. He often employed ironic inquiry to give expression to complex ideas and questions that define the human spirit (Clugston, 2010).

Jean Rhys, born Ella Gwendolyn Rees Williams, was born in 1890 in the West Indies to a Creole mother and a Welsh father. She completed part of her education in England, married, and lived in Europe. Rhys was not accepted by her culture while growing up and became aware of the mistreatment of helpless women, which often reflected in her writings (Clugston, 2010). Her experience of displacement and alienation shaped her literary voice and thematic concerns.

Literary Elements and Narrative Structure

In I Used to Live Here Once and The Road Not Taken, both authors utilize literary elements such as character development, symbolism, tone, and chronological perspective. The authors both provide explicit depictions of the journeys their protagonists undertake. They employ literary devices such as tone, imagery, and symbolism to help explain to readers the diverse aspects of their characters' journeys.

Both the poem and the short story feature a protagonist focused on a journey. They both illustrate how the journey each protagonist takes may cause change in their life. Each journey includes various hardships that stand in the character's way. The protagonists are both unaware of what might occur once they arrive at their destination. The satisfaction and expectation of an unpredictable path allows individuals to gain understanding of the positive and negative aspects of the various people they meet while on their journey, which can prove useful in their life. A journey can transform the way we see everything and might even change us fundamentally.

Analysis of 'The Road Not Taken'

Have you ever experienced a journey where you did not know where the path would lead you? In Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken, the protagonist experiences exactly this situation. The poem takes place at the intersection of two roads. Frost states, "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood," which signals an upcoming journey. He also says, "and sorry I could not travel both," expressing his need to make a decision about which path to take. The protagonist must choose between two roads he has never taken before and is unaware of where they will lead. Frost uses the word "I" many times throughout the poem, which allows readers to imagine the speaker alone, isolated in this moment of decision.

In The Road Not Taken, Robert Frost depicts the choices that individuals make and how each choice has consequences in the future. The poem demonstrates how choices made by people today have a long-term effect on who they become tomorrow (Tischler, 2007, 125–130). Written in first-person narrative, the poem shows that when people reach a specific point in life where they must make a vital decision, they might have to adopt or deal with the final outcome. When there are two or more options in life, we can only choose one. Individuals must decide which path to take, and once they have made their choice, they will generally stick to it because it might be complicated and impossible to go back. Thus, people become what they are due to the choices they have made earlier in life (Tischler, 2007, 125–130).

The Road Not Taken also connects to the writer's biographical circumstances. The poem seems to reflect the historical era of World War I and rapid urbanization. Understanding this context helps reveal how Frost's life and time period affected the poem's importance. Themes in the work suggest that Frost does not take a side with individuality but is simply trying to say that life is full of choices that can make a difference (Shurr, 2003, 584–590).

The tone of The Road Not Taken is one of insecurity, which allows the theme to emerge because the theme relates to problems one may have faced in life. It is an ironic tone that is unavoidable. In the lines "I shall be telling this with a sigh / somewhere ages and ages hence," the narrator anticipates his own future regret (Clugston, 2010). The narrator is aware that he could be wrong or false-hearted when he reflects on his life. He predicts that he will deceive himself about the choice he will be making in the future, as if it were predictable. When he realizes this apprehension, it is ironic and poignantly pitiable. When the speaker "sighs," the moment becomes momentous, filled with weight and significance.

Another literary element that Frost utilizes is imagery. He uses imagery to illustrate the two different journeys in life that perhaps may be taken. Imagery is important in depicting the theme because it allows readers to create their own interpretation in their minds, allowing them to relate further to the poem and understand the theme in their own way. In this poem, imagery allows readers to visualize the scene that takes place, resulting in an enhanced understanding of the theme.

Symbolism is another literary element utilized in the poem. Symbolism has literary identity but also stands for something else (Clugston, 2010). It is something broadly understood and developed through common ground, and it is intensified when utilized in unexpected ways, which causes a different meaning than the expected one. Symbolism is utilized in The Road Not Taken and is the most impressively used technique because it appears in various lines of the poem. It is used to indicate certain objects and ideas that are related to everyday life. For instance, the two roads that the character must choose from symbolize two options he has to choose from in life. The roads also symbolize the journey he will set forth on in his life. Based on a theme of journey, the symbolism of the roads shows one's life journey through the eyes of Robert Frost.

In using symbolism, Frost proposed that among the two roads presented to the speaker, he selected the more difficult one—the one that "leaves no step had trodden black" (Clugston, 2010). Not many people would choose a difficult path, but the character in the poem did, suggesting that choosing the less conventional road "made all the difference" in how his life unfolded.

I Used to Live Here Once takes place in the West Indies. A woman has returned to her childhood home and notices that there are some changes, though several things she remembers remain. In the beginning, she stands by a river with three stepping stones. These stones lead her to the road that will take her to a house. Both the road and the environment of the house have changed. The lady notices two white children in front of the house and tries to make contact with them. When she reaches the children, she tries to tell them that she lived in their house before, but the children do not respond and go back inside.

Although I Used to Live Here Once appears to be written in first-person narrative based on its title, it is actually written in third-person narrative. Jean Rhys displays a journey of a woman in search of her childhood memory in a different way (Brown, 2010, 584–589). The author does not explicitly state why the lady has returned to this place, but when reading the story, one can feel the connection the lady has to the place where she has returned. The protagonist is quick to point out what has and has not changed during her journey. Through the consistent use of "she," Rhys creates a sense of singularity and isolation, making readers visualize a picture of loneliness.

Analysis of 'I Used to Live Here Once'

Rhys utilizes the word "she" throughout the story when describing the character. Phrases such as "She was standing by the river" and "She came to the worn stone steps" emphasize the protagonist's solitude. Like in The Road Not Taken, the protagonist is on this journey alone, but the ending of the two journeys vary because of the choices—or fates—the characters face.

The short story I Used to Live Here Once shows an interconnection to the writer's biographical circumstances and chronological background. This context encompasses a mixture of World War I, World War II, and the author's life when she moved to England from Dominica. Rhys was born to a British family but felt a strong bond to Dominica, which she experienced as home. At the time when she resided in the West Indies, she was disowned by the black communities in Dominica. When she later lived in England, Rhys would write about Dominica, incorporating it into much of her work (Yaakov, 2001, 558–563). In this story, she tries to explain that regardless of nationality, one can have a deep connection to a place depending on where one was born and raised.

The lady is trapped between two worlds, which is described by her surroundings, almost seeming surreal and ghostly. When she reaches her childhood home, there is a sense of comfort. It is as if she feels safe in this place. There is also a sense of belonging that is taken away just as she felt it. She tried to find a relationship with her old home by reaching out to the children. When she first tried to address them, neither responded. In another attempt, she almost succeeded, but they ran inside because they felt cold all of a sudden. This is a metaphor that people use when they feel the presence of a ghost or spirit. It is at this point that the main character realized she was not alive.

In the short story, the tone first seems pleasing because she is recalling how things were. In the beginning, she is looking at the scenery and remembers each of the stones in the river. She then talks about how the road is "much wider than it used to be" (Clugston, 2010). When she reaches her destination—the house where she once lived—the tone shifts to sorrow because she feels ignored when she tries to speak to the children. Finally, when the tone changes once again, it becomes a lonely tone. It is at this point in the story that the narrator realizes the children are not ignoring her; they cannot see her because she is only a spirit.

Rhys also utilizes imagery in her story to describe the protagonist's journey and the many challenges it took her to cross over. The stepping stones used in the first paragraph draw a vivid picture for readers. Each step has meaning to the lady from the very first step to the very last. The lady is looking at three stepping stones that she remembers from her childhood:

"There was the round unsteady stone, the pointed one, the flat one in the middle—the safe stone where you could stand and look around" (Clugston, 2010).

The unsteady stone is important because it could have been what caused her to die, which may explain why she has some confusion about why she is there. The pointed stone is the one that leads her to her childhood home, and the safe stone is her childhood home because this is a place where she once felt protected. When describing the stones, Rhys utilizes symbolism. Each stone symbolizes something significant. The unsteady stone represents danger and mortality, the pointed stone represents direction toward home, and the safe stone represents security and belonging.

Another instance where symbolism was used is when the narrator describes the road and how it was wider before, but she notices that it looks old. She also observes that "there were fallen trees that had not been cleared and the brush was overgrown and trampled" (Clugston, 2010). This is symbolism of time. The narrator remembers walking this exact road once before, but it was different from when she last walked down it. The deterioration of the landscape symbolizes the passage of time and the decay of her former life.

When reading The Road Not Taken, readers can conclude that the theme is about a journey, but it can also be about taking chances. In the poem, the journey is whichever road the character takes to get to his destination. It can also be about taking chances because when we have to choose a road that we are not aware of where it may take us, it is considered taking a chance. The character is taking a chance because he does not know what or who he will encounter on either of the roads. Since he is not aware of where they will lead, he must be certain that he chooses the correct path.

In the short story I Used to Live Here Once, there is also a theme of journey, but this journey is different from the one in the poem. The character in this story knows the road she must take and where it will lead her. While on her journey, she does encounter many changes, which is why she seems confused. The part about the journey that confuses her the most is when she tries to speak to the children because they act as if she were not there. The lady in the story does not have to choose a path because it has already been chosen for her. It seems like the character is caught between two worlds, and when reaching her destination, she feels free and satisfied, as if this is what she has wanted for a long time (Brown, 2010, 584–589). Readers might say that her spirit has chosen her final destination—a place where she once felt happy and secure.

Comparative Themes and Symbolism

A key difference between the poem and the short story is that she is deceased and he is alive. In the poem, the character does not converse with anyone. He simply discusses how he has to choose a road and how the road he took was the one that was "less traveled by," and how it "made all the difference" (Clugston, 2010). The character tries to clarify throughout the poem that everything that happens in life depends on the choices we make, whether they are good or bad. The character in The Road Not Taken is imaginative and active, making conscious decisions about his future.

In contrast, Rhys's protagonist is passive in a different sense—she is already dead and returns to her childhood home not out of active choice but out of spiritual necessity or compulsion. While Frost's speaker contemplates choices that will shape his living future, Rhys's lady has already completed her earthly journey and is finding peace in a return to her origins.

Symbolism is utilized in I Used to Live Here Once to show readers the loneliness and self-determination of the main character. In this story, a woman travels without a companion, and even she is not looking for a companion (Yaakov, 2001, 558–563). The lady is on a journey to a place where she was once safe and happy—her old home. The journey itself, marked by the symbolic stepping stones and the deteriorating landscape, represents her passage through time and the impossibility of truly returning to the past, even in death.

Every literary work, whether a poem or a short story, carries meaning to embrace. At times two different works might share a common theme but convey different meanings. The Road Not Taken and I Used to Live Here Once are two literary works that show how a single theme can have diverse meanings. Robert Frost and Jean Rhys both show readers how one simple theme can have diverse dimensions. Both discuss the meaning of journey in their own way, but they have shown how the journey of life can be diverse and difficult.

Conclusion: Diverse Dimensions of Journey

In his poem, Frost depicts two roads that will determine which way an individual will want to spend his or her life. He depicts a practical journey where an individual must actively choose between paths. In contrast, Rhys depicts a journey where an individual should eventually return to the roots from which they came in order to complete themselves spiritually. When comparing both literary works, readers can say that the theme is comparable, but the destinations and purposes are different. Frost's journey emphasizes agency and consequence; Rhys's journey emphasizes return and resolution. Through these two works, both authors reveal that journey—whether literal, metaphorical, or spiritual—remains one of literature's most powerful vehicles for exploring human experience and self-understanding.