A Literary Comparison of Frosts The Road Not Taken and...

A Literary Comparison A Literary Comparison The two pieces of literature that the paper will focus upon are the poem by Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken, and the short story, perhaps in the 21st century would be designated as flash fiction, I Used to Live Here Once by Jean Rhys. There are clearly some structural differences in the formatting of the respective pieces, yet both forms allow for storytelling and poetic language and/or imagery. The Frost poem is heavily concerned with choices and paths with respect to change for the future while the Rhys short story illustrates how roads to the past often reveal changes for which we are unprepared. The Road Not Taken is one of the number of Frosts poems that has endures through the years. Frost is well known for his reflective and philosophical nature within his poems. The Road Not Taken is both about actual roads as well as paths in life. The first person narrator of the poem describes his decision-making process as he takes a walk or hike in the outdoors. The narrator literally comes to a point in his journey where the road he walks splits; his most important choice for his current journey, as well as the entire journey that is his life comes to a crucial juncture. The poem and the author intend for the reader to engage with the experience of making choices in life. Readers may consider that the everyday choices made in life have literal, direct, and immediate results, yet each of the small choices additionally