Need an argumentative essay on Personal Choice: A Comparative Analysis. Needs to be 4 pages. Please no plagiarism.
This essay compares and contrasts the theme of personal choice through this spectrum of investigation and situates the comparison within two short literary works, Robert Frost’s The Road Not Taken and Alice Walker’s Everyday Use. The Road Not Taken Robert Frost’s The Road Not Taken explores the concept of individual choice through the poetic medium. At the start of the poem, Frost begins this exploration through his comparison of the individual’s decision to, “Two roads diverg(ing) in a yellow wood.” It’s been noted that Frost’s implementation of the term ‘roads’ in this context is significant as rather than utilizing a more cliched word choice this term gives the work an eternal quality that greatly contributes to the poignancy of the individual’s choice (Untermeyer). The poem continues, “I stood/ And looked down one as far as I could/ To where it bent in the undergrowth.” In these regards, the poem’s implementation of the phrase ‘bent in the undergrowth’ symbolizes the nature of individual choice as representative of challenges and obstacles that are placed in front of one’s life journey and decision making process. This narrative concern differentiates the poem from Walker’s ‘Everyday Use’ in that the latter is more focused on the consequences of the choice. The third stanza continues, “Yet knowing how way leads on to way/ I doubted if I should ever come back.” This metaphor represents the nature of choice in that once the decision is made it is finalized and difficult to undue. In ‘Everyday Use’ there is a powerful similarity and illustrations of this finality, as two sisters make different choices that ultimately separate them along lines of cultural sensibility. One of the primary differences between Frost’s exploration of personal choice and that implemented in ‘Everyday Use’ is the means with which it is articulated. In these regards, Frost makes great use of naturalistic imagery and symbolism to convey this thematic concern. As the poem continues, Frost explores the moment of decision making and personal choice. In these regards, the speaker refers to the instant when he decides to choose the path less traveled, “Then took the other, as just as fair/ And having perhaps the better claim/ Because it was grassy and wanted wear.” Here Frost is indicating that while both choices or paths presented potential benefits “just as fair”, the path that was taken was done out of personal belief in it being the proper way to live one’s life. In these regards, Frost’s work differs from ‘Everyday Use’ in that while both explore the question of personal choice, in the ‘Road Not Taken’ the agency of the speaker is presented as the main moral tone of the work. conversely, in ‘Everyday Use’ the work uses the protagonist to illustrate this theme, rather than demonstrating their conscious recognition of it. Everyday Use In Every Day Use by Alive Walker one sees the similar theme of personal choice as The Road Not Taken, however in a more developed form. In this story, personal choice is situated between two conflicting views of a family and a daughter that has experienced life outside the realm of their existence. While Maggie and her mother demonstrate the traditional road of understanding, Dee has followed a thoroughly modern and ‘educated’ path. Dee’s understanding of personal freedom is conflicted. While she has an appreciation of the influence of her ancestors she is clearly embarrassed of the way her mother and sister choose to live
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