Choices in Robert Frost´s "The Road not Taken" and "Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening"

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In the two poems “The Road Not Taken” and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost the poems draw the considering of making choices in life. In both poems the speaker is in a serious position where he has to choose between two paths. “The Road Not Taken” the speaker has two paths in front of him and he has to choose one. While in “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” the speaker is looking for a life with no struggles wishing he can just stay isolated, but at the end he has to go back to his responsibilities. Our daily basis lives requires decision making and many of us may find themselves torn between two choices. In the two poems the speakers were also torn between two paths, but what made them so uncertain is their hesitation. The speakers in “the Road Not Taken” and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” had similar uncertainty in carrying on with their trip. The speaker in the “Road Not Taken” stood in front of the two “diverged” roads without knowing which path to travel. He stands there thinking wasting time, the reader is able to recognize the speaker’s hesitation in making choices. He claims that the roads are equally similar and that they both “equally lay in leaves”, the author reveals that the two choices are not different but needs to be taken. The speaker says that he “kept the first for another day!”, yet he knows he can’t come back. This is another prove that he is hesitant with his choice and is still thinking about the other choice. He doesn’t seem like he has a goal to where he is heading. He made a choice, and will always wonder were the other choice would have led. Similarly, the speaker in “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” is also hesitant between doing what he wants and what he needs t... ... middle of paper ... ...to keep the promises we have made, and go back to our loved ones. The known has always been easy but the unknown future is what scares many of us the most. While the author paints the picture of choice making in this two poems, he also draws two different events. “The Road Not Taken” the speaker doesn’t know were his choice will lead him. It seems like the speaker doesn’t have a goal. When we fall between choices without an ultimate goal, all the choices just seem similar. The Road Not Taken... is not really about choices. It's about the idea of choices, which none of us actually have. Each road, he said, is essentially the same road. So we choose one, and we can never go back to the other road. It isn't about choosing the road not taken... it's not about being original. It's just about life, and how choices are slowly fade away into the lives we all lead.

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