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Critical apprection of the road not taken
Poetry analysis using language
Critical apprection of the road not taken
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Individualism in Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken," Zalman King's "In God's Hands" and James Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues"
Every society has certain values and generally accepted ways of living that are considered normal. These principles are what keep societies organized and orderly. Conforming to these principles, however, is not necessarily the road to happiness for every individual. The main character, Shane, in In God’s Hands, Sonny, in Sonny’s Blues, and the speaker in The Road Not Taken, all choose not to live by what is considered normal, or popular, and are able to find happiness by living as individuals.
Robert Frost’s The Road Not Taken is a poem about the choices every person must make in their life. The first line of this poem, “Two Roads diverged in a yellow wood”, though only seven words long, can be interpreted to mean several things. First, the color of the trees being yellow, meaning that it is fall, represents a time of change. Second, the “two roads diverged” signify a choice which must be made. In this first line Frost has metaphorically depicted a person who must make a decision that will greatly change his life. The second stanza describes the road that is chosen as grassy and wanting wear. The second to last line of the poem also says that the speaker took the “road less traveled by”. These two lines can be interpreted to mean that the choice that was made was not the popular choice. The speaker in the poem has made his decision based on individual preference, rather than what others would consider normal.
The character of Sonny, in Sonny’s Blues, lives a life that would not be considered normal in any society. He is a heroin addict who has spent time in prison, and centers his life on pla...
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...ing “get on the tour and make some money while you still can.” Shane is not driven by money and success, like his friends, and thrives only on his love of surfing. At the end of the story Mickey is killed trying to surf a wave that is to big to be surfed, and Keoni gives up on traveling and returns home to his parents. Shane, however, continues his travels, and in the end is able to find what he is looking for. He fins his ultimate wave, and surfs it with no one else around, proving to himself that he is the best surfer in the world.
Though these three works differ in many ways, they all share a common theme about individuality. The idea that happiness can be found without conforming to popular opinions is expressed in each of these literary pieces. The speaker in The Road Not Taken, Sonny, and Shane all achieve personal success by living life in their own way.
Sonny has had to deal with many troubles in life, and he turns to drugs for release, but this is just another one of his problems. Sonny is not very old when his
Sonny’s Blues written by James Baldwin appears to suggest that family and faith are important aspects in someone’s life and that each person has a different way of dealing with their own demons. The author writes with an expressive purpose and narrative pattern to convey his message and by analyzing the main characters, the point of view of the narration, the conflict in the story and the literary devices Baldwin utilizes throughout his tale, his central idea can be better understood.
We are all part of a society where justice and respect must be followed if we want to have a nice image of ourselves and be accepted by others. In the short story, Sonny’s Blues by James Baldwin, two brothers are struggling to accept each other. Until the brother listened to Sonny and accepted what he wanted to do in life and who he was as an individual, the brother was in the darkness with his brother and himself. Through flashbacks and the characters, we were able to see how their life was before their mother and father died and what actually forced Sonny to take drugs. This story showed that without acceptance, people have difficulties to continue their life in happiness, so they stay in the darkness until they accept themselves and the people surrounding them.
The theme of "Sonny's Blues" by James Baldwin focuses on whether a person should be conventional in making decisions for their life, or if they should follow their heart and do what is right for them. A person begins with strengths, many of which they lose along the way. At some point along their heroic journey a person may regain their strengths and develop new ones. Each phase of this journey will have an effect on them and others around them.
In James Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues" the symbolic motif of light and darkness illustrates the painful nature of reality the two characters face as well as the power gained through it. The darkness represents the actuality of life on the streets of the community of Harlem, where there is little escape from the reality of drugs and crime. The persistent nature of the streets lures adolescents to use drugs as a means of escaping the darkness of their lives. The main character, Sonny, a struggling jazz musician, finds himself addicted to heroin as a way of unleashing the creativity and artistic ability that lies within him. While using music as a way of creating a sort of structure in his life, Sonny attempts to step into the light, a life without drugs. The contrasting images of light and darkness, which serve as truth and reality, are used to depict the struggle between Sonny and the narrator in James Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues."
In "Sonny's Blues" James Baldwin presents an intergenerational portrait of suffering and survival within the sphere of black community and family. The family dynamic in this story strongly impacts how characters respond to their own pain and that of their family members. Examining the central characters, Mama, the older brother, and Sonny, reveals that each assumes or acknowledges another's burden and pain in order to accept his or her own situation within an oppressive society. Through this sharing each character is able to achieve a more profound understanding of his own suffering and attain a sharper, if more precarious, notion of survival.
James Baldwin’s short story “Sonny’s Blues” illustrates the inner struggle of breaking the hold of lifestyles unfamiliar to those normally accepted by society. Through the use of common fictitious tools such as plot, characters, conflict, and symbolic irony, Baldwin is able to explore the complex difficulties that challenge one in the acceptance of differences in one another. This essay will attempt to understand these thematic concepts through the use of such devises essential in fiction, as well as to come to an understanding of how the particular elements of fiction assist the author in exploring the conflict.
All three of these symbolical details are woven together in "Sonny's Blues" to create a non-literal meaning directly beneath the words. The end result is an enriched message about urban struggles for expression, happiness, and chemical independance. Ultimately, Sonny's revival concludes the readers' literary tour of world in which he lives. What is begun with a presentation of hardships is finally concluded with Sonny's triumph, a chance at a better future.
As much as the two brothers struggle to leave, they both end up back when they were born. However, towards the end of the story, Baldwin teases the idea of free will. Had there been no such thing as free will, one would never had to suffer. Suffering arises because of a differences between what one wants and what one has, and so in a way shows that free will exists because one can achieve something. Suffering follows the principle that what is meaningful is not easy. The ease to turn to drugs to escape is a tempting options in this environment. So easy is this option, to an outsider it might appear that no other option is present. “But there’s no way not suffer” the narrators says (54). While the environment might push these people into a downward spiral with their finding ways to avoid this suffering, the ones who accept this reality that suffering cannot be escaped but can be overcome show that humans do have a choice. The music that Sonny plays reflects this attitude. “The tale of how we suffer…and how we may triumph is never new, it always must be heard” (58). Sonny serves as such an example of someone how was able to overcome the framework and choose a life to live.
First, the exposition of this story starts with the narrator who discovers Sonny in the newspaper for using and selling heroin. As he reads the paper on the subway he couldn’t believe what he had read. This made him reminisce the days that
Life comes with many struggles and gives strength to those who face them. James Baldwin’s short story “Sonny’s Blues” is about the struggles and hardships that every day people face. This story is about an aspiring musician, Sonny, Baldwin’s main character, whose life is portrayed through the eyes of his older brother. Because of Sonny’s lifestyle, his brother has lost touch with him for many years, but after a terrible tragedy the narrator reaches out to Sonny and tries to mend their relationship. Sonny is a recovering drug addict and as the story goes on, it seems as if Sonny has changed, but in reality he did not change, his brother just comes to realization that he cannot change him, but only accept and respect the man that he is and the man that he’s striving to be. Baldwin gives much depth to the storyline and also his characters.
Frost, Robert. “The Road Not Taken.” Literature and the Writing Process. Ed. Elizabeth McMahan et al. 8th ed. Upper Saddle River: Pearson, 2007. 695-696. Print.
In “The Road Not Taken” Frost emphasizes that every person is a traveler choosing the roads to follow on the map of their continuous journey-life. There is never a straight path that leads a person one sole direction in which to head. Regardless of the original message that Robert Frost had intended to convey, “The Road Not Taken” has left me with many different interpretations. Throughout this poem, it is obvious that decisions are not easy to make and each decision will lead you down a different path.
Life itself is built upon layers of decisions, substantial or miniscule, that become intertwined in an attempt to define who we are. I believe that the choices we make will ultimately work to construct our future, whether it is the way in which I perceive the world around me, or what I choose to believe. In “The Road Not Taken,” Robert Frost manages to further illustrate these points in order to convey deeper meaning within the text.
Above all, 'The Road Not Taken'; can truly be interpreted through much symbolism as a clear-sighted representation of two fair choices. The two roads in the poem, although, 'diverging,'; lead in different directions. At the beginning they appear to be somewhat similar, but is apparent that miles away they will grow farther and farther away from each other. Similar to many choices faced in life. It is impossible to foresee the consequences of most major decisions we make and it is often necessary to make these decisions based on a little more than examining which choice 'wanted wear.'; In