Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
The road not taken(introduction
Underlying tensions among characters in Raisin in the Sun
Elements of drama from a raisin in the sun
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: The road not taken(introduction
The poem “The Road not Taken” by Robert Frost and the play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry both portray stories of the reality of dreams. Robert Frost tackles the obstacles of having to choose which path to take when there becomes a fork in the road. Not all forks in the road will give you the same two options; some will be obvious, some will be difficult, and some will leave you very uncertain that these two options are even logical for you to choose from. In the play A Raisin in the Sun, the audience is introduced to the Younger family. The Youngers are going to receive a 10,000 dollar insurance check for the death of Mr. Younger. “So it is no wonder that after the death of her husband, Lena sees buying a house as the first, best use of the insurance proceeds. When she goes out and does it, on her own, without consulting even her elder child, Walter Lee, family members are shocked.” (Gates, Anita. "Race, Family and Pride in a Revived ‘Raisin’"). Each of the adult characters in the play has a dream of what they would like to do with the money to make the family's life better. They have the option to spend the money frivolously or take time to contemplate what would work best in the end. Focusing on a Walter Lee Younger and the main character of “The Road not Taken” I will examine the choices and actions of both characters and how it affected each story. Walter is the protagonist of the play and at times very difficult for other characters to get along with. The main character in “The Road not Taken” is a loner and the only character, so the decisions that he makes will only affect him unlike Walter whose choices affect his whole family. These decisions leave Walter with controversial feelings of anger, happiness...
... middle of paper ...
...d up to make the best decisions for his family. “He finally come into his manhood today, didn’t he? Kind of like a rainbow after the rain” (Mama act 3).
Works Cited
Gates, Anita. "Race, Family and Pride in a Revived ‘Raisin’." The New York Times. The New York Times, 20 Oct. 2012. Web. 4 May 2014. .
Frost, Robert. "Robert Frost – The Road Not Taken." Poetry Genius. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 May 2014. .
Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the sun. Dir. Lorraine Hansberry. Monterey Video, 19882000. Film.
"Raisin in the Sun, a (1959)." The Cambridge Guide to Women's Writing in English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Credo Reference. Web. 12 May 2014.
In Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, and The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost, Shares the same message behind the concepts of Choices, Dreams and Tragedy. First, both literature shares the same theme known as Choices. The poem by Robert Frost, Narrator said “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I- I took the one less traveled by,” As the reader can see this poem centers with the choices. The path in this poem can seen as just ordinary road, however Frost actually represents these roads as the life choices. And he decided to take the one less traveled by. Same goes for Christopher McCandless. He didn’t choose the ordinary road just like other else. And rather, he chose the less traveled path to “experiences, the memories, the great triumphant joy of living to the fullest extent in which real meaning is found.” (page 37) Second, both written works
Hansberry, Lorraine. A Raisin in the Sun. Literature and the Writing Process. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1996.
A Raisin in the Sun is about the Younger family, they are facing its own war against racism in Chicago. America’s complicated history of racial tension between black Americans and white Americans is ingrained into the Youngers’ everyday lives. Mother (and grandmother) Lena Younger, her daughter Beneatha, and her son Walter, Walter’s wife Ruth and their son Travis, squeeze into a small two-bedroom apartment.
Hansberry, Lorraine. A Raisin in the Sun. Literature and the Writing Process. Elizabeth McMahan, Susan X. Day, and Robert Funk. 6th ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice, 2002.
In America, every citizen is guaranteed life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Although each person is given these rights, it is how each person uses them that defines how successful they will be in America. There are several obstacles that some Americans face on their pursuit of happiness. In this country’s past, Americans lived by a very specific set of beliefs that valued the importance of hard work, faith, and family. As time progressed and America began to evolve as a nation, this capitalistic society no longer devoted itself to family and faith but rather success, and the pursuit of prosperity. The shift from dependence on tradition towards a society that values success and how people struggle to b successful when society makes it difficult marks a common theme in Lorraine Hansberry’s play, A Raisin in the Sun. Two of the main characters in this story Lena Younger (Mama) and her son Walter Lee directly reflect the shift from tradition to a focus on success and capital and the struggles they face in regards to racism. Mama and Walter Lee’s contrasting values about the American dream and the way in which they pursue their own dreams while facing racism exemplifies the shift from valuing tradition like in previous generations in America, to valuing success and prosperity like in more current generations.
Hansberry, Lorraine. A Raisin in the Sun. Literature and the Writing Process. Elizabeth McMahan, Susan X. Day, and Robert Funk. 6th ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice, 2002. 987-1042.
Decisions are made every day, and greater the number of choices, the harder it becomes to evaluate the opportunity cost of a particular option, especially when the outcomes are unknown. Everyone experience a dilemma at some point in life, maybe, critical enough to alter their fates; some regret while others rejoice. Such is the case for the narrator, of “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost, who is required to choose his fate. There is deep regret because he “could not travel both” only to settle for the “one less traveled by” (19). Blanche Farley, however, tries to cheat out of regret through her lead character of “The Lover Not Taken;” a companion poem of “The Road Not Taken,” only with a parodistic spin. Although the poems share common features of structure, style and a common theme, there is a distinct difference in the imagery and perspectives in the respective poems.
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.
In Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken”, Frost shows the everyday human struggle to make a choice that could change the course of one’s life. In his poem, a person has the choice to take one road or the other. One road is worn out from many people taking it, and the other is barely touched, for fewer have taken that road. Throughout the poem, the speaker learns that just because so many other people have done one thing, or walked one way, does not mean everyone has to. Sometimes you just have to go your own way.
Frost, Robert. “The Road Not Taken”. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 7Th Ed. Nina
Wood, Kerry M. "Poetry Analysis: The Road Not Taken, by Robert Frost - by Kerry Michael Wood - Helium." Helium - Where Knowledge Rules. 22 May 2008. Web. 03 May 2011. .
Perhaps one of the most well-known poems in modern America is a work by Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken. This poem consists of four stanzas that depict the story of the narrator traveling through the woods early in the morning and coming upon a fork in the path, where he milled about for a while before deciding upon one of the two paths, wishing he could take both, but knowing otherwise, seeing himself telling of this experience in the future.
Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” provide us contrasting and sometimes similar glimpses of life. “The Road Not Taken” is about taking control and living life. “Stopping by Woods on Snowy Evening” entails the desire for rest, perhaps due to the speaker’s feelings of weariness from facing life’s struggles. The poet also explains the tough choices people stand before when traveling the road of life. Sometimes people regret the possibilities of the road not chosen, sometimes people feel proud about the road they have chosen.
In the poem “The Road Not Taken”, author Robert Frost uses the simple image of a road to represent a person’s journey through life. A well-established poet, Frost does a proficient job of transforming a seemingly common road to one of great importance, which along the way helps one identify who they really are. This poem is one of self-discovery. Frost incorporates strong elements of poetry such as theme, symbolism, rhyme scheme, diction, imagery, and tone to help create one of his most well known pieces about the human experience.