Eng 125 Introduction to Literature

On a Journey Alone

ENG 125 Introduction to Literature

Holly Ledcke

May 19, 2013

On a Journey Alone

Life is a journey we all must take series of choices when we are our own path and in our own lives. No matter what type of story or poem we are reading there is always something to be found if you look a little bit deeper within ourselves. We all understand that we are born and then we perish. When we make a journey we must make choices from birth to death. According to Northrop Frye, there are extremities of this quest we call a journey. The writer's is able to bring readers and with the use of rhythm, characterization, or settings, among many other things throughout their writings. It is imagination that allows us, the readers of this story and poems, to be able to fill in the blanks or mentally visualize what the writer wants us to see through use of descriptive words and symbolism. In the poem "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost and in the story "Used To Live Here Once" by Jean Rhys, I recognize a similar theme; it doesn't matter what we are doing in life or where our journey is taking us, everyone has the opportunity to choose their own destiny and how their journey ends.

The theme in each of these works is much the same, but it is presented in different ways. In "The Road Not Taken, Robert Frost used "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood" which told me that he was on a journey, he also used "and sorry I could not travel both" as a way to tell the reader that he had to make the decision of which path to take. The author did not speak of anyone traveling with the subject, which lead me to the conclusion that he was traveling alone. In "I Used To Live Here Once" by Jean Rhys, this woman in the story was on a journey alone. The author in this story explains of a woman who is alone and reflecting on her life. In each of the literary writhing being discussed in this paper, is the loneliness throughout the journey which is clear. However, the ending the journey may vary because of the choices the characters make.

The first piece that I read that really got my eye was "I Used to Live Here Once" by Jean Rhys it revealed a journey of a woman who came back to her home but the reason was not stated why she came back to her home. While traveling on this journey to her home she witnesses a lot of changes in the environment which were not there and that she really did not know that things had changed, seeing different people living there, even was being ignored by the children that were under the big mango tree that took her place. It is like the woman knew her destination and knew the path that would take her and yet she encounters many different things in her journey. It's almost like she already knew her journey very well and yet she reached her destination and is confused the way the two children treat her.

The setting "the road was much wider that it used to be but the work had been done carelessly the felled trees had been cleared away and the bushes looked trampled (Clugston, 2010) was one of the sadness that I could have visualized in my life a woman "standing by the river" and "remembering each one". It gave me an idea that she had been there long before and forgotten the beauty of the river and the scenery. The story starts explaining how the stepping stone by the river was slippery and was unsafe. She also describes her surroundings as a "blue sky" and the sky looked "glassy sky" (Rhys, 1976). I got the feeling that the woman is mostly likely to be dead and suggest that she had drowned in the river near to her own home where she grew up. It also gave me a sense that the day "was a fine blue day". The color blue was telling me has the reader that is a peaceful day. The sad beginnings grew more intriguing to me as the setting moved to her old home. Rhys wrote on to tell us that the character noticed the pine tree was missing from outside of her own home, as the journey led her to her old doorsteps. When she noticed that "the screw pine was gone". I felt a lot of sadness and pity for the woman. Her old house had been painted white, which told me that the symbolism was of immortality and provided the feeling of life and purity. The writer chose to write in third person perspective which was hard to understand for me to actually identify with the character personally. Rhys wrote "it was strange to see a car standing in front of it". This perspective of this car "Standing" in front of her old house was really strange to me since it was not an actual feeling of the character but an observation by the writer. The idea in fact that the writer was this close to the character made me think that she was speaking of herself in a third person. Elizabeth Abel wrote a piece on Jean Rhys saying that Rhys' writings typically subject us to "sparse and repetitive narratives" and "are variations of the themes of failure and rejection (Abel, 1979). When she finally reaches her home there are two children playing. So when she tries to talk to them they ignore her and then woman addresses the children a few times more but they still don't respond at all. This is a reason we can say that the main character to the story is dead. The third time the woman says something to them she almost reaches out to the children then the boy turns to the woman and the boys eyes look straight into hers and the boy eyes where gray and his expression didn't change. Then the boy told the little girl "Let's go in" has the woman watch them running across the grass to the house this when I notice that she was indeed a ghost looking at her old life. When I was linking these colors to symbolism, it gave me a much deeper perspective on what Rhys was trying to tell me has the reader. The lonely journey that this character was on reflective of a long lonely journey she had lived when she was alive. This confirms to me the decisions we make in our own life are what determines the ending of our journey.

The second piece I read was the "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost. It relates to the dilemmatic situation of decision making in human life. Robert Frost poem is about how choices affect one person difficult decisions based upon their free will. This free will could lead to one's life into success or failure. This creates much tension in the future life because false decisions lead into failure, which cannot be changed.

When people have to make the choice in their lives, they try to evaluate everything from the practical standpoint. They