Choices In Life Essay

Submitted By Kathie02
Words: 756
Pages: 4
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Kathleen Fitzpatrick
Jean Bowen
English 1102
October 30, 2012

Every individual in society is forced to make choices. In Robert Frost’s poem, “The Road Not Taken,” a traveler is faced with the choice of choosing two roads. However, Frost explores the deeper meaning of choosing one road over the other. In people’s lives they must make momentous decisions. The outcomes of those decisions may be propitious or regrettable. Through his poem, Frost illustrates that life is affected by fate, free will and life choices. Fate dictates the path through this poem. Frost distinguishes between fate’s control over one’s life and the lack of influence one truly has on his own decisions. Everyone has to make choices each and every moment of their life, but the road is ultimately chosen. How does one know which path to take through life? And how will they make the right decisions? These are the questions faced by the traveler as he encounters the fork in the road and has to choose which road to take, “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood” (Frost 677). Life is like the woods because no one can clearly see or predict what will happen in the future, only hope to choose a path that will lead to good fortune and happiness. In life every individual has the ability to act on his or her own judgment. However, as one journey’s through life external forces do in fact, very clearly, determine the many things that happen all around us to which one will have little or no control of. For example, one cannot choose their parents or can one choose when or where they will be born. In “On The Road,” John Savoie quotes that the

verse, “I took the one less traveled by,” indicates that the traveler took his predetermined path. The path that one chooses will make them the person that they are today and will be tomorrow. Through out the poem, Frost symbolizes for us the identical forks as a connection between free will and fate. Everyone is free to choose, but one doesn’t really know beforehand what he or she is choosing between. Life is determined by an accumulation of choice and chance, and it is impossible to separate the two. The benefit of free will is the freedom to choose. However, everything that happens in life has a cause and effect. Effect strictly follows cause every time. Life consists of choices and life itself is a choice. There will always be decisions that will need to be made, and various options could take you to absolutely different destinations. Each choice one makes, no matter how insignificant it may seem at the moment, will affect ones entire life. In “The Road Not Taken,” Magill’s Survey Of American Literature Author Robert P. Ellis quotes that the traveler says “that he will be telling this with a sigh,” which may imply regret. His choice, in any event “has made all the
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