The Issues of Major Life Choice: Frost and Adrienne - Term Paper Example

The Issues of Major Life Choice: Frost and Adrienne Introduction Both of “Barn Burning” and Robert Frost’s “The Road not Taken” serve as allegories of every person’s choices that hold them responsible for their own actions. These two texts explore the role of personal choice in determining the consequence that one has to face in the long run; but certainly there prevail significant differences between the ways how they uphold choices as to making life meaningful and how choices of human life often become abjured by the choking grip of stern reality and circumstances. If, for Faulkner, choices in human life are subdued by one’s overwhelming hatred and inferiority complexes, for Robert Frost, choices are the greatest means to make life meaningful and the sole inspiration to lead life to a better end. But both Faulkner and Frost have spoken of choice as a chance to shape their future and to decide how they want to be responsible for their actions. Unalterable Consequences of Choice Frost necessarily puts stresses on the fact that once a choice is made, it turns into one’s destiny. But it is necessary to make one’s choice rather than suffering in hesitation that Sarty suffers from in “Barn Burning”. Eventually it appears that both Faulkner’s and Frost’s concepts of choice are complementary to each. This complementary role of both of Faulkner’s and Frost’s “choice” is evident in the fact that the indecision in taking any decision or making any choice that Faulkner’s protagonist, Sarty, suffers has been outlawed by the speaker’s calculative approach to making choice in Frost’s “The Road not Taken”. As Grimes says in an article, Frost claims that he wrote this poem about his friend Edward Thomas, with whom he had walked many times in the woods near London. Frost has said that while walking, they would come to different paths and choosing one….might have missed by not taking the other path. (Grimes) Frost’s approach to the determination of choice in life is individualistic. It is the individual that will decide whether the path of life he or she chooses is right for her. As the speaker (the poet) in the poem “The Road not Taken” says, “TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood, / And sorry I could not travel both” (Frost, “The Road Not Taken”), life, may offer an individual multiple options out of which he or she has to choose one. It is totally up to the individual whether the option is good for him or her, or not. In the long run, what consequences one’s choice may bring is vividly evident in Abner Snopes’ character. Abner Snopes deliberately chooses to be malicious to the rich class of his society. Also he and his family have had to suffer the consequences of his actions. But it is not that he is oblivious to the consequences of his actions. The consequences of Abner’s action mean for him less than what it appears to be in reality. Choosing the Right Path not to be Repentant in the Long Run Both Faulkner and Frost have developed the theme that one must have a choice in one’s life and one should be calculative enough to make such choice effective and harmonious to one’s goal, since a person himself or herself will be responsible for his or her choice as well actions. The question whether Abner is really an evil may engender a lot of controversies, because though Abner deliberately chooses to be an evil, his existential being is quenched by his actions (Volpe 78); but the most stunning divulgation of the story is at its end. At the end of the story, Abner possibly faces death (Sarty hears the gunshot) as the consequence of his action. But it is not evident whether Abner repents for his actions or not, though Faulkner has upheld the message that one must discern the right from the wrong while making the choices of life so that one should not be repentant in the long run (Volpe 81). In contrast to Abner’s individual choice, Sarty’s choice appears to be in a developing stage throughout the whole story until the readers go through the finishing two or three paragraphs. Finally Sarty chooses to follow the path of right and as a result he was restored in mental peace. For Frost, simply choosing a righteous way of life on one’s own and adherence to it upgrades the respect of a man. But one should take time and be cautious enough to look down as far as he or she can and choose the path “as just as fair” (Frost, “The Road Not Taken”). As every turn of life one has to face with the options of many ways, one choice necessarily leads to another decision. For Frost, the ways of life expose itself as precarious because they “equally lay / In leaves no step had trodden black” (Frost, “The Road Not Taken”). One should not take his or her decision lightly. So he “looked down as far as [he] could to where it bent in the undergrowth” in order to estimate how it would affect his future. But at this point choice appears to be as meaningless as choice could be others. (Montiero 34) Decisions are made as they are to be made. It is remarkable that even if the speaker of the poem is cautious enough to make his choice, he “took the one less traveled by” (Frost, “The Road Not Taken”). Eventually he told that he would “be telling this with a sigh” (Frost, “The Road Not Taken”). Personal Choice: the Consequences of One’s Action For both Frost and Faulkner, choosing the right path of life through proper calculation is imperative for a person. But none of these two authors speak of the definition of right. Rather they assume that since a person will be held responsible for his or her own action, he or she must be aware of what consequences their actions might cause. In the “Barn Burning” is not evident whether Abner is aware of the consequences of his actions or not; rather he seems to be reckless and be driven by his pyromania, anger and hatred for the landlord class. He does not care about the aftermaths of his actions that he and his family suffer. Yet it is not that he does not have any fatherly feelings for his son and daughters. Abner’s characteristic fault is that unlike the speaker in “The Road Not Taken” his choice of being malicious against the landlord class of the society is not calculative. Moreover while Abner suffers the consequences of his hostile choice, both Sarty and Frost’s attempt to look “down one as far as [one] could / To where it bent in the undergrowth” (Frost, “The Road Not Taken”). Indeed the story “Barn Burning” presents two pictures that are simultaneously each other’s foils representing two different aspects of personal choice. While Abner suffers the consequence of his choice, Sarty suffers the conflict between his loyalties to his father and to law. He fails to perform what the speaker of Frost’s “The Road not Taken” does to estimate his precarious future. Consequently he suffers and continuously being “jeered by the minor demons” (Faulkner, “Barn Burning”). Abner is accused of burning the barn of his neighbor and banished out of the town. It is remarkable he is able to evade the severe punishment because of the lack of sound proof. But he is forced to leave the town. It engenders the pyromania in him. He defies laws and rules of the land. Again inferiority complex is evident in Abner (Pierce 87). He attempts to assert his superiority over the aristocrat class of his society by taking his revenge on his current landlord and aristocrat, Major de Spain. Young Sarty can choose to be loyal to his father or decide to say what he thinks is right. The son is already aware of the crime that his father commits by burning Barns but his father constantly reminds him of the family and what it means to be part of the family. He reminds Sarty, “You got to learn to stick to your own blood or you ain’t going to have any blood to stick to you.” (Faulkner, “Barn Burning”) The father tries to convince his son how important it is to support your family whether they are on the right or wrong. At the end of the story we find that Sarty is misplaced with no place to go and no one to turn to. Snopes is accused of burning Mr. Harriss’ barns and the case takes place at the makeshift court. Snopes is found guilty since there is no enough evidence. (Pierce 139) The story barns burning, Sarty is very aware of his father’s evils of burning burns but doesn’t want to admit it in court. He loves his father and hopes that he will change his behaviors. (Faulkner 76) Snopes son is already aware that the people in the court are both his and his father’s enemies. He makes up his mind to be loyal to blood relation instead of justice. Gradually his choice to be loyalty to his father changes into loyalty to law and justice (Pierce 49-53). Conclusion In the story “Barn Burning”, while Abner Snopes’ individual choice evolves from his resentment, against the landowner class of the society, which is induced by his inferiority complex, Sarty internally suffers from the conflict between his loyalty to blood-relation and his morality (Johnston 435). Whatever the conclusions -Sarty and Frost’s speaker come to- are, both of them undergo the choice-making process, that is, the struggle to discern the right from the wrong and act on the discernment. In both of the texts, choice has been upheld as a decision that is essential in one’s life and to make the right choice is always difficult since it is convoluted with multiple options, the selection of which is solely the responsibility of one. Works Cited Faulkner, William. "Barn Burning", Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing. Eds. Edgar V. Roberts and Henry E. Jacobs. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1992. 178-89 Frost, Robert. “The Road Not Taken”. The Road Not Taken and Other Early Poems. New York: Penguin Publishing, 1998. Grimes, L. Sue. “Analysis of 'The Road Not Taken”. Robert Frost's Tricky Poem. Nov 13, 2006. March 02, 2009. From Johnston, Kenneth G. "Time of Decline: Pickett's Charge and the Broken Clock in Faulkner's Barn Burning'." Studies in Short Fiction (1974): 434-6. Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism 11. Eds. Laurie Lawson Harris and Sheila Fitzgerald. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1988. 199. Montiero, George. Robert Frost and the New England Renaissance. Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky, 1988. Pierce, Constance. "Barn Burning", Critical Survey of Short Fiction. Ed. May, Charles E. Pasadena: Salem Press, Inc., 2001. 861-2 Volpe, Edmund L. "Barn Burning: A Definition of Evil." Faulkner, The Unwrapped Imagination: A Collection of Critical Essays (1988): 75-81. Rpt. in Short Story Criticism. Eds. Laurie Lawson Harris and Sheila Fitzgerald, Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1988. 163-4 Read More