There is only one path in life. Forward. So why do people live in a way that does not reflect this? Antonio Machado is not an English poet. He is Spanish and writes almost exclusively in his native language of Spanish. Every poem he writes is translated into many, slightly altered versions across the English speaking world, and then across the entire world in more languages. The majority of published poems are translated to reach a larger audience, but poems not written in English are particularly targeted for translations. This becomes an issue when the original poem has an incredible use of imagery or of rhythm and is watered down to make it easier for an English reader to understand. Entire words might be added or taken from the original to make it easier. In Antonio Machado’s, “Caminante No Hay Camino”, the imagery is used to tell the reader to live their own life, but is watered down from the translations from the original Spanish to English. In Machado’s “Caminante No Hay Camino” he uses the meaning “road” to mean something akin to the path of life. Like Machado, many authors use “road” to symbolize the path of life or something to do with life. It is very easy to picture. Close to everyone has seen at least one road or path in their life. They believe, like as one does in a road trip, there is a set destination with sporadic stops along the way. Most road trips are strictly planned out, but many stops can randomly happen at anytime. Also like a road, one cannot go
“The Road Not Taken” is a poem about how it is important to make a choice in life. In the beginning of the poem, the man is hating that he had to be stuck with the road he chose instead of being able to take both paths. The man tried to look farther down the paths that he could’ve chosen to go down, but the man was only able to see to the point that the road curved and was no longer visible. Stanza # 2, the man indicated that he took the road he felt looked better and could’ve been better because
Just as Conrad conveys the creation of one’s own path subconsciously in Marlow, the poem “Road not taken” by Robert Frost explores this idea, represented my literal paths and an alternate, unspoken third path. The metaphor of the physical journey shows the moral growth in the protagonist. The poem is written in first person, giving it a very personal and reflective tone, expressing a pivotal moment in the persona’s life. The use of andante, the flowing rhythm establishes a conversational tone. The rhyme scheme is simple and effective throughout the poem, however, it changes in the final stanza. By implementing a new scheme here, the final thought of reflection is emphasized. The "less traveled" road is symbolic of the gamble of choosing a more individual path in life, the protagonist’s own road. This can be compared to the quote by Antonio Machado, “Travelers, there is no path, paths are made by walking.” This quote exemplifies the fact that walking the path is more important than
The setting takes place in an apocalyptic future where a road is no longer a means to get from one place to another, but is a remembrance of the past. The roads are one of the few things that couldn’t be destroyed by whatever disaster destroyed the earth, and the father and son spent most of their time on a road leading to the coast. As a place for travel, the road is a place of both peace and danger. In the novel it comes to symbolize the drive to
The Road Not Taken centers on the concept of choice. “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood”, tells us that the speaker has to make a choice on which path to take and the other must be left behind. This represents the many different choices in our life and it lets us readers reflect on the significant choices we have made. You only live life once and there are many decisions in which you only have one shot at as stated in the poem, “Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
1) The road could be a metaphor for continuing to move ahead against adversity. Frequently, gore and horror are detailed throughout their journey, yet the man and the boy continue to travel south, not knowing what they will experience, but still maintaining the drive to persevere. The most powerful example of their drive to continue against adversity is when the man was fading away, and he advised to his son, “You need to keep going. You don’t know what might be down the road.
The Road is a grim book set in an even more grim place. With the fall of civilization, the struggle for the human race is to preserve what it means to be human and not to get caught up in surviving by any means necessary. The magic of The Road is that even in such a world filled with unspeakable violence and fulfilled taboo, the reader is never as far removed from the characters in the book. Through the use of the battle for humanity and taboo, the reader is connected to the book at an uncomfortably close distance.
A road symbolizes a path in which each human must take. A person can choose to sacrifice what they have or choose a path of greediness and selfishness. But there is always a consequence for choosing the good path, as seen in The Road by Cormac McCarthy. The father is the one that must make a decision for both him and his son- be a "good guy" and give up everything in hope of surviving, or be consumed by evil which would inevitably create an unrecognizable man. Humans are flawed in a sense where their goal is either only advantageous to themselves, or in a senseless way for other people. Was the father being selfless and giving everything for the life of his son or keeping his son alive in this disastrous and dangerous world because he couldn’t go on without him? Was the father being selfish or selfless? Every time he told the son to "carry the fire", he wanted him to keep the only shred of humanity and hope left. Someone has to carry that fire, the memory of what was, all the good things that life had, and all of the reasons for mankind to survive. It’s a choice between being a thinker of the new world, or a hunter of the old. Cormac McCarthy accomplished showing the idea of
The second stanza begins with a time shift from reminiscing of the past to the present. The mood of the poem also makes a dramatic shift from happy to solemn. “Today, the road all runners come/ Shoulder-high we bring you home.” (“Housman” 5-6). Even though it is not clearly stated that the young runner died, the title of the poem makes it obvious. The “road” is a metaphor for death. It is a path that we are all going down. The
Through the deceptive serenity of desolate landscapes, the semblance of hope in a world veiled in ash, and the complex portrayal of characters and their interactions, the novel delves deep into the human psyche, revealing the stark contrasts between what seems to be and what is. In and of itself, "The Road" is a testament to the enduring spirit of humanity, highlighting that in a world stripped bare, the essence of humanity — hope, trust, and survival — becomes the most vivid
The Road being defined as a dystopian post-apocalyptic novel, so-called postmodern condition, psychoanalytic criticism, which focuses on some of the basic concepts of this approach, like Oedipus complex, fears, death and personality theory (id, ego, and superego). In the light of psychoanalytic approach, The Road can be read as a novel about a boy growing up in a devastated and barren post- apocalyptic world. Which reveals that having a lost mother and facing the dead wherever he goes with his father, the boy struggles with overcoming his fears of death and loss. “If you died, I would want to die too” -Psychoanalytic Approach to
The Road is a story where is set in a post-apocalyptic world, where the date and location is unnamed. The author of the novel Cormac McCarthy doesn 't describe why or how the disaster has demolish the earth. But after reading the novel, I can sense that the author wanted to present a case of mystery and fear to the unknown to the reader. By the author 's exclusion I think that the story gains a better understanding of what the author wanted to express to the reader. An expression of a man and his son surviving in a post-apocalyptic setting.
This is very symbolic because the road seems everlasting and unchanging. In an apocalyptic world this follows the theme that everything is dull. This can also relate to the world today that we are just traveling on a straight line. Many critics state, “All, it seems, is an eternal middle; there is nothing to anticipate, and the past is what haunts the father, reminding him of a world he can never get back” (Rambo 9). This means that as
For someone to be on the road, people usually assume that they have lost hope in life, or that they were not that determine to maintain a place in our social class.Those who decided to live on the road do it for a different reason, reason that are either a push or pull factor. Someone who has helicopter parents, or having a difficult time trying to fit into society can find a reason to venture out and find self. Someone who felt like they no longer have a purpose in life, can find it by going on the road, because no one know you better than yourself. When writing a story of your life, do not let anyone else hold the pen. Just like the north star, which helped slaves find their way from slavery and captivity. In order to find true self, risk must be taken. While life on the road can seem like an act of avoidance of reality and problems, it can help someone find a purpose for life and their true self, therefore I believe that life on the road, is helpfully for those who are struggling with problems.
My own poem expand on the idea of roads representing life. It stresses the importance of all the decisions the person is going to make in their life time that would define the road the person takes in life. Currently in the world multiple deals or agreements are being reach. The Iranian Deal and the Uber deal with New York City are just few of the deals being work on. When I wrote in line 7, “Each road leads to a different set of events” I would want that line to reflect these events. In the Iranian Deal there are many paths that the agreement or the disagreement of the deal would lead to, which would unfold for each a different set of events because of all the unknown obstacles. The Uber deal with New York City would permit Uber to have
In the poem “The Road Not Taken”, Robert Frost uses an extended metaphor of two roads to develop the theme of the hard decisions in life. One example of this is, “And be one traveler, long I stood” in (Frost 3). That means that the author is a traveler with a hard decision to make, also meaning he stood for a long period of time thinking about his decision. Another example is “Through as far that passing there, had worry them really about the same.” (Frost 9). One last example is, “Two roads diverged into in a wood and I took the road less traveled by.” (Frost 18.) Meaning, instead of taking the road that everyone else traveled he took the one less traveled. You’re going to have hard decisions in life, but sometimes dare