This essay compares two literary works separated by genre but united by theme: Robert Frost's poem "The Road Not Taken" and Jean Rhys's short story "I Used to Live Here Once." Through analysis of symbolism, point of view, imagery, and tone, the paper demonstrates how both authors use distinct literary elements to explore the concept of journey—one depicting an uncertain future path and the other a nostalgic return to the past. The essay traces how each author's biographical background informs their work and how readers can recognize thematic parallels despite the works' different meanings and destinations.
Readers often encounter literary works that share similarities yet differ significantly in form and execution. In Robert Frost's poem "The Road Not Taken" and Jean Rhys's short story "I Used to Live Here Once," one finds both striking similarities and meaningful differences that serve the same fundamental message: that journey is central to human experience. In life, we each must choose a path that leads into our journey. Our journey may be of short or great distance, but we must decide at some point which path to take. Both writers utilize different literary elements to create works that help readers visualize what they are reading. Through the use of symbolism, point of view, and theme, both Frost and Rhys engage readers in two journeys that may seem different on the surface but reveal remarkable similarities when compared.
In "The Road Not Taken" and "I Used to Live Here Once," both Frost and Rhys employ literary elements such as characterization, chronological perspective, imagery, symbolism, and tone to illuminate the characteristics of the journeys they describe. Understanding an author's background often enriches our interpretation of their work, as it reveals the historical and personal context in which they were writing.
Robert Frost was born in the late 1800s and lived in San Francisco, California until age eleven, when he moved to New England. In 1915, Frost returned to the United States and became a four-time Pulitzer Prize winner. He was a master poet who utilized common language to make his literature accessible and engaging. Frost also employed ironic inquiry to give expression to complex ideas and questions that define the human spirit.
Ella Gwendolyn Rees Williams, better known as Jean Rhys, was born in 1890 in the West Indies. Her mother was of Creole descent and her father was Welsh. She moved to Europe and received most of her education in England. Rhys was not accepted by her culture while growing up and became aware of the mistreatment of helpless women, which often reflected in her writings. This biographical displacement—between the West Indies and England—became a recurring theme in her literary work.
"The Road Not Taken" is a poem whose meaning can be interpreted in many diverse ways depending on the reader. The theme centers on a decision the speaker must make between two paths, each leading to a different journey. This is evident in the opening line: "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood." Some scholars argue that Frost does not champion individuality but rather suggests that life is full of choices that make a difference, regardless of which option we select.
When the speaker encounters the fork in the road, he must decide which path to take. He may feel obligated to choose a path he knows well, or he may wish to embrace a new path whose destination is unknown. The speaker wishes he could choose both, but cannot—a tension captured in the line "and sorry I could not travel both." This impossible desire reflects the genuine constraints of human choice: we cannot explore all possibilities; we must commit to one.
Throughout the poem, Frost uses the pronoun "I," suggesting that the speaker is either male or an image of Frost himself. The poem may reflect a decision Frost once had to make, perhaps involving regret for an unexplored path. It captures a difficult moment in which the speaker is unaware of the long-term consequences of his choice. In life, we all make decisions without knowing which option will prove right until after we have chosen. Moreover, we must live with the consequences of our decisions.
The poem demonstrates how choices made today have long-term effects on who we become tomorrow. Written in first-person narrative, "The Road Not Taken" establishes that at some point we all must make important decisions and deal with whatever outcome follows. Many times we can only choose one option, no matter how complicated the decision may be. Thus, people often become what they are due to the choices they made earlier in life.
Frost employs several poetic techniques to reveal his theme. Among these—imagery, symbolism, and tone—symbolism is the most powerful, as it appears throughout the poem. Symbolism gives literary objects identity while also representing something beyond themselves. When Frost discusses the two roads, he uses symbolism to suggest philosophies connected to everyday life. He proposes that the speaker selected the road that "leaves no step had trodden black," implying a choice for the unconventional path.
Frost also utilizes imagery throughout the poem, exemplifying the two different paths in life that the character might take. This element is essential in representing the theme because it permits readers to construct their own understanding and to compare themselves to the poem. Imagery allows readers to picture what is being said and done, which deepens understanding of the theme and creates a personal connection between reader and text.
Unlike "The Road Not Taken," "I Used to Live Here Once" is a short story written in third-person narration. It recounts the journey of a mysterious woman who remembers the place as if she had traveled it only yesterday, yet she notices that much has changed. Unlike the speaker in Frost's poem, this woman knows where the road leads—to the house where she once lived. Upon arrival, she sees two children playing in front of her former home. When she tries to communicate with them, saying she once lived there, she realizes she is a spirit: the children cannot see her and grow cold when she approaches, retreating inside.
Rhys does not explain why the female character has returned, but as we read, we sense her connection to this place. She is able to compare how she remembers the road to how it appears in her present journey. The author uses "she" repeatedly to describe the main character, establishing a sense of loneliness throughout the narrative that readers recognize immediately. This parallels Frost's repeated use of "I" in his poem. Both authors use these pronouns to deepen the isolation of their characters. Rhys conveys this loneliness in descriptions such as "She was standing by the river" and "She came to the worn stone steps." Like the character in "The Road Not Taken," this woman travels unaccompanied; however, their journeys conclude differently: in the poem, the journey is chosen; in the story, the journey has only just begun—or perhaps resumed, given the character's spectral nature.
"I Used to Live Here Once" also shows interconnection with the author rooted in chronological background. Some readers may associate the story's setting with the period of World War I and II, the era when Rhys was sent to England from Dominica. When we are raised in a specific place and move away, that homeland remains in our hearts. Rhys wrote about Dominica in much of her work, reflecting her own displacement and longing.
An interpretation of this story is that we can maintain connection to any place in the world regardless of where we were born or raised. The dwelling represents a former home to which the character feels inexplicably drawn. Though Rhys was native to a British family, she had a deep connection to Dominica. During her time in the West Indies, she was ostracized by the Black population in Dominica, yet when she lived in England, she wrote repeatedly about her Caribbean homeland. Through her literature, she attempts to convey that regardless of nationality, one can maintain association with a different place depending on where one was born and raised.
In "I Used to Live Here Once," readers initially believe the woman is alive and journeying to a place she once called home. However, the story's conclusion reveals she is not alive but rather the spirit of a woman returning to a place where she lived during her lifetime. Although she is lonely, she feels safe in this home, and this emotion sets the tone of the story. As we read, she observes the background and reminisces about each stone in the river. She also describes the road as "much wider than it used to be," noting the physical changes time has wrought. The tone becomes notably depressing once she realizes she is dead, and the character becomes even more isolated than before.
The use of imagery in the story helps define the journey the character takes and the encounters she must overcome. When Rhys describes the stepping stones, readers visualize each step and contemplate its significance: "There was the round unsteady stone, the pointed one, the flat one in the middle—the safe stone where you could stand and look around." This concrete imagery invites interpretation.
When Rhys employs symbolism, she reveals that the main character is self-determined and lonely. The woman travels without a companion and is not seeking one. All we learn of is two children who ignore her. Many readers ask why she returns to this place, but why do we, as adults, return to our former homes? Simply because they represent places where we once felt comfort and joy. She was returning to a place that once made her happy and safe.
The stepping stones themselves carry symbolic weight. Each seems to represent something she remembers: "There is the round unsteady stone, the pointed one, the flat one in the middle—the safe stone where you could stand and look around. The next one was not so safe for when the river was full the water flowed over it and even when it showed dry it was slippery." Another symbolic moment occurs when Rhys writes, "There were fallen trees that had not been cleared and the brush was overgrown and trampled." She uses this to describe how the road has transformed since she last walked it.
This description represents the passage of time itself. The character moves back and forth between memory and present observation, noting how things once were and how they are now. Time emerges as a possible theme alongside journey for the short story. Rhys utilizes repetition of words such as "remember," "same," and their synonyms. When at the stepping stones, the author writes "remembering each one," and when on the road she notes it is "much wider than it used to be." She repeats these words because the character, at another point in her past, walked this same path. The descriptions of change reveal that time has altered the landscape.
The story also employs symbolism to establish a clear theme at its conclusion and to set the tone throughout. The symbolism helps readers recognize that the character is merely a spirit. The phrase "crossing over" symbolizes death, as it is commonly used when someone dies. The "glassy sky" symbolizes both breakability and reflection, qualities that define the transitional stage between life and death. Finally, when the children become cold upon her approach, this symbolism describes the character as someone who is deceased—a being from another realm.
A critical difference between the two works lies in their narrative perspective. "The Road Not Taken" uses first-person narration ("I"), while "I Used to Live Here Once" employs third-person narration ("she"). This choice reflects and reinforces each work's treatment of journey.
In Frost's poem, the first-person perspective places readers directly inside the speaker's mind at the moment of decision. We experience his uncertainty, his awareness that he cannot travel both paths, and his later reflection on the choice made. This intimacy intensifies the theme of individual agency and consequence. The speaker is alone with his decision, and the reader is alone with him.
In Rhys's story, the third-person perspective creates distance. We observe the woman but do not inhabit her consciousness. This distance allows readers to discover, as she does, that she is deceased—a revelation that surprises both character and reader. The third-person narration also emphasizes her isolation; we watch her loneliness from the outside, never quite entering her interiority, much as the children cannot see her.
Tone also differs significantly. Frost's poem, despite its theme of irreversible choice, maintains a measured, almost philosophical tone. The speaker reflects calmly on his decision, even if he wonders about the road not taken. Rhys's story, by contrast, transitions from a nostalgic, almost peaceful tone—as the woman remembers her former home—to a melancholic and disorienting tone once she realizes she is dead. The shift in tone mirrors the shift in her understanding of her own nature and her journey's true meaning.
Both literary works share a common theme: journey. Each character is taking or must take a journey; however, their journeys differ fundamentally. In the poem, the character is unaware of where his path may ultimately lead. In the short story, the character is fully aware of her destination—it is a place she once knew. Yet both journeys involve risk and uncertainty about what will be encountered along the way.
The journey of each character may cause changes in his or her life, and any outcome is possible at the beginning. Each character takes a chance in their journey because they know where it begins, but what will happen once they reach their destination remains unclear. They are also unaware of what or whom they will encounter while traveling.
Despite their common theme, the meanings of each work are entirely different. Both authors discuss a journey in their own way and express how we all have a journey in life that can differ from another and at times continue into the afterlife. When comparing the poem and the short story, one observes that it is possible to have comparable themes yet different destinations for them. The journey in Frost's poem is prospective—looking forward into an unknown future. The journey in Rhys's story is retrospective—looking backward to a cherished past, complicated by the speaker's new understanding of her own death.
In "Road Not Taken" and "I Used to Live Here Once" there are similarities and differences that are visible to readers. Although they share a common theme, the meanings of each work are completely different. Both authors discuss a journey in their own way but express how we all have a journey in life that can differ from another and at times continue in the afterlife. When comparing the poem and the short story, one will see that it is possible to have comparable themes but different destinations for them. Frost invites us to contemplate the weight of choice and its lifelong consequences, while Rhys asks us to consider the persistence of longing and the bonds that tie us to places we have loved. Together, they demonstrate the richness and variety of what "journey" can mean in literature and in life.
You’re 98% through this paper. Sign up to read the full paper.
Sign Up Now — Instant Access Already a member? Log inAlways verify citation format against your institution’s current style guide requirements.