Robert Frost And Langston Hughes: Literary Analysis

Everyone has a life full of choices. They have to choose between right or wrong, left or right, and up or down. Choices reflect self-discipline, as well as character. They also permanently affect one’s life, whether it be in a positive or a negative manner. Choices can also dictate whether or not someone reaches their wildest dreams. As everyone has lives full of choices, everyone has dreams. But as all things do, dreams progressively get more and more realistic with age. “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost, and “Harlem” by Langston Hughes are two well-written poems that have similar real-life themes; choices, and dreams. “The Road Not Taken” can be affiliated with many real life situations. “And sorry I could not travel both” (Frost 2). This line simply states that it is not possible for someone to travel two roads at once. But Frost is not on a road, nor is he in a vehicle. He is walking down a path that suddenly brings him to two simple choices; take the path on the left or take the path on the right. “And be one traveler, long I stood/And looked down one as far as I could/To where it bent in the undergrowth” (Frost 3-5). Frost says he is standing alone, meaning he is on foot and not on a paved road because typically there is no undergrowth on a paved road. He has to either make a choice between the two paths or turn around and go back
Langston writes “dream deferred” but why not “deferred dream”? He refers to a deferred dream as “a raisin in the sun”. “Does it dry up/like a raisin in the sun?” (Hughes 2-3). This indicates that Hughes sees deferred dreams as a dried up raisin in the sun. Things dry up due to moisture loss, and it seems that he is referring to a deferred dream as dry. Dreams can “dry up” due to a lack of intestinal fortitude. If one does not chase their dream with every part of their being, it will never come