“It’s the Journey, not the destination” Essay relating to “The Road Not Taken” “It’s the Journey, not the destination”, we have all heard this saying many times. Though not many people recognize how true this statement is.
It is very common to imagine the “end” of the journeys we go on, no matter how important or insignificant they may be. But what does not come to mind, is that the journey is the most important part of the destination, as the experiences and lessons one takes away from the pathway to the destination, outweigh the minute reward of an achieved goal.In my speech, I will talk about how the following texts relate to “It’s the Journey, not the destination”: Robert Frosts’ “The Road Not Taken”, Peter Skrnecki’s “Crossing The Red Sea” and Anh Do’s “The Happiest Refugee”. Life is basically one big journey, with many smaller ones along the way.
One small climb after the other, getting closer and closer to where we eventually want to be. We only seem to focus on the horizon instead of the ground beneath our feet, a place more deserving of our attention. People that constantly have their eyes glued on the horizon, and nothing else, often regret not doing more later on.This can relate directly to my first text, “The Road Not Taken” – “I shall be telling this with a sigh, somewhere ages and ages hence”.
Here, Robert Frost is looking back on his decision from the diverted road in the future, and is glad of the decision that he made, and sighs as a sign of relief. “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less travelled by”, here, he explains metaphorically, that he has come to a crossroads in his life, where both outcomes are unclear and is reluctant to choose either.He makes a decision to take the path less travelled by. “And that has made all the difference”. In this quote he explains that the road not taken was more valuable as he had foreseen that it will benefit him in the long run. The experiences and life lessons he will gain from the more uncommon path will reward him more than the other.
In the road not taken, the poem uses a first person narrator. The narrator in the poem refers to himself using the word “I” very frequently giving the audience the effect that they are being told a story.It also helps the audience see the point of view of the narrator including his opinions, thoughts and feelings. The tense in “The Road Not Taken” also very intricate as it changes. For the first three stanzas he is speaking in past tense, recounting the undecidable choice at the two diverged roads in the yellow wood.
His tone through these first three stanzas is very doubtful as he cannot decide which path to take. However in the last stanza, he is speaking in future tense, indicating that he had not finished his journey, but is still travelling down the road not taken.His tone here is more confident now. In my opinion, Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken” is a perfect example of “It’s the Journey, not the destination”.
The poem is very ambiguous and has a plethora of meanings to different people, but to me it makes more sense in to interpret it metaphorically. My second poem is “Crossing The Red Sea” by Peter Skrzynecki where Skrzynecki explores the long physically demanding journey that refugees have taken after fleeing the aftermath of the war, and also the emotional trauma associated with this journey.Skrzynecki uses biblical allusions in his poem, one of which is where he compares Moses leading the Jews out of tyranny in Egypt to the promised land of Canaan, just as the Europeans abandoned their homes in war-torn Europe to partake a voyage across the red sea to the new promised land of Australia, in hope of a brighter future at the end of their journey. His second biblical Allusion is in the quote “Touched the eyes of another Lazarus”, suggesting that this person has actually risen from the dead as the biblical story says that Jesus brought Lazarus back to life.The use of this particular allusion provides a feeling of new life and re-birth.
There is also an extensive use of imagery that Skrzynecki uses in “Crossing the Red Sea”. Some examples of imagery in this poem are seen in the following quotes. “Memories strayed from behind sunken eyes”, the imagery in this quote heightens the sense of despair. It suggests pain and hunger as they reminiscent the beauty of the world that they only have memories of. The limited dialogue and short phrases in stanza three illustrates the migrants’ lives and how lonely they are.Another quote showing allusion is “Neither masters nor slaves”.
This quote emphasises their loss of identity, showing that they not free, nor imprisoned, but trapped in a limbo somewhere between, unable to control their fate. Personification is another technique used. An example of this is in the quote “All night the kindness of the sea continued”. This quote begins stanza four, the tone of the poem has now obtained a more positive feel, where hopes and fears are shared among the migrants making the crossing together.Catharsis is used here, relieving the emotional tension and stress in previous stanzas. The now friendlier tone of the poem is shown when the sea is personified to be to be pleasant and forgiving as it heals the souls of the refugees.
It soothes them in being able to disclose their grief and declare their sorrow. Another example of personification is in the quotes “Pine trees whispering” and “Or a trembling voice”. These quotes refer to the trees of Europe showing the fear and sadness of the migrants over their farwell homeland.The related text that I have chosen is to do Anh Do’s “The happiest Refugee”. Anh Do uses a wide variety of techniques to connect with his audience.
One of them is humour. Humour is a great way to connect with audience as it makes the book more interesting, making you want to keep reading it. Humor adds character to the writing style of Anh Do, and it makes you feel like he is actually reading the book to you. An example of humour is when takes a shot at his brother, “Well, he is the fat one.
That’s how it worked with Hansel and Gretel”.He also included allusion into this particular quote. Another technique Anh uses is Onomatopoeia. The use of Onomatopoeia has the effect of enhancing the reader or listener's imagination by helping the reader to "hear" the sounds that would be present. There are many examples of onomatopoeia throughout the text, some examples in the book include: “Bang! ” (PG 14), “Thwack! ” (PG 26), “Whack” (PG 33), “Thud! ” (PG 52), “Click! (PG 57), “Whoop” (PG 59) and “doo-doo-loo-whoop” (PG 64).
The links that I see that connect my chosen texts is that all three include physical and emotional journeys.In all of my texts I have mentioned there is an enormous journey consisting of the characters in the text leaving their homeland and arriving at a completely different place. “The Road Not Taken” focuses on the choices a man has to make in his life, “Crossing The Red Sea” looks at European people being forced to migrate due to war in their homeland and “The Happiest Refugee” centres on Anh Do migrating to Australia with his family due to the same problem as the migrants in “Crossing The Red Sea”.But in these journeys is where the characters find themselves. In “The Road Not Taken”, the experiences and life lessons he has gained from the more uncommon path will benefit him as he will learn life lessons along it. In “Crossing The Red Sea”, The migrants learnt that hardships in life have to be dealt with and cannot be avoided.
They have to forget about their past lives and start over. The same goes for “The Happiest refugee”.In conclusion, the texts “The Road Not Taken”, “Crossing The Red Sea” and “The Happiest Refugee” use a variety of language techniques, that the authors have added which has helped me perceive their intended ideas on journey. Without the concept of Journey in these texts, they would be much less interesting and less engaging. This unit has considerably increased my understanding of Journeys using a variety of techniques that has made it easier for me to understand.
