“To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive.” In other words a journey and the experiences you have are better than the actual destination. The novel “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain and the poem “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost have taught me that journeys may involves barriers and hardships, they can lead to significant personal change and more importantly journeys facilitate reflection about how you see yourself, others and the world. Journeys are very important in personal change and growth. They can also help us in comparing and contrasting new and old experiences.
Journeys may involve many barriers and hardships and overcoming them can lead to personal change and growth.“The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” is an episodic novel that involves the physical and emotional journey Huck and Jim Take down the Mississippi River. Jim is an African American slave who escapes and joins Huck on his adventure. The river symbolises the physical journey they both take and along this journey they discover many barriers and hardships. These barriers and hardships are both emotional and physical. This is evident when Huck is torn between following society’s rules (turning Jim in) or following his heart (helping Jim escape). Huck has come to an obstacle on the journey and has to try and overcome it. He has to make a decision on which ‘path’ he will take. Huck constantly battles with trying to decide what’s wrong from right and asking himself is he doing the right thing. Even though Huck see’s Jim as a friend he still carries on society’s values of racism and prejudice. Twain uses irony and satire to show how society is stupid, racist and oblivious to how they treat others. This is seen when the reward for the capture of Jim is higher than the reward for pap. Society sees that the escape of a slave is far worse than murder.
Likewise, “The Road Not Taken” also demonstrates that journeys may have barriers and hardships.