Life Is a Journey
Life is a Journey
ENG 125
April 9, 2012
Life is a Journey Life is a journey that is made up of a series of choices. These choices are made consciously or unconsciously, sometimes with much thought and sometimes with no thought at all. A person my not acknowledge the journey, but a journey it is none the less. To discover the common theme that life is a journey, the archetypal approach will be applied to “The Road Not Taken” and “Used to Live Here Once”. The literary elements that further this theme are figurative language, symbolism and plot.
The archetypal framework makes up views and understandings that are universal. This framework does not reflect just one individual’s feelings and emotions; it reflects the feelings and emotions of society. These feelings and emotions arise from direct experience and inherited knowledge of shared experiences of our ancestors. Carl Jung coined the term collective unconsciousness to describe this societal state of unconsciousness and impartation (as cited in Clugston, 2010). Since the term collective means a group or society and he believed that society has an unconscious just like the individual, he believed that some things are just understood universally.
The fact that life is a journey is one of these universal views. It is understood that we are born, we live and we die. We journey through life from birth to death. According to Northrop Frye, there are extremities of this quest we call a journey. On a continuum, they range from a totally desirable end to a totally undesirable destination. Within this archetypal framework there is a constant tension in which insights are discovered, choices have to be made and an action needs to be taken (as cited in Clugston, 2010). The choices of various actions men make throughout the journey determine life’s ultimate outcomes.
In the poem the author describes a once in a lifetime decision that will determine the direction of his life. The tension rises when
ENG 125
April 9, 2012
Life is a Journey Life is a journey that is made up of a series of choices. These choices are made consciously or unconsciously, sometimes with much thought and sometimes with no thought at all. A person my not acknowledge the journey, but a journey it is none the less. To discover the common theme that life is a journey, the archetypal approach will be applied to “The Road Not Taken” and “Used to Live Here Once”. The literary elements that further this theme are figurative language, symbolism and plot.
The archetypal framework makes up views and understandings that are universal. This framework does not reflect just one individual’s feelings and emotions; it reflects the feelings and emotions of society. These feelings and emotions arise from direct experience and inherited knowledge of shared experiences of our ancestors. Carl Jung coined the term collective unconsciousness to describe this societal state of unconsciousness and impartation (as cited in Clugston, 2010). Since the term collective means a group or society and he believed that society has an unconscious just like the individual, he believed that some things are just understood universally.
The fact that life is a journey is one of these universal views. It is understood that we are born, we live and we die. We journey through life from birth to death. According to Northrop Frye, there are extremities of this quest we call a journey. On a continuum, they range from a totally desirable end to a totally undesirable destination. Within this archetypal framework there is a constant tension in which insights are discovered, choices have to be made and an action needs to be taken (as cited in Clugston, 2010). The choices of various actions men make throughout the journey determine life’s ultimate outcomes.
In the poem the author describes a once in a lifetime decision that will determine the direction of his life. The tension rises when
References: Clugston, R. W. (2010). Journey into literature. San Diego, California: Bridgepoint Education, Inc Downs, A., Durant, R., & Eastman, K. (2002). Jung 's legacy and beyond: Exploring the relevance of archetype psychology to organizational change Peck, M. S. (1978). The road less traveled: A new psychology of love, traditional values, and spiritual growth Proverbs. (n.d.). In New International Version. Retrieved April 23, 2012, from http://bible.cc/