English theme discussion questions

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Theme

The themes that has been used in “The Road Not Taken” and “The Story of an Hour” is freedom of choice. In the poem “The Road Not Taken”, it talks of a person who is on a journey traveling. The person later comes across a crossroad and it becomes difficult for him to make a decision on the road he or she should take. From the crossroad, as he or she tries to make a decision, he or she draws an analysis on the roads based on observation. One of the roads appears as if it has been used several times by people and the other road hasn’t. (Misztal &Indurkhya, 2014)

The person however still has to make a decision in order to continue with his or her journey. He or she thus chooses to be on the path that is less traveled. The person reasons out that by making his or her choice, it makes him or her different. Different from the other people who chose the path that was traveled by people several times. From this poem, I feel that the person tries to make decisions that make him or her different from other people. Decisions that not so many people are usually willing to make.

“The Story of an Hour” talks about a woman, Louise, who discovers her strengths and independence after her husband Brently dies from a railroad accident. From the book, her husband was behind the decisions she made in life. Louise would not make decisions independently without involving Brently. Louise’s life and marriage was controlled by her husband and she did not like it because she was a lady who enjoyed her personal freedom.

After Brentley’s death she starts discovering herself and enjoying her freedom. She experiences some guilt for finding so much joy after Brentley’s death. Her guilt is however dismissed when she discovers that her life has taken a turn on the positive side. She thus becomes a widower who can make her own decisions based on her own will and direction. She is able to experience the freedom of choice for a moment. This freedom of choice gets killed after she discovers that her husband Brentley was not really dead. (Wharton, 2014)

Reference

J Misztal, B Indurkhya. (2014), Poetry generation system with an emotional personality

E Wharton. (2014), The writing of fiction