Choice, Decision and Experience

After reading various short stories, poems, and plays, I have chosen to discuss how one’s choices, decisions, and experiences play a vital role in which all these affect one’s life. The three genres I have chosen “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost and “Oedipus Rex” by Sophocles allows the reader to observe one’s outcome in life due to various circumstances.

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown,” Goodman Brown makes a choice of joining evil through much decision, and in turn, his experiences makes his life lonely and miserable. As Goodman Brown leaves his wife, Faith, to go to the forest to take a dangerous and unknown path, he thinks to himself, “Well, she’s a blessed angel on earth; and after this one night I’ll cling to her skirts and follow her to heaven” (81). Goodman Brown believes he can depend on his wife’s “faith” to save him, so it won’t matter if he leaves his own “faith” at home because it will be waiting for him when he returns. Even though Goodman Brown senses a feeling of uncertainty, he still continues with his evil journey. His decision is justified by the promise that he makes to himself that all will be well when h

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This states that the speaker is comfortable with his choices, decisions and the experiences which it brought, but, he is also pondering what life’s turnout could have been by taking the other road. As the speaker looks far down both the two roads, he is trying to decide what each of the paths will bring. There is never a straight path that leaves one with but a sole direction in which to head. In the end, throughout this experience, Goodman Brown loses his faith with other people, as well within himself.

Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken,” conveys a message that everyday choices and decisions that one makes while traveling down the road of life are never easy and the outcome is unknown. One can say, that Oedipus made many bad decisions and choices throughout his life causing him to once again choose an erratic choice by gouging out his eyes. This presents a conflict with the decision of choosing an easy road or an exceptionally challenging road. The first of the two roads “To where it bent in the undergrowth” (line 5), is the more common route than the other less traveled “Because it was grassy and wanted wear” (line 8). Robert Frost, who is considered the speaker, is faced between the choice of a moment and of a lifetime. Goodman Brown meets with the devil along a crooked path, and the devil asks why he was late; Goodman Brown replied,

“Faith kept me back awhile” (81). Deciding to choose the less traveled road, the speaker acknowledges the fact that this will have more challenging circumstances.

Works Cited

Hawthorne, Nathaniel.

Approximate Word count = 1207
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

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