“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal: that their Creator endows them with inherent and inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness…” (Jefferson 29). These lines are the very definition of the United States of America and the answer to the question ‘who is an American?’ In paraphrasing Jefferson, those who have the right to live freely with the pursuit of happiness are Americans. Although this definition has an ambiguous meaning, it also has one basic plot: people who can make their own choices using their own free will are Americans. This central idea is present throughout the poem The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost. The poem celebrates the definition of American Identity through the idea of choices and the idea of having a self within a larger community.
The poem starts with a dilemma with the very first word ‘two,’ where the narrator continues to talk about two options by using a clever and smooth metaphor of two seasons: spring and autumn. He is trying to make a decision: he can either take the ‘yellow wood road’ which is ‘worn out’ or he can take the ‘grassy’ road that wants to be worn out. As we can assume, the first road has been used by people; the latter is ‘less traveled by.’ In the end, the narrator ends up choosing the less traveled road. The experience of the narrator is one that I call an American Decision Making Process. He has the freedom to choose among the multiplicity of choices, and his choice secludes him from the broader community because he chooses a road that is not chosen by other people; on the other hand, his choice also includes him into the community by putting forth the options that are available to others as well. In this sense, the poem is a good description of American Identity.
What is an American Identity? This question has a long list of attributes, but two of which is stated in my premise: first the freedom to choose, next being part of a community while also having a self-identity.
The notion of freedom is among one of the main themes that make up The Declaration of Independence. America has always tried to achieve freedom and has become successful in many respects. Because of this, it is a theme that many American authors use in their works. I think that Frost was also very much influenced by this theme. In his poem Woodpile Frost begins with a choice of going further or staying still- again; which is a choice to make.
Another example would be the last lines of his poem titled After Apple-Picking where the narrator is trying to decide on what kind of sleep he wants. This theme of freedom is also prevalent through his poem The Road Not Taken; where Frost is trying to give us the message that there are always choices to make and decisions to take and that we have the freedom to make these choices and take these decisions. In the third stanza, the narrator talks about how one decision leads to another in the line “Yet knowing how way leads on to way.” Here the poet is opening the doors that he comes across as a result of his decision. In the same way, Frost suggests that the choices have all kinds of consequences that we take on. This accepting of outcomes as a result of free will is one of the characteristics of an American Identity, and Frost uses this theme to convey his work as a part of American Literature.
The concept of having a self within a larger community has existed in most of the American Literature works, more precisely in those that were published during and after the Declaration of Independence and the American Civil Wars. We can say that the desire of having a self-identity is a result of the long process of colonization and the slavery in America. America first had to establish its freedom from the colonizing powers, which was the process of The Declaration of independence; and then or more so during the establishment of The United States of America, slavery had to be abolished, which was the process leading up to the American Civil Wars. These historical and important events have had a profound effect on American Literature and also on the establishment of notions such as existing within society in America. We see these effects in Frost’s poem in the last lines where he writes “I took the one less traveled by, / And that has made all the difference.” In these lines, the narrator is emphasizing two things: how he has gained a self-identity and how he is also a part of the larger community. The result of his decision in doing or choosing the actions or things that no one else has done gives the narrator the sense of self-identity because he was able to use his own free will in deciding in regards to no one else but what he desires or thinks that is good for him. The option of having to choose and decide is what makes the narrator a part of the larger community; by a close-reading of the line “the one less traveled by,” we can say that there are two roads presented to the narrator that was also presented to other people. The narrator, just like someone else, had the option to choose whichever he wanted. This presentation of a multiplicity of choices and the power of free-will in deciding is what makes the narrator a part of the larger community. Hence, while the narrator is secluded from the society, he is also included in the community. In this sense, Frost picks up a characteristic of the American Identity and uses it in his poem to make the poem a part of American Literature.
The poem emphasizes making decisions, taking chances, not regretting what one has done and also finding one’s identity within a crowd. It is possible that Frost was influenced by The American Identity while writing this poem.