Compare and Contrast Essay: The Road Not Taken and The Ant And The Grasshopper

Robert Frost and William Somerset Mougham, both born in 1874, where two famous writers during their time. In spite of them living during the same decades once work was not like the other’s. Robert Frost was a poet and wrote, for instance, the famous poem The Road Not Taken while W. Somerset Mougham was a playwriter, novelist and short story writer with one of his famous short stories beeing named “The Ant And The Grasshopper”. Furthermore, both of these litteratuary works focus on aspects of happiness which will be discussed in this essay. 

Firstly we have The Road Not taken which recognize the difficult decition of choosing your path in life, either you follow the mainstream or you go by your own liking. Moreover, the narrator selects the road not taken as a symbol for his own path in life. Consequently, he enlightens us with the fact that this decition “[…]made all the difference.” and therefore is letting us know he, probably, obtained gaity in doing so. 

Secondly we have The Ant And The Grasshopper which instead of conveying an actuall dilemma in life is potraying the dilemma with an exampel hence giving the reader a less personalised interpritation. Furthermore, we become accquaitend with the brothers Tom and George Ramsey living two totally different lives. Tom is a spendthrift, living everyday doing exactly what is in his preferable state, unlike George who is saving his money for retirement and working everyday. Although it is intelligable to believe George will succeed in life with the aspect of a “happy ending” while Tom fails, this is not the case. Tom is actually the one living life to the fullest and reciving an happy ending instead of Geroge who is filled with joelousy and remorse towards his brother all his life. 

In comparson both these litteratury works follow the same theme choosing what to do with once life and the results that could chouse. In this case the narrator in Robert Frost poem as well as Tom Ramsy decides to follow their own paths thus leads them to happiness. However Tom, unlike The Narrator, struggels slighty along the way which enlightense the fact that the road not taken is difficult although in the end the frustartion shall sece to exist. In like manner, George is also expericing this frustartion, however he did not follow his ‘dreams’ and therefore happiness is not an expected emotion to gain walking that road. Further, following your own path could be risky but will probably lead you to greater happiness no matter the cost. However, although this seemes to be the case while reading these text, it is not written in stone that taking the mainstream road leads to enevadable unhappiness. According to the scientific video “How to be happy” by Memorize Academy it is important to practice gratitude and not compare one self with others to reach desired joy. Therefore, George could of settled with his choices and tried to find happiness in what he already had instead of comparing himself to his younger brother. “He had a good wife, […], and four daughters to whoam he was the best of fathers. […] His life was blamless.” – W.S Maugham.

In conclusion, Robert Frost tells us about a person deciding to follow his own path in the poem The Road Not Taken while W. Somerser Mougham short story “The Ant And The Grasshopper” illustrates the mainstream road. Furthermore…