There
are moments in life when we as rational human beings must make
choices. The choices we make are sometimes small: the type of milk
to buy, or which film to watch at the movie theater. If we are
fortunate, we must make more important choices; choices that require
deliberation and careful thought. But it is the simple act of
choosing that is perhaps the most important aspect. It is not the
end result, beneficial or otherwise, that matters. In John Updike’s
short story “A & P” and Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not
Taken,” we see that it is the choice itself that makes all the
difference.
Facing
a choice means facing more than one possibility and considering those
possibilities, applying thought and knowledge obtained from past
experience. In “A & P” the protagonist, Sammy, faces a
choice when he decides to quit his job as a grocery store clerk after
his manager Lengel publicly humiliates several girls for wearing what
he believed were inappropriate outfits. Initially, it appears that
Sammy decides to quit in order to get the girls’ attention; a vain
attempt at gaining their favor. However, after questioning himself
on whether or not it was a wise decision, he decides it is and sticks
to it. As he says it is “fatal” not to follow through on such a
gesture (Updike 62), which demonstrates that Sammy considered the
decision and the possible outcomes and ultimately decided that the
choice to quit would ultimately be the better choice if only to
retain his self-respect. Likewise in “The Road Not Taken,” the
traveler is faced with two possible paths which he can take. He
observes one path before choosing the other, or as the traveler
states, “…long I stood / and looked down one as far as I could.”
He stood and weighed the option to travel down one path versus the
traveling down the other, once again demonstrating that when we are
faced with more than one choice we must deliberate on and think
carefully about the possibilities before choosing one or the other.
It
is a sign of character when a person stands for a belief or decision
even when it seems as if the choice will lead to a difficult road
ahead. Sammy ultimately stands for what he believed was a just
decision in quitting to protest the unfair treatment of the girls in
the store. The girls were just customers, after all, who were there
to make a purchase and nothing else. He could have very easily
changed his mind and chosen to remain at his clerk position when
Lengel told him, “Sammy, you don’t want to do this to your Mom
and Dad,” or, “You’ll feel this for the rest of your life”
(Updike 62), which may have encouraged a person of weak character to
remain or turn back on the initial choice, but Sammy stands by his
decision. The traveler in “The Road Not Taken” speaks of taking
“… the one less traveled by” (Frost), indicating that the path
he took was an unpopular one, but follows up by saying “And that
has made all the difference.” The traveler in the poem makes a
literal choice of one path versus the other and displays character by
choosing a path that was not as well-traveled as the other, at least
in his mind. Frost clearly intended for the traveler to be a
metaphor for the state of mind where a person must make a difficult
decision and in his poem he seems to advocate that making the choice
builds one’s character.
Maturity,
that is to say emotional and mental maturity, is merely the means by
which we gain experience and use that experience as a base for our
decision-making process. It is often a sign of maturity, then, when
a choice is not made randomly but with deliberate consideration.
Moreover, the choices made help us mature as well. Sammy’s choice
is a clear one: stand by his perhaps ill-conceived decision to quit
in protest of the unfair treatment towards the girls, or back out of
his choice and resume his work as a clerk at the register. At that
point in Updike’s “A & P” we have read Sammy’s rather
unpleasant view of working at the A & P, with the “witches”
(Updike 58), “house slaves” (Updike 59), and “sheep” (Updike
62) being regular players in his dreary existence in a small town
grocery store, and as such we as the readers can see that Sammy has
experienced working there and has learned it is not a pleasant job to
him. Additionally his background, told by him throughout the story,
indicates that he is still in the “maturing” phase of
adolescence. He lives with his parents, his mother does his laundry,
and he even says he is nearly nineteen years old. So, when Sammy
chooses to take a stand he is taking a vital step in his emotional
and mental maturity, adding to his mental cache of experience. The
traveler in Frost’s poem speaks of age and maturity when he says,
“I shall be telling this with a sigh / Somewhere ages and ages
hence.” (Frost). He knows that, as he grows older, he will look
back on the moment of his choice and be the wiser for having made the
choice. Both authors, through the characters in their respective
works, show that making such difficult choices is an important part
of maturing, despite the consequences that may come about as a
result.
It
is then vital to remember that each choice (that is, a scenario where
a person must decide between more than one option), comes with one or
more consequences. The direst aspect of making a choice, then, is
the consequence of said choice. There are some choices, such as,
say, which movies to watch, which have no particular consequence
other than a bad and quickly forgotten film experience. It is not
such choices and consequences that I speak of. I refer to those same
important choices that encourage careful thought, demonstrate
character, and that we use to build upon our maturity. These choices
are the ones that get us to think about the consequences. Take, for
example, when Sammy reflects on his decision to quit his job at the
grocery store: “… my stomach kind of fell as I felt how hard the
world was going to be to me hereafter.” (Updike 62). He says this
after stepping out of the store, and at that moment he realizes that
the choice he made would have serious consequences, and perhaps leads
to a difficult path in life. The traveler in Frost’s poem, on the
other hand, is very considerate of the possible consequences of his
choice as he ponders which path to take. He stands for a long while,
peers down both paths, and even takes in minute details such as the
amount of wear on each path. This traveler carefully considers his
path, and therefore the consequences of taking one path over the
other, before making his choice, even if in reflection he realizes
that both paths were, “about the same” (Frost).
So
while some choices have immediate consequences or are more beneficial
than other possible choices, others have consequences and benefits
not foreseen. There is no consistency to the act of making these
choices as, like life, it is impossible to foresee what we will have
to face. We must simply stand before the manager, or the paths, or
even the sign displaying the movies showing tonight, and make the
choice–come what may.
Works Cited
Frost, Robert. “The Road Not Taken.”
Living Literature: An Introduction to
Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Ed.
John C. Brereton. New York: Longman, 2007. 1062.
Updike, John. “A & P.” Living
Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama.
Ed. John C. Brereton. New York: Longman, 2007. 58-62.