Comparing and contrasting your life before the event and after the event

 Essay Assignment on Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken”
For this assignment, we are going to explore how to write a literary response. We will be responding to Robert Frost’s classic poem “The Road Not Taken.”
Since we have never written a literary response, I have taken the liberty of doing some of the preliminary work and structure for you. For starters, I am giving you an assigned (although broad) thesis/ main idea:
(You probably won’t believe this while you’re trying to milk 500-600 words out of your computer next week, but coming up with the main idea is often times the hardest part of writing an essay like this).Thesis: One Important Event Can Change a Life
Hopefully you can see how that idea relates to the Frost poem. It is admittedly not a perfect fit, because there are all kinds of ways of characterizing what Frost is saying, but it will do.
Don’t be surprised if at first your thoughts on how “One Important Event Can Change a Life” relates to “The Road Not Taken” are overly general and somewhat vague and difficult to put into words; that’s one of the points of an academic exercise like this.
Next decide on an event in your own life that caused a profound change and that you’d like to write about.
At this point, you’re probably wondering, “Wait a minute; is this essay supposed to be on that poem or on something that happened to me? Which is it?”
One of the goals of interpreting a piece of literature is to make a connection, to show how the ideas within the literature relate to a larger context. It doesn’t always have to be a connection to your personal life; you could show that a poem or story is saying something about society at large or about grumpy old men or about society’s obsession with smart phones or the U.S. justice system, but for this essay let’s keep it simple and use our own personal experiences.
Next, scroll down and decide which organizational mode you’d like to write this essay in, either a Narrative mode or a Compare and Contrast mode.

Narrative Mode: In this mode, you are simply telling the story of the event and how it changed your life.
Introduction: start by mentioning the Frost poem and what you think it means. Gradually work the paragraph around to the event that happened to you and how it changed your life.
Your life before the event
The event
Your life after the event (how it has changed you)
Conclusion: restate the main idea that this event changed your life, and bring up the Frost poem again too

Compare and Contrast Mode: In this mode, you are comparing and contrasting your life before the event and after the event.

Introduction: start by mentioning that Frost poem and what you think it means. Gradually work the paragraph around to the event that happened to you and how it changed your life.
One way your life is different (example: your social life- “before the event my social life was _______, but now it is ___________.”)
A second way your life is different (example: your attitude)
A third way your life is different (example: your living arrangements) There is an infinite number of possible things you could plug into these three points: your family, your body, your clothing style, your musical preference, your belief about boa constrictors, the way you drive, your standard of living, etc.
Conclusion: restate the main idea that this event changed your life, and bring up the Frost poem again too
The Day That Changed My Life Forever
Have you ever made a decision that in the long run you were so thankful you made? After reading the poem “The road less traveled” by Robert Frost I thought back on a time when I did. In my opinion the poem is trying to say that you may want to take a chance on something that you normally wouldn’t and it could change your life. One event in my life stood out the most and it is a decision that I’m thankful every day for. In July of 2010 I was supposed to get into the car with My Cousin Jacob but at the last minute I decided to change my mind and stay behind at my house; about an hour after he left I received a phone call that he had been in a wreck and his prognosis wasn’t good. The accident was caused by texting and driving. Before the accident I was very guilty of being on my phone while I was operating a vehicle and I would never say anything if I was a passenger and the driver was texting while I was in the vehicle with them. To this day I have made a promise to myself and my family that I would never pick up my cell phone or be in a vehicle with someone that is on their phone while driving. If I wouldn’t have made the decision to stay home I may not be here today.
It used to never cross my mind while driving if I got a text message to just pick up my phone and reply to a text. There was so many times I seen people on TV or heard ads on the radio station talking about texting while driving and me being a naïve teenager I thought I was bulletproof and nothing would ever happen to me. I used to ride in the vehicle all the time being the passenger while the driver of the vehicle was distracted on their phone and never thought about all of the lives that were put in danger.
After the wreck My Cousin Jacob was on life support and in a coma for weeks after. Now today 4 years later he has sever neurological damage and will never be himself again. It gives me the chills every time I think about how I could be in his position if I would have gotten in the car with him that night. I have learned a huge life lesson from this. I will never pick up my phone again or be in the car with someone while they are distracted again. Every chance I get I tell people my story hoping that it will change their perspective on cell phone use in the vehicle.
You never know that gut feeling you have about a decision may be the right one to take after all. Because if I would have no taken the “boring” road as most teenagers wouldn’t I may not be here today. So next time you think that the road you may be taking is the wrong one think again. You never know that the decision you make just may change your life forever.