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Trethewey's Use Of Identity In Poems

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There is a deeper meaning to identity one that holds qualities, beliefs, and personality that shape a specific person. Identity is more than who we are and where we originate from. Identity can be found in poems such as, “Theories of Time and Space,” by Natasha Trethwey and “The Road Not Taken,” by Robert Frost. By using metaphors, Natasha and Frost help the reader understand how someone’s experiences and choices influence their identity.
One metaphor that helps the reader understand identity can be found in the poem, “Theories of Time and Space,” by Natasha Trethewey. In the poem, the speaker comes across the forgotten history of the past. Trethewey uses forgotten history as a metaphor to show that you can change as a person when you encounter new things in life. There is a choice to accept those changes, or return …show more content…

In this poem, the speaker is presented with a fork in the road. Robert Frost uses the metaphor of a fork in the road to show how making choices can affect one's life by describing the chosen road as better and able to make a difference. Frost writes, “I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference” (Frost, lines 19-20). These lines show the reader that the speaker makes a decision many did not. The decision that the speaker makes affects his life, whether in a good or bad way. Another example of the fork in the road as a metaphor for choices affecting one's life is when the speaker says, “...I doubted if I should ever come back” (Frost, line 15). The speaker doubted whether the decision he made was the correct one, and if the road he did not take had better opportunities he could have experienced. Frost’s use of the fork in the road as a metaphor adds to the reader’s understanding of identity because it is the choices you make that shape and define who you are as a person in the

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