Analysis of Robert Frost's “The Vantage Point” and the Parallels found in Thoreau's Walden
... explains his second view on the other side of the tree which is describes as the “sunburned hillside”. This represents nature, for he discusses the trees, soil, and ants. The situation presents itself as a fork in the road where the narrator is trying to decide which direction he shall go. One can surmise, that the narrator is standing in nature and looking at society or is at the boundary of the two because of line one when he says, “If tired of trees I seek again mankind,” and the fact that the narrator is speaking while reclined against a tree. Tree signifies nature then in turn represents isolation or freedom from society, and reclining signifies contentment. But, the narrator’s gratification of freedom from society could also be affected by the fact that he isn’t completely isolated. The narrator is standing at his “vantage point” which lets him see both worlds. Although society is “far off”, line six, it is still apparent or “white defined”, line five. He could be more content with the fact that he knows he has a choice between either nature’s isolation or society’s confinement and knowing that he wasn’t pushed into one or the other. He has a choice to do as he wishes, like Thoreau, and isn’t forced into the grasp of society and conformity. In the first stanza, the narrator mentions cows and the lawn in line three, homes in line six, and graves in line seven. The cow connotes being submissive and slow. Because this stanza is the view on society, one can conclude, that since cows normally don’t stray to far from the barn or the designated land, the cows represents a docile, confined society. The lawn connotes a domestic feeling, for houses are surrounded by lawns: a front lawn, a back lawn, and even side lawns. In line three, the lawn is the roaming ground for the cows. This can represent men moving slowly, docilely through society. “The homes of men”, in line six, like the lawn, represents society. The word home connotes a place where one can be comfortable and/or safe. The home is a place of constraint. As Thoreau believed, society is confining and is away to make the individual domesticated. Such weight as family and social responsibilities that society forces upon man will keep a man constrained to the home. In line seven is the phrase “graves of men” which is another example of society’s confinement, when one is dead, he is put into a constricting box. The grave connotes fatality and darkness which is a large part of society. People live both their lives and their deaths in society without escaping. In the second stanza, the narrator looks at his second choice and says in line eight “if by noon I have too much of these”. This means that if he ever gets tired of the constricti...