Choices of Society and Confinement or Individuality and Freedom in Robert Frost's 'The Vantage Point' - Page 2
© Karen Powers Liebhaber
The narrator has another choice he can make. He explains that “if by noon I have too much of these [houses, graves, cows]” (8), he can escape from them to the trees, to individuality and freedom.
On the “sunburned hillside” (11), the narrator is able to be isolated from the confines of society. The trees, earth, bruisèd plant, and ants represent individuality and freedom. He is able to find freedom and individuality in his isolation. His isolation is guaranteed because he is alone, confirmed when he says, “myself unseen” (5). The reader is aware that the narrator is isolated because he begins the poem with “If tired of trees I seek again mankind” (1).
It is even more apparent that the man is in the wilderness because he is “There amid lolling juniper reclined” (4). The trees represent freedom from society. The “sunburned hillside” (11) helps create the narrator’s image of isolation. Because he is “reclined” (4) against the tree, it appears that the narrator is content with this isolation.
Perhaps the narrator’s contentment stems from his “vantage point.” He can see both worlds – the domestic society and the isolated wilderness – and because he is aware of these worlds, he is aware of his choices; he is aware that he does have a choice. While the houses are “far off” (6), the narrator sees them “white defined” (5), very prominent.
The last two lines exemplify the narrator’s awareness of a decision, a choice. He can “smell the earth” (13) which reminds one of soil, nature, and trees. He can smell the “bruisèd plant” (13) which signifies himself, a small, weak organism that is easily hurt. Finally, he “look[s] into the crater of the ant” (14). This last image represents society. The crater is the home, or confinement, while the ant is man or the populace. These two lines help to define the narrator and his choices.
Works Cited:
Frost, Robert. “The Vantage Point.” A Boy’s Will and North of Boston. Stanley Appelbaum, Gen. Ed. Shane Weller, Ed. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1991. 12. Located online at http://www.poemtree.com/VantagePoint.htm .
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