Analyzing Multiple Interpretations of a Source Text
The Goal: Analyze multiple interpretations of a story, play, or poem, evaluating how each version interprets the source text.
Source Text
The Road Not Taken - Poem by Robert Frost
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
1. What seems to be the speaker's main point?
2. What line in the text led you to your answer for number 1?
3. What could be symbolic about these two roads? What could they represent in life?
2. What line in the text led you to your answer for number 1?
3. What could be symbolic about these two roads? What could they represent in life?
Interpretation 1 - Short Film
1. In what way was this interpretation different from the source text? Think about location (setting), subject matter, etc.
2. What did the paths or roads in this interpretation seem to represent?
2. What did the paths or roads in this interpretation seem to represent?
Interpretation 2 - Stop Motion Film
1. In what way was this interpretation different from the source text? Think about location (setting), subject matter, etc.
2. What did the paths or roads in this interpretation seem to represent?
2. What did the paths or roads in this interpretation seem to represent?