Type A Personality In Robert Frost's Birches

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Robert Frost’s Birches centralizes on the tension between reality and ideals. Thematically, there is a struggle as to whether or not it is possible, and more importantly, reasonable to escape life. For this reason the text can be interpreted in terms of two opposing readers: Type A and Type B personalities. It is commonly understood that the majority of people have mixed personality types; however, in order to have an effective analysis it is important to isolate the characteristics of the both. By taking on these extremes one could argue that the tension between the personalities reflects the tension between reality and ideal pair Reality with Type A personality and Ideals with Type B personality. To begin, it is important to understand the general attributes of each personality type. The fundamental characteristic of a Type A is a preoccupation with social status, accomplishment, and self esteem. Relaxation is often difficult for them and pragmatism is a principal feature of their personality. At the beginning of the poem the persona describes the biology behind the bending of birches, explaining that, “swinging doesn’t bend them …show more content…

In the context of Frost’s definitions, a Type A would be the adult and a Type B would be a child. In his poems Frost’s personas tend to see adulthood as a loss of imagination and illustrates it as monotonous and cruel. A Type B would be able to relate to this dislike of preoccupation with what is socially accepted as “successful”, whereas a Type A would see it in an entirely different light. The idea of growing up and becoming aware of success is what drives a Type A personality and in the context of “angel vs. devil”, the Type A would be urging the persona not to “get away from Earth” where the Type B would be supporting

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