“Youth is a mistake; Virility is a struggle, old age a regret.” Throughout history, age has followed men and women to the ends of the earth, always bringing with it regrets. The relationship between age and regret is widely used in literary works to express the regret that characters feel for both their mistakes and their youthful experiences. In “Birches”, by Robert Frost, the narrator regrets not being able to relive his past and shows that he would give anything to become a child again. In Old School, by Tobias Wolff, Dean Makepeace regrets letting a lie incarnate him and guide his life down a lying path that leads to dark places. In both Old School and “Birches,” the central characters regret not being able to return to a bygone era, which leads to depression and loneliness. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay First, in Old School, Dean Makepeace regrets letting on that he knew Ernest Hemingway, because the lie has caused him so much pain in recent years. course of his life. In the resolution of the novel, Dean Makepeace's journey is revealed to readers and shows why he could no longer stand being the subject of a lie. Dean Makepeace thinks: “This boy had falsely claimed a story, when he himself had falsely claimed so much more – a kind of importance, a life that was not his.” The dean is forced to falsely claim a life that is not his in light of rumors started by students who asked him about his relationship with Hemingway once over lunch. Everything readers understand about Makepeace has been distorted over the years, he let a rumor take hold and didn't stop it when he could. He obviously regrets this mistake and while explaining his story to the principal, shows that he would give anything to go back to his younger years and change the mistake. However, he knows he cannot do this and must live with the consequences of being known as someone he could never be. Even after the principal tries to convince Makepeace that the lie was not his fault and therefore not his fault, the dean responds, “Thank you, John”… …“Bless your heart. I really have to go.” This submissive attitude can largely be attributed to the fact that Makepeace knows it has done something wrong and can do nothing to fix it. This life-changing mistake that the dean makes results in a burden that will weigh on Makepeace for years. Next, the narrator of "Birches", a man who appears to be in the final years of his life, reflects on how he would give anything to become a child again, as he regrets the loss of his previous life. Frost portrays the narrator with a kind of desire to be immature and ignorant of everything given to him, showing once again that the promises of adulthood have not lived up to the narrator's expectations. The narrator tells how he "was"... ... "once a birch swinger himself/And so he dreams of becoming again". By using the language “he is dreaming,” Frost conveys to the readers that the narrator understands that he cannot return to his past, but that he is dreaming. The narrator wishes he could swing the birch trees again like he did in his youth because of the joy he once felt. However, in the present, he goes through a crisis where he no longer knows what to do with his life, forcing him to look back on his simplistic youth. The narrator's dissatisfaction with his living condition is.