If These Walls Could Talk Growing up, I would stare at my walls as I tried to fall asleep. The textured finish danced in the glow my flickering nightlight, forming all types of different shapes and figures. My imagination created vivid scenes in my mind as I slowly dozed off. In my younger years, walls meant possibility and adventure when the lights went out, however, in the later years of my life this soon changed. As a young teenager, the walls of my room made me feel like an inmate, keeping me in my cell doing homework while many of my friends stayed out partying till the early morning. If my own perspective on the same wall changed simply by the passing of time, surely there was much more to be discovered about this word. In its …show more content…
Issues of racism are unfortunately prominent in the world we live in today. With sides forming fast, walls arise between different people groups, dividing them, as well as our country. Political views also have a tendency of forming walls between people who otherwise would get along. Someone’s support or dislike of a certain politician or policy creates barriers between people. In this sense a wall is an invisible psychological barrier between two or more people. One place where a wall has been passionately discussed is in the White House. One of Mr. Trump’s foundational promises was to build a wall along the border of the U.S. This wall’s purpose is to keep drugs and illegal immigrants from entering the country. This controversial policy ironically has divided more than just the U.S. and Mexico. Interestingly enough, this is not the first time a wall has been a major political focus. Most people are familiar with the Berlin wall. This structure stood as a literal barrier between the East and West sides of Germany from 1961 to 1989. In addition to separating the physical country it also served as an ideological divide between the communist views of the East, and the U.S. influenced West. The hip-hop artist Kendrick Lamar gives us his perspective in his song “These Walls”. Kendrick uses the simple concept of a wall in several ways. He starts verse one and two with the phrase “If these walls could talk” while verse 3 starts “If your
In the mid-nineteenth century Romantic trend in American Literature, authors often used the idea of “walls’ that human beings place between themselves and others both physically and symbolically. Unlike a fence of gate, which imply a way in or out, a wall is a sound structure. A wall is a barrier to block someone else out, or is it used to block yourself in?
The narrator in ‘Mending Wall’ states, “Before I built the wall I’d ask to know what I was walling in or walling out.”
Last year when Donald Trump became President of the United States he wanted to build a wall that would seperate the U.S. from Mexico. He wanted to do this to stop any illegal drugs, terrorists, or weapons from crossing the border. Athough it was a good idea, many people were
Butler first employs the wall on an institutional level. Lauren Olamina lives in a walled neighborhood, largely shielded from the violence and crime of the world outside. At the beginning of the novel, as Lauren begins to set the scene of her cul-de-sac community, she comments on the wall’s presence as she and her stepmother look out at the sky, “The neighborhood wall is a massive, looming presence nearby. I see it as a crouching animal, perhaps about to spring, more threatening than protective.” (Butler, 5) The personification of the wall serves to show that walls are manmade, and therefore incredibly
The use of conversation and the thoughts of the narrator reflect the poet's own thoughts. In line thirty to line thirty-five, the narrator questions the purpose of a wall. He has an open disposition and does not understand the need to “wall in” or “wall out” (line 33) anything or anyone.
The 45th president of the United States of America, Donald J. Trump, is a political man who has many ideas to improve the U.S. One of the many idea he had included building a wall between the borders of the United States and Mexico for the “purpose of controlling immigration into America”. According to Trump this wall is supposed to help our country with its national security. In reality though, many people believe that the wall is showing Trumps true colors. Many people are contemplating on the fact if Trump is a racist person who is building the wall because it provides a method of targeting and preventing those who are trying to cross the Mexican-American Border. In reality, Trump only cares about trying to make “America Great Again”, and
The wall that Bowden discusses is the barrier between the United States and the country of Mexico to the south. He uses the terms fences, borders, and barricades. Part of the wall is constructed of metal. Other portions are concrete. Each of the materials that are used is hard and designed to be uncomfortable and discouraging to those who see it, effectively creating both a physical and psychological barrier between acceptable and unacceptable populations. The purpose of the wall, according to Bowden, is to keep a certain population out of the United States. Mexican illegal immigrants are crossing the border into the United States in large numbers. For the American government, illegal immigration is an unacceptable set of circumstances and the purpose of erecting a wall was to keep those people from crossing the border into the United States. Bowden explains that the wall is effective only until the point when inclination and desire of the excluded population overcomes the existence of the wall. People will then cross over it or crash through it. If their will is strong enough, then the people will be able to overcome the wall, making its presence outdated and ineffectual. Since people overcome the wall, there is no need to keep the wall or to provide moneys to either enlarge it or for the upkeep of the wall. Each
‘Our Wall’; written by Charles Bowden; is one of the essays focused on border problems, especially with the illegal immigrants and smuggling; and the wall to prevent the same. The author is an American non-fiction author, journalist, and essayist who mainly depicts the realism, and presents it to the society with the hope of change. In this essay, ‘Our Wall’, he cites the wall is made by U.S in order to control the illegal immigrants from Mexico. The essay collects views and comments before and after the establishment of wall of the people from both sides. This essay seems to be in against of the wall, which generally breaks up the personal ties and humanitarian relationship of the people in and out of the wall, and the wall stands still
Usually walls are put into places to avoid people to cross borders and keep peace but they destroy peace. Recently one could have heard in the News that Trump wants the Mexicans to pay for a wall between Mexico and the United States. This Wall should make it impossible for people to cross the border unofficially. As one could know from history classes, we had a wall in Germany for many years which was built by the winner countries of the second world war for a similar reason. Before the Wall, many people from East Germany tried to escape to West Germany where they had obviously better living conditions. It divided Germany in East and West Germany. Additionally, there was a part of Berlin, what was in the East German part, isolated from a huge wall that belonged to West Germany. This wall made it hard for the citizens of East Germany to visit West Germany. The Government of East Germany had other principles than the government of West Germany and it was not in the interest of the East German government to show their citizens how good their life could be in West Germany. After the falling of the Wall, it was possible for everyone to travel in Germany whenever they want without standing in line at the borders. But there was a big gap in wealth between East and West Germany. Even today the loans in West Germany are lower and the federal states have less money than the ones in West Germany. But in Berlin, one can visit ruins of the Berlin Wall which are colored and painted. As one could know from visiting Berlin, there is only a small part of the Wall left but at other parts, one could find the position of the wall with marked flagging on the ground. Additionally, one could buy a piece of the wall as a souvenir. Standing in front of the ruins of the Berlin wall inspires this realization: Peace is about breaking barriers not building them.
The United States and Mexico border fence has been a recent debate with the people because of the irresistible flow of Mexican illegal in the United States. Living in the lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas, I may be able to see a huge wall or fence being built on our border with Mexico. Other than the economic recession we have to this day, people still have their views and opinions expressed on another topic, the “segregation” wall. Some express opinions on whether this wall will keep illegal immigrants out, others speak on how this is a total disaster both financially and emotionally as in this wall being referred to as “racist”.
In previous years, many countries and territories around the world have attempted to build walls, and many have had very much success. For example, Most of the walls built after World War 2 and the Cold War still exist today. There were a total of 110 walls built between that time period. Professor Nazli Avdan led a study that had a goal of identifying if a border wall reduced or increased the risk of a transnational terrorist attack. This study found that since the year 1900, transnational terrorist attacks have seen a thirteen percent annual decrease in countries with border walls (Border fences reduce...attacks). This has been a real focal point that President Donald Trump has used to get people to agree with him. Another reason of his includes the disrupting of the funneling of illicit money and drugs into the United States of America (Border fences reduce...attacks). The bonus of the building of the wall is that it will be a visible sign of the government taking action.
Similar to “Acquainted with the Night,” isolation is a major theme in “Mending Wall.” In “Mending Wall,” there are two characters: the speaker and the neighbor. The two characters have two different opinions on what make a “good neighbor.” The neighbor views walls as a crucial object in
We also see walls/doors as a symbol that is ensuring the isolation of the characters. Each character will be analyzed through the text first, and then I will analyze using other critics’ perspective on the issue.
However, when the responders’ delves deeper into the poem, it is clear that at a allegorical level the wall is a metaphor representing the barrier that exists in the neighbours’ friendship. The first eleven lines of the poem if rife with imagery that describes the dilapidation of the wall. The first line of the poem emphasises that “something” exists that “doesn’t love a wall”. This personification makes the “something” seem human-like. The use of words such as “spills” and “makes gaps” convey an image of animate actions and create a vivid impression of the degradation of the wall. Nature, presented in the form of cold weather, frost and the activities of creatures, also seeks to destroy the wall. The idea that walls are unnatural and therefore nature abhors walls is portrayed in the phrase “makes gaps even two can pass abreast”, which metaphorically indicates that nature desires for man to walk side by side with no barrier between them. When the two meet to fix the wall, it is a metaphor that could be interpreted as the two repairing their friendship as “To each the boulders have fallen to each” which shows that faults in their relationship lie on behalf of them both. While they are mending the wall, a light-hearted tone is established. This is shown through the inclusion of the metaphor “spring is mischief in me” which shows the neighbours having fun together in repairing the wall,
“The parallel plots of a novel… would act in the reader's mind and perhaps the author's as a kind of splitting” (Holland). Frost meant the wall to embody the physical and psychological boundaries people set up to maintain their privacy. The narrator tone for most of the poem is ironic, because he expresses his desire to rid himself of the wall “There where it is we do not need the wall” (Frost 245), but he repairs it nonetheless, “I have come after them and made repair” (Frost 245). Frost introduces the reader with different causes for the recurring destruction of the wall. The narrator’s first possible cause is nature, but does Frost means a force of nature? His choice of words where “Frozen-ground-swell” (Frost 245), which is another way of saying Frost. The poet might be indicating that in actuality he is the one that want the wall destroyed. The second possible reason for the wall’s destruction is the hunters. The narrator constantly expresses his dislike of the wall, but is quick to reprimand anyone who destroys it; in this case the hunters. The narrator’s act of patching the wall when damaged, is a clear sign that he yearns for a psychological to distance him from the neighbor. This ironic tone continues throughout the poem, but it is never completely clear it the speaker wants the wall removed for good, or keep it as it is. The neighbor on the other hand,