The Separation Of Friendships In Reagan's Wall

The Berlin Wall had been in place for 26 years. Increasing unrest was occurring in Berlin, and at this crucial time Ronald Reagan, as several presidents had done before him, traveled to the Brandenburg Gate, seen by most as the symbolical center of the wall. On June 12, 1987, he then spoke of peace between the USSR and the Western world, while motivating Berliners to help take down the wall and come together as a nation once more. Throughout the speech “Remarks at the Brandenburg Gate”, by Ronald Reagan, he makes use of imagery as well as appeals to ethos and pathos to incite the German people to rise up and destroy the Berlin Wall, reunifying Germany.

In his poem 'Mending Wall', Robert Frost presents to us the thoughts of barriers linking people, communication, friendship and the sense of security people gain from barriers. His messages are conveyed using poetic techniques such as imagery, structure and humor, revealing a complex side of the poem as well as achieving an overall light-hearted effect. Robert Frost has cleverly intertwined both a literal and metaphoric meaning into the poem, using the mending of a tangible wall as a symbolic representation of the barriers that separate the neighbors in their friendship.

Ronald Reagan, the fortieth president of the United States, was formerly an actor and a politician. While studying economics and sociology in college, he acted in school plays and became a radio sports announcer, and from that, he began starring in movies which gave him a lot of popularity, leading to becoming elected in the elections. One of his most notable speeches is "Tear Down This Wall", Reagan addressed it the Brandenburg Gate in Germany on June 12, 1987, in which he was calling out the Soviet Union leader, Mr. Gorbachev, asking him to "tear down the wall" referring to the Berlin wall. He addressed this speech to Mr. Gorbachev aspiring to seek peace and prosperity for the Soviet Union and eastern Europe. In this speech, the appeal of pathos is used to emotionally move the audience to create excitement, logos in the form of facts to make reasonable arguments and ethos to show how trustworthy he is.

On November 9, 1989 the Berlin wall came crumbling down. For 28 years the wall did nothing but make everyone's life worse. However, when the wall fell everyone’s lives were about to be impacted for the better. Families were reunited, friends saw each other again, and peace was restored. The fall of the wall marked the winding down of the Cold War, and started a new age where communism would cease to exist. Much of the credit was being given to Ronald Reagan, who had visited the wall just a few years earlier. When Reagan gave his “Tear down this wall” speech, no one could’ve predicted, that it would lead to the tearing down of the Berlin Wall, and the eventual end of the cold war. Although as a result all communist governments in Eastern Europe had come to an end, would be replaced by “democratically elected governments”. With all this, there was a glimpse of peace and a time of rejoicing for all of the world. ("Fall of

Frost uses the phrase “Mending Wall” to show that the relationship between the narrator and the neighbor is not being repaired. The poem focuses on two men who meet amongst a wall to stroll and make repairs. The narrator feels that the wall shouldn’t be there. He states that, “...We do not need the wall: He is all pine and I am apple orchard, my apples will never get across.(Frost) On the other hand, the neighbor feels that the wall is needed and simply states that, “

"For I join you, as I join your fellow countrymen in the west, in this firm, this unalterable belief: there is only one Berlin." This short excerpt from Ronald Reagan's speech, "Tear Down This Wall" relates to how I feel about the wall. I feel that there should be no wall dividing the country. There are many downfalls with having this wall, both physically and emotionally. Having this wall means there is no freedom, less job opportunities, it separates friends and families, and not only does it affect the environment but people around it too, and not in a positive way. By keeping the wall we would only be hurting ourselves, if we tore it down, there would be much more opportunities and less conflicts within the country.

Have you ever been moved or inspired by a speech? The speech “Tear down this wall” spoken by Ronald Reagan is a speech that highlights and the problems with the Berlin Wall. The purpose of this speech is to convince the listeners that the Berlin wall is an enormous problem and needs to be taken care of. This speech also tries to invoke the emotions of the listeners by giving some examples of how the wall is hurting the people in Berlin and Europe in general. “Tear down this wall” by Ronald Reagan uses logos, ethos, and pathos to persuade the audience that the Berlin Wall is bad.

Reagan’s speech was not truly about the wall, but about the greater issue of freedom and Democracy. His message was intended to show the oppression of Communism and to promote Democracy throughout the world. This shows clearly why Reagan chose this particular

Frost considers the interaction between the two men to be nothing more than a foolish game. He uses language which makes the process of wall mending seem structured and organized in the manner of a game. The two men "walk the line" as they "keep the wall between us as we go". Frost makes the men seem like opponents in this "kind of outdoor game", as they are positioned "one on a side". Thus as they work together,

On June 12, 1987 President Ronald Reagan gave his speech “Tear Down this Wall,” in Brandenburg Gate West Berlin Reagan begins by discussing the purpose of the Berlin Wall and how the Communists in August of 1961 built it to keep the Germans from escaping Communist-dominated East Berlin into Democratic West Berlin, that this wall was more than just a wall; it was a stark symbol of decades of a Cold War between the United States and Soviet Russia only to stop short of actual warfare. By giving this speech Reagan had intended to rally the people of West Berlin so the people would accept the western democracy and oppose the Berlin Wall. Due to Reagan being president the words he said had so much impact, he was able to use these appeals towards the German people and provide a very convincing argument.

The Berlin Wall symbolized the political differences between East and West Germany. East Germany was ruled by Marxism, while West Germany was a free democratic state. Many East Germans were not fond of their circumstances, and as a result, they fled to West Germany. Around 2.7 million East Germans fled to the West (“The construction of the Berlin Wall”). The East was on the brink of social collapse because of this. East Germans were oppressed, while West Germans had many rights. A picture from German Missions in the United States shows a peaceful protest against the construction of the Wall (“Images of the Berlin Wall” 4). Three little boys hold a sign which translates to “freedom” in English. This picture exemplifies how many East Germans disapproved of the construction of the Berlin Wall, and wanted to be one with West Germany. The Berlin Wall represented the contrast in politics between the two German states.

Frost used a distinct way of writing throughout his poem that not only hooked the reader into the story, but also made them question their own views of walls, both physical and psychological. In the poem it is displayed that walls can be both good and bad. The wall that the narrator sees as the embodiment of what separates them, it is actually the one thing that brings them together every spring. Near the end, the narrator brings back the original question, what is the something? With this poem, maybe Frost wanted the reader to examine themselves and their surroundings and try to answer the question of tradition, and how they unite us and separates us at the same time. The narrator’s neighbor is the personification of the old ways and custom in the poem, it is evident as he is constantly repeating “good fences make good neighbors” (Frost 245) and the fact that “he will not go behind his father’s saying” (Frost 246). Even though, good fences make good neighbors is a well-known proverb, people will eventually ask themselves: Why is it necessary to have fences to build good

     However there is also a separation or segregation. In addition to the separation of the two men, Frost contrasts his “wall” of separation with the idea of segregation in our society. He uses this “wall” to display a separation between people in the current social climate. Lastly, there is the recurring idea that the wall should not be there. “We do not need the wall” This sentence implies that the wall separating us as people, needs to

In Roberts, Mending Wall, he expresses the alienation within our society. This story was and is very controversial throughout history. Written in 1914, it became widely known for its connection with racism and segregation. In 1960, Frost was asked to read it for President John F. Kennedy’s inauguration. In JFK’s inauguration speech, he declared, “We observe today not a victory of party, but a celebration of freedom”(Kennedy), which shows how he felt about segregation. This created a skirmish throughout the U.S., because this poem was so controversial. The poem, which was a memory when Frost was a young boy, consists of him walking the line. Walking the line means picking up rocks that had falling from the ice melting, recreating the fence between you and your neighbor. Frost suggests alienation in this story by using symbolism of the lines between African Americans and white folk. In the poem he asks the question, “Why do they make good neighbors”(line 30)? An interpretation of this line is that he is asking the question, ‘why do we have these lines between our people? There is no reasons to have these lines separating us?’. The poem suggests that we get into routines and then never break them because we have done them for generations. Frost challenges this, asking questions that are very hard to answer.