Thesis For Mending Wall

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.

Perhaps the neighbor feels not only an obligation to maintain something he inherited from his father, but also feels like he needs to keep the thoughts and beliefs that were passed down to him by his father. Maybe there is some old distrust of one family for the other? Or maybe there is an element of racism, even though race is never mentioned? Maybe one man’s religious beliefs are different from the others? If feelings or beliefs are the reason for the barrier, then the wall in the poem may represent how people in general behave toward those who are different.

From reading this poem call “Where There`s a Wall”, by Joy Kogawa. I get this feeling that the wall Kogawa is talking about in this poem, is a symbol that is used to represent a problem. This is based on the facts that in the begin lines of the poem. Kogawa suggest many different options by using literal imagery to try to overcome this obstacle in front of him. Kogawa evens mentions in the beginning lines of the poem that “where there is a wall there is a way around, over, through” it too.

While the narrator seems more willing to reach out to his neighbor, in the end, he does not. He does wonder why fences supposedly make good neighbors. For him, the question is what is he "walling in or walling out"? He seems to realize that he is "walling out" other people. As long as the symbolic wall stands between the neighbors, they will always be separated. Earlier in the poem, Frost uses the symbolism of a rabbit to seemingly reinforce this point. The hunters must destroy the wall in order to "have the rabbit out of hiding". The men, in turn must break down the walls between them if they are to come out of "hiding". The narrator seems to have a desire to point this out to his neighbor. However, he does not, simply dismissing his idea as "the mischief" that spring has instilled in him. He realizes that he is unable to communicate with his neighbor in any meaningful fashion and, thus, remains in isolation from him.

The first line of the poem states that nature does not love the wall. This is a strong statement that nature does not promote the way in which society separates itself from one another. Nature does not see differences based upon race, customs, or any social reason for segregation. In Mother Nature's view we are all one in the same. The yapping dogs in line 9 represent the cries of society to keep the wall or barrier to separate themselves from what makes them uncomfortable. The fact that the two neighbors meet to talk about the mending of the wall yet do not cross the barrier to meet on common ground, is an example of how people can appear to integrate with each other yet maintain their own invisible barriers.

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

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.

Furthermore, there are various viewpoints concerning the poem’s target, but the most common one is the neighbor’s display of property rights. The wall symbolizes an act of protection as most Americans feel the need to defend the land that legally belong to them. The hundreds of “No Trespassing” signs around state lands indication the seriousness of this topic. Philosopher Zev Trachtenberg emphasizes on this aspect in “Good Neighbors Make Good Fences: Frost's "Mending Wall,"” by asserting that “the neighbor thus personifies a position on property that disvalues community. Property is marked by walls, whose main function in his view is precisely to divide people-more importantly even than dividing their goods.” This is not shocking considering

Our speaker’s perspective, “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall” (1), questions the purpose of the division. It is a youthful, curious perspective, as is shown in line 28 “Spring is the mischief in me…” (28). Throughout the poem, our speaker tends to question the natural ways of the world, and in specific extension, the purpose of the wall. He asks various questions about why the wall exists philosophically, saying “Why do they (good fences) make good neighbors? …” in line 30, and in lines 32 and 33, “Before I built a wall I’d ask to know / What I was walling in or walling out,”. We will establish his perspective more thoroughly later, as it is one of the primary focuses of the poem, but in brevity, his perspective is youthful, and questioning of

The speaker continues to talk about what tears down the wall by stating it “sends the frozen-ground swell under it, And spills the upper boulders in the sun; And makes gaps even two can pass” (lines 2-4). The thing that tore down the wall symbolizes love. No human,

The fundamental topic in Robert Frost 's poem Mending Wall is an examination between two ways of life: customs and a sound judgment. The creator gives us a photo, representing two neighbors, two unmistakable characters with various thoughts regarding what decisively intends to be a decent neighbor. So they manufacture and repair the divider between them each spring after devastations, made by nature and seekers. They do it without fail, again and again, so the speaker puts the inquiry on the off chance that they require this divider by any means. Ice is drawing propensity and conventions on one side and rationales and thinking on another. The speaker

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,

Before attitudes can be discussed first the poem's moral must be decided. "Mending Wall" does not take the approach of right and wrong, rather it shows two perspectives. There is the speaker who seeks a "release from the dull ritual of work each spring" and the farmer, "who is trapped by work and the New England past" (Lentricchia 106). Two

In “Mending Wall”, Robert Frost made us aware that something doesn’t love the wall in the beginning of the poem, the wall that symbolizes boundary and obstacle between people. Although this restrictive wall gives protection and a feeling of safety for the people who are inside it, it also creates a huge barrier to the people who are on the outside. The only difference between a physical wall and an imaginary barrier is that a physical wall will eventually fall apart as time goes by, but the emotional one on the other hand will only get bigger. Does Frost agree with his neighbor on the perspective of relationship between people, or do they each hold a different idea?