Yet Another Brick in the Wall

“Mending Wall” by Robert Frost tells a story of two neighbors who, year after year, meet to mend the wall between their properties. The two neighbors have differing opinions on the necessity of the wall. The narrator of the story discusses the idea that the wall is not necessary, and the neighbor disagrees by saying “good fences make good neighbors.”

The narrator in the poem has a very clear opinion of the necessity of the wall. He first states “there where it is we do not need the wall” since the wall is unnecessary because he already has an apple orchard and his neighbor has pine trees to separate them. When the narrator discloses this to the neighbor, the neighbors only response is “good fences make good neighbors.” The narrator seeks to create mischief by asking “why do they make good neighbors?” further stating that he would understand the purpose of this wall if he and the neighbor were to have cattle to retain on their properties. The narrator would also like to a

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” This statement presents the thought that the wall between these two properties could just be serving the function of keeping the two neighbors lives completely separate from each other. Perhaps the neighbor is right in saying “good fences make good neighbors. ” By this, the narrator could be commenting that the wall is not just to divide property but to divide the two men. In the end, the neighbors opinion will overrule that of the narrator and the . One must also look at the neighbors only line of dialogue to receive insight into his character. As the narrator of the poem is caught up in his own thoughts and daydreams of how the wall is uncalled for, the neighbor is still determined to mend the wall to the best of his ability. This kind of determination could give us insight into the life of this neighbor. ” Given that

the wall is ultimately mended in the end, whether the narrator helps of not, one can presume that the poem values the view of the neighbor. If there was no fence, one might take that as a cue to trespass and invade the lives of ones neighbors. The act of rebuilding the wall together is also a sign of good neighbors, this way one may never say that the other is responsible for the deterioration of the wall during the winter months because the two neighbors built this wall together. The wall is acting as a barrier, so as not to let the neighbors be involved in each others personal affairs. sk, before building a wall, “what I was walling in or walling out.

Though the two neighbors had very differing opinions on the necessity of the wall, one saying that is was actually not necessary at all and one saying that the wall might be beneficial in the end, this did not discourage the neighbor from continuing with the mending process.

The neighbor in this poem, although a man of very few words, has a strong opinion on the validity of the wall. His only real line of dialogue is “good fences make good neighbors.

Approximate Word count = 686
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

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