Frost also expresses human emasculation when nature attacked the structures humans built that are thought to be strong and durable. Although really in reality human structures crumbles before the force of nature. In the poem through the comparison of the very different narrator and neighbor, Frost uses images of nature in dominant force that eventually destroys human endeavors, and shows the absurdity of rebuilding both literal and figurative walls that some universal force wants down.
In this poem the narrator is described as a childlike free spirit that seems to question why he and his neighbor always rebuild a wall that is torn down every year by nature. At the beginning of the poem the narrator introduces a wall: “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall, / That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it” (lines 1-2).
The narrator describes a thing McPhail, Courtney 2 that doesn’t love a wall as nature. The frozen ground is hard and swells as it causes the wall to become brittle. And spills the upper boulders in the sun, / And makes gaps even two can pass abreast” (lines 3-4).
These lines are describing the upper boulders being damaged by the sun which causes erosion or ‘gaps’ in the structure. Also the narrator is very imaginative as stated by “That wants it down. ‘ I could say ‘Elves’ to him, / But it’s not elves exactly, and I’d rather /He said it for himself” (37-39).
This also describes the narrator by saying he wants to say this to his neighbor jokingly but doesn’t because he rather the neighbor say it to him.
The Essay on Mending Wall Nature Frost One
DISCUSS THE EFFECTS OF THE WRITING IN MENDING WALL, SHOWING HOW FAR AND IN WHAT WAYS THIS POEM SEEMS CHARACTERSITIC OF FROSTS METHODS AND CONCERNS. CONSIDER: CHARACTER OF NARRATOR TONE IMAGERY SYMBOLS IM RELATION TO OTHER POEMS Before answering this question one must first classify what the Frosts main methods and concerns are. Throughout Frosts poem one sees a pattern developing. He seems a ...
The neighbor is described as more private and traditional. The one thing the neighbor replies to the narrator every time he questions why they keep rebuilding the wall he states “Good fences make good neighbors. ” This shows how they are not only separating the two neighbors’ lands but also the mental walls’ neighbors put up to keep everything and everyone out. With the title of this poem being” Mending Wall” it is extremely ironic in itself. The walls humans build are built as barriers and ways to keep each other separated.
The wall brings two neighbors together when it needs to be mended; this wall separates the property lines between the two lands. The author uses the imagery of the two neighbor’s lands as representations of themselves; apples representing the narrator, while pine trees and pine cones representing the neighbor. While rebuilding the wall the narrator begins to question why only one land consists of apple trees while the other only has pine trees: “as If I could put a notion in his head: /’Why do they make good neighbors?
Isn’t it/ Where there are cows? /But here there are no cows” (29-32).
The narrator is stating that he would understand the reason for a wall if one McPhail, Courtney 3 had livestock and the other didn’t but neither of them did so he felt as if the wall useless. With the mending of this wall both the narrator and the neighbor begins to look forward to it each year because it becomes their excuse to go interact with each other. With each boulder they put up they also are tearing down a mental boulder between themselves.
In conclusion Frost uses both imagery and symbolism to express that human nature not only tries to build physical walls and structures but also mental walls. As said throughout the poem ‘ good fences make good neighbors’ in essence this is a true statement as the mending of this wall between two properties forces the two neighbors together to find friendship and companionship. The narrator and the neighbor also may be building the wall year after year to renew their bonds with each other, since the narrator stated that the fence really wasn’t needed in-between their two properties.
The Essay on The Yellow Wall paper Journey Into Madness
The Yellow Wall-paper - Journey into Madness In her short story "The Yellow Wall-paper", Charlotte Perkins Gilman consistently rejected conventional mental health "cures" that failed to deal with individual, typically female, needs in relation to the need for compassionate and supportive communities which, recognizes poor mental health as fundamentally a social, rather than biological, problem. ...
Even though at the beginning of the poem it seems that the walls are not a good thing, the narrator makes you feel as if the walls, both physical and mental, are a good thing by the end of the poem. McPhail, Courtney 4 Work Cited Frost, Robert. “Mending Wall. ” The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature: Reading, Thinking, Writing. Ed. Michael Myer. 9th Ed. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin’s, 2012. 875-876.
