Mending Wall by Robert Frost - Essay Example

The boundary limit may equip a person to determine his place in the world, but it can also conclude, limit it; border can turn into a prison. Stone walls are characteristic for farming areas of New England, but Frost`s fence becomes a metaphorical sense: that is all that separates one person from another, all the barriers that separate people, culture and country. Every year, two neighbors meet to repair the stone wall that divides their property. The narrator does not believe that a wall must exist simply for the sake of existing.

It is impossible to miss, that the natural world does not like the wall as he does. Boulders fall for no reason and mysterious gaps appear. The neighbor, on the other hand, is sure that “Good fences make good neighbors.” (Frost 28) So, the wall is an important unessential part of their relationship and lives. Irony is in the fact that while the narrator thinks he is trying to begrudge the annual endless repairing of the wall, Frost points out that the narrator is actually more active than the neighbor.

It is the narrator who selects the day for mending and informs his neighbor across the property. Despite his skeptical attitude, it seems that the narrator is trying to continue the tradition the tradition of wall-mending more than his neighbor. With such attitude he tries justify his own behavior to himself, asking skeptical questions. The presence of the wall between the properties does ensure a quality relationship between the two neighbors. The narrator and his neighbor continue their work and dialogue.

This gives them a chance to maintain their individuality and personal identity as farmers. “He is all pine and I am apple orchard” (Frost 28). The annual act of mending the wall gives both of them an opportunity to speak, communicate with each other. It is an event that might not otherwise occur in an isolated rural environment. On principle, Frost`s creative process involved