Mending Wall

In Robert Frost’s “Mending Wall,� there is a relationship being portrayed between two men and a fence that they put up every spring. This poem consists of two characters: the narrator (poet) and his neighbor (farmer). In this poem the two neighbors are mending a stone wall that separates their property. The wall mending has been a pastime of the neighbors for many years and occurs every spring. Over the winter the wall has fallen victim to both hunters and the frozen ground and, therefore, contains gaps that must be filled. In the poem the narrator questions the sense of even mending the wall. He concludes that neither of the farms contain animals, only trees, which would be enough of a boundary. There is no physical need for the wall, so why go through the trouble of fixing it every year for no apparent reason. Although the narrator is right the ignorant neighbor insists that they mend the wall by saying "Good fences make good neighbors."(Frost 27) The neighbor repeats this saying although he doesn't know why the wall is necessary nor does he know why it will make them better neighbors. Frost is criticizing the ignorance of the neighbor here.
The difference between the poet and the farmer is evident

3. Definition of Man, Kenneth Burke

Mending Wall is almost parallel to a popular Pink Floyd song, Another Brick in the Wall. The speakers of the song are students and the poem is directed towards teachers. In this song, as in Mending Wall, a barrier is discussed, but this time it is a psychological barrier instead of a physical one. This barrier has been put up by society and is being built up by the teachers. The students are calling out against this building up of the wall. The song says, "All in all you're (teachers) just another brick in the wall."(Floyd) This barrier being put up is restraining the students' freedom of thought, a process that has gone on and become reinforced over a long period of time. Floyd has realized this barrier and is calling out against it as he says: "We don't need no thought control."(Floyd) The barrier put up by education is just as unnecessary to Floyd as the stone wall is to Frost. The teachers in the song are doing the same thing that the neighbor's father did in the poem, reinforced and insured a lack of communication and, therefore, ignorance in the next generation.

Frost describes the neighbor "like an old-stone savage armed. He moves in darkness as it seems to me."(Frost 41) This darkness is the ignorance that he displays as he mends the fence. Frost wants to break up the barriers set up by mankind. These barriers are what keep people from questioning or even contemplating things that happen in every day life. These barriers are often subconsciously put up and strengthened by society and may control