North of Boston, written by Robert Frost, is a work of poems that deal with the issue of misunderstanding and miscommunication in relationships. Many of the works represent the conflict in family, platonic, and business realtionships caused by conflicting views on behalf of its members. But they also display that little interaction can be favorable to some and not to others. Due to fear, lack of communication, and conflicting beliefs, these relationships either die or refrain from ever forming. Using tone and diction and imagery/symbols, the poems "Mending Wall", "A Hundred Collars", and "Home Burial" (among all the other poems) convey a unified theme of the book. Separation from a relationship is caused when its members have contrasting personalities, fear of each other, or lack of communication of their emotions. .
In the poem "Mending Wall", Frost uses the narrator and his neighbor's time spent together to display the huge gap between them. Due to their contrasting personalities, they do not share a bond. Frost uses tone and diction to show that the narrator has a much more playful personality than his neighbor who seems fairly traditional. When questioning what source is ruining the wall which separates their homes, the narrator thinks, "I could say 'Elves' to him." (pg.29 l.36) Because he says "Elves", which is entirely random, the narrator's playful personality is made more clear to the reader, and it also shows the great contrast with the neighbor's view. The only time the neighbor speaks is when he says, "Good fences make good neighbours"(pgs. 28,29 l. 27,45), and this is "his father's saying" (pg. 29 l. 43). The fact that this was his father's saying and it is the only thing he says further clarifies his traditional view of relationships. The narrator shows the reader that they are so different when he states, "He is all pine and I am apple orchard." (pg. 28 l.24) These two very different types of trees display the difference between the two of them.
