Do Good Fenses Really Make Good Neighbours

Do Good Fences Really Make Good Neighbours?

In the poem "Mending Wall" by Robert frost the speaker describes the day that he and his neighbour mend their fence every year. The speaker's view of his neighbour is that he is traditional and set in his ways. This is revealed in the speaker's opinion of the wall; the speaker's reaction to the neighbour's opinion of the wall; and in the speaker's description of his neighbour.

The speaker's opinion of the wall shows that the speaker thinks his neighbour is traditional and set in his ways. The speaker mends the wall every year after hunters damage it and he also mends it every spring with his neighbour however, he feels that "There where it is we do not need a wall" (Frost, 23). The fact that the speaker fixes a fence that he feels has no purpose shows that he respects the neighbour's need to have the fence. The speaker believes that the fence is pointless because the neighbour lives on top of a hill and therefore they are already separated by space. This is shown when the speaker states, "He is all pine and I am apple orchard./ My apple trees will never get across/ And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him" (24-26). This statement shows that the speaker feels that a fence should be used when animals or crops are the same and need separated so they don't become mixed, while the neighbour believes that a fence is needed to separate everything because that is how it has always been, and that is what he was taught. The speaker questions the fence and therefore shows that he is less set on tradition than his neighbour.

The speaker's reaction to the neighbour's opinion of the wall reveals that the speaker thinks his neighbour is traditional and set in his ways. The neighbour often tells the speaker that they need a wall because '"Good fences make good neighbours'" (27). The speaker's reaction to this opinion is that he would like to "put a notion in his head:/ 'Why do they make good neighbours'" (29-30). The fact that the speaker would like the neighbour to question his own opinion shows that the neighbour has probably never given any other reason for the fence, and his answer, which implies that fences are tradition, does not satisfy the speaker. The speaker questions why the neighbour has come to his conclusion that '"Good fences make good neighbours'". The speaker states that, "Before I built a wall I'd ask to know/ What I was walling in or out,/ And to whom I was to give offence" (32-34). This statement by the speaker implies that his neighbour needs to question the fence more and he too would see no reason for it. The speaker does not accept his neighbours idea that '"Good fences make good neighbours'" which shows that unlike his neighbour he does not think tradition is important and he can easily