Social Segregation in 'Wall Mending' by Robert Frost

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Social Segregation in “Wall Mending” by Robert Frost
Robert Frost’s “Mending Wall” is a mockery of the rules, traditions, and customs that create social barriers between people. In its literal meaning, a wall creates a physical barrier between people. However, the speaker thinks that there is something in humans that does like the idea of having such barriers between people. The speaker states this fact in the first line when he says that “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall.” This personification of something unknown creates a mystery, suggesting that there are secret forces that do not like walls. Lines 2-4 say that this something makes the ground to swell and remove boulders from the wall, creating a huge gap through which two people can pass. The speaker says that this may be the work of hunters who sometimes break through the wall to catch hiding rabbits for their dogs (5-9). However, the gaps the speaker talks about are a mystery because no one has ever seen or heard them being made; they just appear during spring time (11-13). The speaker then has to notify his neighbor who lives beyond the hill to come and mend the gaps. The speaker further says that they remain on the opposite sides of the wall as they mend it. This suggests that the speaker and his neighbor do not like socializing together, and the wall they mend is meant to keep them apart. Lines 16-17 suggest that the speaker and his neighbor like keeping their problems private, and are not willing to help each other. He states that “To each the boulders that have fallen to each/ And some are loaves and some so nearly balls.” The use of repetition (to each) emphasizes the characters’ sense of individualism- they like minding their own business. The reference to superstition in lines 18-20 suggests that the characters have got no logical reason to like what they are doing. Since superstition is not based on scientific fact, the ...