Living in America is a unique experience for all of us. However, even with a common national home, we continue to erect boundaries around types and groups of people. The two poems, "Mending Wall- and "Pigeons- portray the feeling of American social boundaries.
Robert Frost's "Mending Wall- is about barriers people live within for no logical reason. Frost shows immediately that there is something wrong when he begins the poem with "something there is that doesn't love a wall-. The poem tells of two neighbors who seem to be second-generation landowners. They never discuss why, but every spring the two meet to walk along their respective sides of the wall and fix all the holes that have been created over the year. Although it is evident that they like the wall fixed once a year, they don't seem to mind the holes in the wall when their backs are turned. Leakage from one side to the other is not the entire reason behind the task. The speaker goes as far as to say to the stones themselves, "stay where you are until our backs are turned-. You see, there is no reason for the wall to be there. The land is used differently on either side and neither uses of land would be affected by the other sides usage. Frankly, The wall serves no real purpose. .
Our society is very similar. I live in Boston. We learned of many places for us not to go. Why? Nobody's ever asked. We have been told by our parents and grandparents to stay out of Roxbury, Shirley Ave. area and Mission Hill. And we obey. These are predominantly minority populations. Our Grandparents and parents have passes their barriers to us. The barrier is invisible, but very strong.
In the poem, the wall is a metaphor representing our societies traditional social walls. The neighbor in the poem claims good fences make good neighbors. These are not his words. They are the words of his father. He will not challenge the words of his father.