Robert Frost's Mending Wall

Sometimes we feel that isolation is the best way protect ourselves, our fears, secrets, and insecurities. In “ Mending Wall” Robert Frost describes the narrator and the neighbor having different positions on whether or not the wall between them, both literally and figuratively should be taken down. Robert Frost’s poem, “Mending Wall”, is about the relationship between the narrator and their neighbor. While the narrator states, “Something there that doesn’t love a wall”, suggesting that the neighbor believes the wall is no longer needed, the neighbor replies with,“Good fences make good neighbors”, disagreeing on the idea of removing the wall. The positions of these characters are neither right nor wrong based on their own reasoning on what is best to do with the wall. For it is their own experiences that define their needs for
walls both literally and figuratively.
In the poem the narrator is trying to break down their own figurative wall by wanting to remove the literal wall that stands between him or her and the neighbor in order to be with the neighbor.
The narrator has developed feelings for the neighbor over a long period of time since they rebuild the wall each year when it falls apart. The narrator states, “I let my neighbor know beyond the hill; and on a day we meet to walk the line and set the wall between us once again.” The narrator imagines what life without the wall would be like; the narrator tells the neighbor that he or she would respect the neighbor’s boundaries literally and in a sense figuratively when the narrator states, “My apple trees will never get across and eat the cones under his pine.” The narrator also believes the wall between them to be unnecessary when the narrator thinks, “If I could put the notion in his head: Why do they make good neighbors? Isn’t it where there are cows? But here there are no cows.” But each time the narrator suggests for the wall to be removed, the neighbor always responds with, “Good fences make good friends,” implying that the wall needs to
stay.
Though the narrator may see no reason for the wall from his or her perspective, the neighbor may find reason for it. The essential point of the poem is to recognize that while some may be open to giving a piece of themselves to those they meet, other may take more precautions. The neighbor is the ‘something that doesn’t love a wall’ and might be tempted with the narrator’s proposal of removing the wall when the narrator says, “Something there that doesn’t love a wall, that wants it down. I could say ‘Elves’ to him, but it’s not elves exactly, and I’d rather he said it for himself”;but the neighbor cannot let go of the saying that his father taught him, “Good fences make good neighbors.” The positions of these characters are neither right nor wrong based on their own reasoning on what is best to do with the wall. For it is their own experiences that define their needs for walls both literally and figuratively.