Does this passage from a Robert Frost story accurately describe New Englanders?
>>7676105
No idea, but I do know that walls or fences work really well in forcing tenants of large areas of land to get along together.
>>7676105
Never been to New England but I'll take Bob's word for it.
>>7676105
I've felt, recently, this passage best describes the dictionary entry for neighbors.
>>7676109
Well, the story is about how neighbors keep out of each others lives as much as possible.
Good walls keep neighbors out of my life.
>>7676402
Do you agree with the narrator or the neighbor?
>>7676422
The narrator, although Ive never had nosy neighbor.
A good medium seems like it would be best.
>>7676433
I agree with the neighbor.
The narrator uses tricky wording and kind of has a negative tone where as the neighbor uses very simple language and only one line. I think the neighbor symbolizes an older simpler life.
Compare the lines:
"something there is that doesn't love a wall"
"good fences make good neighbors"
The narrator is frustrated that his neighbor can't explain his claim, but when he tries to support his own he is also unable to do it "i could say 'eleves' to him, but it's not elves exactly"
The neighbor is described by the narrator as a savage. When man first started civilization building walls was important to stop fights between people and to bring them together in a common goal. This extrapolated past building walls to builging cities, roads, etc.
I read it as a poem with kind of an unreliable narrator. You agree with him initially because you only hear his side of the story, but after careful reading you start to sympathize with the neighbor.
>>7676474
Also, fixing the wall is probably one of the few times the narrator and neighbor see each other. So the act of fixing it brings them closer together.
Notice the name is the mending wall, not mending the wall. This implies that the wall is doing the mending (to their relationship)
>>7676486
however, its the narrator that initiates any conversation. The neighbor would have otherwise not talked.
>>7677034
That is a good point.
If I had to defend my stance I would claim it's part of the unreliable narrator making the neighbor seem standoffish, savage and quiet.
