Student Essay on Frost's Mending Wall

Explains the two opposing ideas in Frost's powem "Mending Wall," as supplied by the two neighbors. Describes how Frost represents the two opposing ideas through his dialogue between the two neighbors.

Robert Frost's Mending Wall represents two opposing ideas through its dialogue between two neighbors. The narrator represents a newer way of thinking while his neighbor embodies an older mindset. In the poem the two neighbors are repairing a wall or fence that separates their property line. Although neither of the two men has anything that could cross the fence, the young man has apple trees and the old farmer has pines. The wall has been broken down by the winter that "sends the frozen ground swell under it" and by "the work of hunters" (Frost 1177-1178). The two men work together to repair the wall, a task that seems unnecessary to the young narrator. The older neighbor cannot fathom the thought of not having a wall or boundary to separate his land from his youthful neighbor,.....