Black Men In Public Spaces, Us, And Mending Wall

Division in Societies In the short stories, Black Men in Public Space by Brent Staples, Us and Them by David Campton, and Mending Wall by Robert Frost, there is a separation between different societies. People usually make walls because they are not comfortable with people they are not aware of and do not want to mingle with the outside of their society. Also, people blame the barrier because they do not want to work out their differences or take responsibility for their actions. And they think possessing a wall will benefit them, but really they do not need it because people in other communities are just like you. In the story of Black Men in Public Spaces, a black man is walking behind a woman and she suddenly gets frightened …show more content…
From the short story with the black man, he realizes whistling would help for people not to flee away from him. He says to himself, "Even steely New Yorkers hunching toward nighttime destinations seem to relax, and occasionally, they even join in the tune" (95). The black man understands now that if he whistles it will calm the people nearby him because no criminal will whistle, so they get comfortable around him. In the short story Mending Wall, two neighbors build a wall to make a separation, but it is quite worthless to do so. Both sides have different kind of trees, and they create a fence to separate the two trees. The author thinks, “There where it is we do not need the wall: / He is all pine and I am apple orchard” (117). It is only trees that they construct a wall for; therefore they do not need a division. Us and Them, both sides fight against each other and after the quarrel one says, “We-didn’t want to-to…If only we hadn’t…” (129). Both sides of the wall regret the battle because they could have stayed if there was no brawl. And throughout the story, each side talks and they say the same sentences, so actually both societies have many traits in