Mending Wall by Robert Frost is about a farmer and his neighbor mending a wall between their houses, but the deeper purpose of the poem is to convey an idea, and this idea is that humans should question our traditions and see reason instead. Throughout the poem the speaker questions the reasons for building the wall, what brings the wall down in the winter, and his relationship with his neighbor. In this poem Frost Achieves the central purpose by using connotation, situational irony, and comparison.
The first means used by the author to convey an idea is connotation. The first example of connotation is when the speaker states, “Something there that doesn't love a wall/ I could say ‘Elves’ to him,”(Frost 36,37). The speaker is pondering what …show more content…
The speaker is explaining that while they repair the wall his neighbor moves in the darkness caused by the shade of the trees. This darkness is also a metaphor for how the neighbor moves through life in darkness and separation from the speaker. The secound example of a metaphor is when the speaker states, “To each boulders that have fallen to each/ And some are loaves and some are nearly balls” The speaker is describing how he and his neighbor are picking up rocks to rebuild the wall and he is explaining the shape of them. The words “loaves” and “balls” are metaphors for the shape of the rocks. He compares some to “loaves of bread” which causes the reader to imagine a oval rough shaped rock, and he describes others as “nearly balls” which one would imagine as a round smooth rock. The final example of comparison is a simile. The speaker states, “I see him there/ Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top/ like an old stone savage”(39, 40, 41). The speaker is describing what his neighbor looks like as he rebuilds the wall, the simile occurs when he describes his neighbor “like an old stone savage”. This portrays his neighbors as old fashion even referencing the stone age, which connects to the fact that the neighbor holds on to the traditions of the past. Tontiplaphol expands on this stating, “The speaker finds that explanation not only ill founded but also slightly barbaric a remnant of the darker ages” (1). By comparing the neighbor to “an old stone savage” the speaker shows his distaste for his neighbors values and
The first means used by the author to convey an idea is connotation. The first example of connotation is when the speaker states, “Something there that doesn't love a wall/ I could say ‘Elves’ to him,”(Frost 36,37). The speaker is pondering what …show more content…
The speaker is explaining that while they repair the wall his neighbor moves in the darkness caused by the shade of the trees. This darkness is also a metaphor for how the neighbor moves through life in darkness and separation from the speaker. The secound example of a metaphor is when the speaker states, “To each boulders that have fallen to each/ And some are loaves and some are nearly balls” The speaker is describing how he and his neighbor are picking up rocks to rebuild the wall and he is explaining the shape of them. The words “loaves” and “balls” are metaphors for the shape of the rocks. He compares some to “loaves of bread” which causes the reader to imagine a oval rough shaped rock, and he describes others as “nearly balls” which one would imagine as a round smooth rock. The final example of comparison is a simile. The speaker states, “I see him there/ Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top/ like an old stone savage”(39, 40, 41). The speaker is describing what his neighbor looks like as he rebuilds the wall, the simile occurs when he describes his neighbor “like an old stone savage”. This portrays his neighbors as old fashion even referencing the stone age, which connects to the fact that the neighbor holds on to the traditions of the past. Tontiplaphol expands on this stating, “The speaker finds that explanation not only ill founded but also slightly barbaric a remnant of the darker ages” (1). By comparing the neighbor to “an old stone savage” the speaker shows his distaste for his neighbors values and