What Are The Similarities Between We Real Cool And Mending Wall

“We Real Cool” and “Mending Wall,” are poems written by Gwendolyn Brooks and Robert Frost respectively. These two poems show the readers the social order that is followed by two different types of people in American society and how they feel about this particular value. “We Real Cool,” shows the reader how life is a better experience when living without boundaries and rules. On the other hand, “Mending Wall” shows the readers how following traditional social rules and order can hinder the individual and prevents people from experiencing a fuller, more satisfying life. The authors from both poems use literary devices such as contrast and symbolism to show the reader how “We Real Cool” and “Mending Wall” display how the characters from both

The wall falls apart with exposure “and spills the upper boulders in the sun,” which leads to a gap large enough to allow two men to fit through the wall (3). The walls not only break down due to exposure but break down due to local hunters hunting rabbits in the wall, which is a common occurrence, according to the narrator. Symbolism can be observed here with the wall, and how men can fit through the wall as time goes by. What the author tries to convey to the reader is that as people get comfortable with each other, they become afraid of this vulnerability and find a reason to fix this vulnerability. The poem goes on to show the reader that each year, around the same time, the neighbors get together and fix their wall, just like previous years. As the neighbors fix the wall, the boulders they try to fit back into the wall do not fit and keep falling off. The narrator quotes, “stay where you are until our backs are turned,” as if they only want to keep the walls fixed to make the neighbors feel better about knowing they will never cross the social lines of being personal with each other (19). According to the narrator, the wall is

The narrator tells his neighbor he will not interfere with his trees or pick his fruit. The neighbor simply responds with “good fences make good neighbors,” and the narrator hopes he can change his neighbors mind about his way of thinking (27). The narrator questions what the purpose of the wall is if there is nothing to protect, or prevent from leaving or escaping, or to keep anything out. Nash argues that the narrator is skeptical about the wall because the narrator might feel that he “worries that it may only result in exclusion and offense” (13). As the narrator comes back to the present tense he depicts his neighbor as “old-stone savaged armed” (41). The fact that the neighbor is unaware of why he has his fence up leads to the narrator in the poem thinking that the neighbor is too