Mending Wall Essay -- Literary Analysis, Robert Frost

Throughout the history of man, separation has been a part to their lives in one fashion or another. Man has faced separation from their god, from their community, from their loved ones and from their dreams and desires. Recognizing this continuing condition, writers throughout time have written about such separation that people have experienced. In fact, separation seems to be the central theme in many literary pieces of work. Robert Frost gave us the poem, â€Å"Mending Wall† which explores separation of one neighbor from another. Additionally, Frost wrote, â€Å"Home Burial† which demonstrates the separation experienced by a couple after the loss of their child. John Cheever’s short story â€Å"The Swimmer† shares the journey of Neddy whose alcoholism has separated himself from time, his family, friends, money and health. Walter Lee Younger in Lorraine Hansberry’s, â€Å"A Raisin in the Sun† faces constant separation from his dreams and a separation of ideals from his family. W.E.B. Dubois shares with the reader a separation of an entire people from their equality thought to have been given to them forty years prior. Though separation may not be the primary message of the writers above, it certainly reveals itself in a variety of ways. The myriad of ways separation is used in the poems and stories previously mentioned are as vast as the causes of the gaps themselves. The speaker in Frost’s, â€Å"Mending Wall† expresses through thoughts primarily the necessity for a wall between himself and his neighbor. Every year the wall is damaged by weather and hunters as the speaker indicates, â€Å"Something there is that doesn’t love a wall (Frost, 51).† Additionally, the speaker asks his neighbor of what purpose is there is such ... ... â€Å"A Raisin in the Sun† felt held down by the enormity of generations of struggle and poverty. Walter Lee’s burning desire to break free of poverty and gain financial success clouded his responsibility as head of the household and made him a slave to money he did not have. He was enslaved by the love of money. The poverty and the lack of support from his family fueled his ever edgy fire of discontentment. It is only through his placement of his family in a worse predicament did he break free of the bonds of money. This new found freedom eliminated the separation between he and his family, but like Du Bois, things went unchanged in his world. Walter Lee would never achieve his dream in the play. Racism, poverty and corruption kept Walter Lee from achieving his dream and he could not overcome them as he burdened with the fate that he had not part in receiving.