There is Frost’s idea that the wall is unnecessary, along with the neighbors favor of having the wall. We can see how repetitive the neighbor is when he keeps saying “Good genes make good neighbors”. The way they go back and forth a little bit on their view of the wall is what’s comical. However, it is tragic when the narrator comes to the realization that he can’t change his neighbors mind. They didn’t see eye to eye, and it appeared as if it were to never reach that point.
3 thoughts on “Robert Frost”
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I found it interesting that the poem features comedy and tragedy in the same way that the characters feel the same way about the wall. The poem highlights perspective to demonstrate how one event can be experienced in different ways by different people. The experience is often defined by prior events that form opinions.
I agree that the comedy in this poem is in the exchange between the two men. One puts forth a good argument for why there is no need for a wall at all, and the other ignores his plea and repeats his father’s nasty expression, “Good fences make good neighbors.” His blind insistence on building the wall is irrational and absurd, as the narrator points out. The tragedy is that they work together to rebuild a wall to keep each one out of the other’s life.
In tandem with your point, I thought the dynamic of the relationship between the narrator and the neighbor was pretty comical. At the same time, the thing that made them funny, also made them very real and tragic. The fact that they were not able to see eye-to-eye was really unfortunate.