Avoiding Reality

Robert Frost’s “Mending Wall,” Yusef Komunyakaa’s “Slam, Dunk, & Hook,” and Judith Ortiz Cofer’s “The Game” share a similar theme of pretending. The characters in these poems avoid dealing with reality by pretending that their problems do not exist and by occupying themselves with other things. Despite their avoidance of reality, each of the characters comes to realize that they can not pretend forever because reality always catches up with them.

In “Mending Wall,” the narrator tries to pretend that a barrier does not exist between him and his neighbor because of the wall that separates their properties. The neighbors get together to mend the wall that was destroyed during the hunting season, and the speaker’s neighbor says that “Good fences make good neighbors” in line 27. He is perfectly content with the wall, but the speaker can no longer pretend that he believes his statement is true. Reality finally sets in when the speaker questions what he is trying to keep in or out and realizes that the wall unnecessarily divides them.

In “Slam, Dunk, & Hook,” the basketball players get lost in the game. They put everything they have into the game, dulling their perception of reality while they are playing. In lines 8-10, the speaker says that they were so caught up in the game that they thought they “could almost last forever, poised in midair like storybook sea monsters.” In lines 24-25, the reader finds out that when Sonny Boy’s mother dies, he focuses on the game so he will not have to deal with the harsh reality. However, the game can not go on forever, so the players must ultimately accept the truths of reality.

In “The Game,” Cruz, a young girl with a deformed spine, is the source of her family’s shame. She longs for normality, so she loses herself in a game by playing “family” with the narrator. This game gives her a chance to be treated as an ordinary person and to experience a normal life. In lines 41-42, the realities of her deformity come back when it starts to get “too late to play pretend.” She can not pretend forever and can no longer avoid reality.

These characters share common fears of accepting reality and pretend their circumstances are different so they can trick themselves into believing something they desperately want to be true. Even though it may be difficult, these characters all have to come to terms with the truth and face reality so they can stop pretending.