Koro's Boundaries

The boundaries conveyed in Robert Frost’s poem "Mending Wall" are more prominent in relating to “The Whale Rider” than both "Slam, Dunk & Hook" and "The Game". Throughout the entire novel, Koro always had put up the boundaries between himself and his family, more specifically Kahu. He would refuse to treat her like a member of his family and refused to show her any love and affection. One line in Frost’s poem is “we keep the wall between us as we go”, which is also true with the idea of Koro and Kahu’s relationship. They are family, and therefore must be together and part of eachother’s lives, however there is still a block in there relationship that is seperationg them. In this case it is the fact that Kahu is born female. This in turn correlates to the boundary that the Maori have set up from the women, which is demonstrated when Koro tells Nanny Flowers to stay in the house while the men are attempting to save the ancient whale.
The difference between the poem and the novel, however, is that Frost is discussing how that whatever is being separated is something that has to be lived with, so there should be no intentions of hurting feelings. “Before I built a wall I’d ask to know what I was walling in or walling out, and to whom I was like to give offense” is a demonstration of how, even though he is still walling someone out, he does not want to offend that party. Koro however feels no remorse whatsoever for expunging his great-grand daughter from his life. This is also based on the terrible premise of her gender, which he does not approve of, yet no one has control over (especially Kahu). Another main difference is the idea of regardless of the amount of time passed, there is still some kind of boundary which whoever sets up does not want to change. Koro completely changes his perspective of his grand daughter, and then is all for embracing her when he realizes who she is. Not only is this a travesty of a reason to love someone, but it is the reason he is willing to take his walls down.