walls

The authors Robert Frost, Jane Jacobs, Yusef Komunyakaa and Judith Ortiz Cofer all created poems and stories that are seemingly different. Although they all deal with unlike content, they all say something about the human condition, more specifically ostracism. Perfection and the dire need to achieve it is one of the main components of life. In the United States we are constantly told to “achieve the American Dream”. However, is this goal worth wanting?
Frost uses Mending Wall to show how people use physical barriers to keep one another out. Frost explains how he and his neighbor meet in the spring to rebuild their walls and writes that they, “…set the wall between us once again. We keep the wall between us as we go,” (lines 13-15). This connotes that the two men have always maintained a barrier. However Frost comes a part of the land where there is no need to create a wall for the different kinds of trees already separate the land. When he asks why they need to build a wall there the neighbor replies, “Good fences make good neighbors” (line 27). This is a common motto and even Frost admits that, “He will not go behind his father’s saying” (line 43). A construction that originally was reserved for animals we now do for people. This allows the reader to analyze their own purposes to keep walls, literal or figurative. Growing up in the Catholic religion one is constantly told to “love thy neighbor” but in reality few actually do. We put of barriers to keep others out, we assume we must do this in order to be a good neighbor. This fear of ostracism is also prevalent in Jacob’s chapter as she explains how cities build borders and block one another out. The scale goes from the cities and trickles down to our own homes.
Cofer’s The Game shares similar themes. Cruz, the little girl, is “kept home to help her mother/an unsmiling woman with other children/whose spines were not twisted/into the symbol of a family’s shame,” (lines 3-8) showing that Cruz was a disgrace to the family. Her defect contorts not only her back but also her family. Cofer describes that, “at birth/on first seeing the child/curled into a question mark/the eternal why/ she would have to carry home/she gave her the name of Cruz/for the cross Christ bore/to Calvary” (lines 10-15). Cruz was an embarrassment from the moment she was born, and as a result she is almost caged in. Her parents put up an undeserving wall between her and the world because they fear what the results would entail. The Christian alliteration is similar to that of Frost’s in that its almost ironic people believe so much in these ideas that they don’t actually follow. Cruz’s favorite game is to pretend, a diversion that many children enjoy. However, Cruz does it to turn herself into a different person, a loving mother. Living in resentment from her own mother, Cruz wants to embody everything she does not have. Komunyakka’s Slam, Dunk & Hook describes how competition can boost ones ego to an obscene realm. Throughout the poem the players are portrayed as semi omniscient beings. In line 4 they say, “we outmaneuvered the footwork/of bad angels,” in line 12 it’s, “sea monsters” and finally in line 40, “…we knew we were Beautiful & dangerous,” showing how bi polar their emotions were. The idea of a “bad angel” is almost a reference to the devil, for that is what Lucifer was. In line 18 they refer to themselves as “metaphysical” and not one other term could be more fitting. Their bodies manifest so much good and evil as shown when Sonny Boy’s mother dies. The tone of that section is not sad, but almost light hearted because it shows that basketball can be cathartic. Ultimately basketball takes the players out of the realm of reality and builds a barrier from true relationships.
All four authors shed light on the not so brilliant qualities of human nature. We constantly put our faith in higher powers that we don’t actually listen to. In order to protect ourselves we don’t fully experience life. We hide behind fantasies and inside our bodies. Possibly, the real way to get closer to people is to let go of our barriers.