The Week of February 10, 2013 - Walls

By Joan Whetzel

Walls mark the boundaries between areas (between the borders of 2 countries or 2 pieces of property) or act as protection against outside forces (the walls of a home, a church, or any other building). Walls defines the spaces within a building, separating the public living spaces from the private living spaces; separating church offices from the sanctuary; separating company offices by employee's rank  On the other hand, walls also represent obstacles to be overcome, progress that is being held back, or a barrier that prevents or forbids one’s entry. Sometimes, walls are used as, or viewed as, a means of separating people. Take, for instance “Mending Wall” by poet Robert Frost. The wall delineating the property line is clearly meant to separate the two properties, but what else does it signify? That depends on which side of the wall you are standing on.

Mending Wall by Robert Frost

Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun,
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
The work of hunters is another thing:
I have come after them and made repair
Where they have left not one stone on a stone,
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,
No one has seen them made or heard them made,
But at spring mending-time we find them there.
I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;
And on a day we meet to walk the line
And set the wall between us once again.
We keep the wall between us as we go.
To each the boulders that have fallen to each.
And some are loaves and some so nearly balls
We have to use a spell to make them balance:
'Stay where you are until our backs are turned!'
We wear our fingers rough with handling them.
Oh, just another kind of out-door game,
One on a side. It comes to little more:
There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, 'Good fences make good neighbors'.
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
'Why do they make good neighbors? Isn't it
Where there are cows?
But here there are no cows.
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 offence.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants it down.' I could say 'Elves' to him,
But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather
He said it for himself. I see him there
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me~
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father's saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, "Good fences make good neighbors."

The neighbors repairing a stone wall bordering their property discuss the meaning of the wall’s existence. One is of  the philosophy that “good fences make good neighbors.” He needs to be separated from others. It makes him feel more comfortable having a physical space to feel safer. It also prevents unwanted intrusions from others. For the other, the wall represents a barrier to getting to know others and almost like he’s being kept out or barred from entering for ambiguous reasons, or for no reason.

Barrier Walls

Walls used as boundary markers are often used to protect one’s personal privacy. In this case the walls are used like fences and are generally not built too tall. While most fences are built out of thin materials like chain link or with wood slats, walls are made from thicker, heavier materials like stones or brick and mortar. There are barrier walls that have been constructed to physically separate or divide entire populations from each other – Hadrian’s Wall, the Great Wall of China, and the Berlin Wall. For writers, walls such as these, or the wall discussed in Robert Frost’s poem above, make for wonderful symbolism in fiction and nonfiction alike. The become a metaphor for barriers, separation, division, keeping things in or out, prison or protection, lack of freedom or safety. It all depends on which side of the wall your are standing.

Hadrian's Wall

Hadrian’s Wall was built by the Roman Empire do protect the English part of its Empire from invaders from the North – which the Roman’s had not yet conquered. It was built as a means of keeping people out and helped the Romans keep the English populace from migrating out of their control. It also helped prevent smuggling across that borderland, which in turn led to greater control over customs and taxes for goods traded with those living north of the wall. To the Romans, walls were a symbol of power or strength. The stronger the wall, the more powerful the empire.

The Great Wall of China

The Great Wall of China was built as a means of protection for the people living in the northern provinces of a newly combined system of provinces known as the country of China. These northern provinces were subject to constant invasions by the Mongols of the North. So it was a barrier to keep out the people on one side of the wall and to keep people safe on the other side of the wall. This wall was built so strongly that it remains standing centuries later and can be seen from space. So it is it more a sign of superior power or greater fear?

The Berlin Wall

The Berlin Wall was constructed following WWII to divide up the country as a means of preventing the deplorable atrocities that occurred there during the war from ever occurring again. One group of countries – representing democratic governments – controlled the populace and international exchanges on one side of the Wall, while the population on the other side was controlled by countries representing communist governments. The Wall held for about 50  years, until it was eventually torn down by the people who were hungry to be reunited. What was originally meant to be a punishment, as well as a means of protection for the rest of Europe, and even for the rest of the World. To the people of Germany, it represented a barrier that ripped families apart, a prison, a deterrent to freedom – a punishment with no end in sight.

But even the strongest walls don’t protect – or separate – people forever. And even the smallest walls bordering properties cannot prevent neighbors from talking to each other. We can still smell the steaks sizzling away on our neighbor’s grill, still hear the children laughing and playing in the schoolyard nearby, still import and export goods with neighboring countries, still exchange ideas across the internet. No matter how strong the walls erected between us, people will always find ways around them, or over them, or under them, or through them. It seems desire to have contact with others is stronger than any wall that can be erected.