In "Roman Fever" Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley's relationship is based on hidden jealousy. Even though both appear to be friendly towards one another, they are both suppressing angry feelings towards the other: "Yes. You think I'm bluffing, don't you? Well, you went to meet the man I was engaged to- and I can repeat every word of the letter that you took there." With that statement, I believe their so-called friendship came to an end, and will probably not ever be rekindled. I think that jealousy, built up over time, turns into hate.
In the beginning of "One Art," Bishop discusses losing small objects, such as keys, but as the poem progresses the larger and more important the lost items become. Also, Bishop tries to convince herself that the items she lose don't really matter: "The art of losing isn't hard to master" (line 6). Her repetitive use of this line shows the readers that she is actually quite bothered by the objects she has lost, especially the person she has lost, but does not want to admit it. The fact that the entire poem led up to Bishop losing "you" shows how significant of a loss losing this person was.
Nature, in Robert Frost's poem, does not like walls. Since the wall is man-made, nature erodes it overtime: "Something there is that doesn't love a wall,/ That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it..." (lines 1-2). Upon the wall's erosion, one of the neighbors is always determined to rebuild it: "' Good fences make good neighbours'" (last line). The only reason I can think of that would make the neighbors get along better with the wall is privacy. Having a boundary between the two men's yards would give each man his own space and property, without fighting over whose property is whose.
question: I honestly can't tell if the wall serves as a good boundary or not between the two neighbors. One man is set on rebuilding the wall, and the other just goes along with the idea.
connection: Whenever I think of a wall, especially a stone wall, I think of the movie The Secret Garden. Who knows what mysteries this wall between the men's properties holds.
I think in a way the wall is good for the two neighbors because it is something that brings them together for a moment and they are able to work and communicate with each other. The wall can also be seen as something bad because it is used to separate the two neighbors from having a good life with each other.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Ashley, I think that building the wall was the only activity that the neighbors had to spend time with each other, even though it was time spent building a wall.
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