Question

How does Frost use ambiguity to present his message about walls and Neighbours what evidence supports the idea that the speaker believes good fences make good neighbors what details suggest the opposite

Answer 1

Answer:

The "Mending Wall"(1941) by Robert Frost delivers his message "good fences make good neighbors using an ambiguous tone. The poet begins with the interrogation of the need for a wall and he states that "something there is that doesn't love a wall"(could be nature). He, however, later suggests that the repairing of the wall brings the 'neighbors' closer and implies the meaning that distances keep the relations intact. He is dwindling between whether the walls are significant or futile that contributes to the ambiguity. Yet, Frost is able to convey his message that it depends on the kind of relations as he himself sometimes feels that "good fences make good neighbors" and the other times talks of "the gaps".

Answer 2

Frost speaks of gaps that are found in spring, and that no one saw or heard as they were being made. He does not say what is the "something" "that doesn't love a wall", and thus creates ambiguity; it's as if a higher power made those gaps. His neighbor repeats that "good fences make good neighbors", but the speaker has doubts: "Before I built a wall I'd ask to know / What I was walling in or walling out". The last line repeats the first one, which brings us back to the mysterious "something".