preview

Alienation In Poem By Robert Frost

Decent Essays

Alienation Throughout Time
The Analysis of Alienation Throughout Robert Frost's Poems “The problem of alienation is a pervasive theme in the classics of sociology, and the concept has a prominent place in contemporary work”(Seeman). Alienation is one of the biggest problems in the modern world today. From being alienated at work to your skin color, almost everyone has been alienated in some way or form. In many poems by the 20th century poet, Robert Frost, he focuses on different forces of alienation throughout the New England area. Robert, born in 1874, was raised in New England, stirring the fire for his poem. Many call him one of the best poets in American history. The majority of his poems start as simple word pictures, then move toward vivid and complex ideas. In the poems, Mending wall, Out Out, and Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, Frost expresses many types of alienation. In Roberts, Mending Wall, he expresses the alienation within our society. This story was and is very controversial throughout history. Written in 1914, it became widely known for its connection with racism and segregation. In 1960, Frost was asked to read it for President John F. Kennedy’s inauguration. In JFK’s inauguration speech, he declared, “We observe today not a victory of party, but a celebration of freedom”(Kennedy), which shows how he felt about segregation. This created a skirmish throughout the U.S., because this poem was so controversial. The poem, which was a memory when Frost was a young boy, consists of him walking the line. Walking the line means picking up rocks that had falling from the ice melting, recreating the fence between you and your neighbor. Frost suggests alienation in this story by using symbolism of the lines between African Americans and white folk. In the poem he asks the question, “Why do they make good neighbors”(line 30)? An interpretation of this line is that he is asking the question, ‘why do we have these lines between our people? There is no reasons to have these lines separating us?’. The poem suggests that we get into routines and then never break them because we have done them for generations. Frost challenges this, asking questions that are very hard to answer. In Out, Out,

Get Access