Barrier Symbolism in “Mending Wall” by Robert Frost and "The Queue” by Youssef Idris Raghda Maher College

The wall is a humanly constructed element that reflects man’s beliefs and struggles. The purpose of the existence of the walls is controversial in which walls can be divided into a wall of enmity or a wall of amity (Bradatan 3). Walls of amity define private properties or any space for the sake of protection from any undesirable element, while walls of enmity are like a curse where they can symbolize imprisonment and separation. The concept of walls is tackled by the two artworks “The queue” and “Mending Wall”. “The queue” is a short story written by Youssef Idris about a landlord who built a wall to Demark his land to prevent the entrance of the peasants, but he faced an obstacle that the peasants have succeeded each time to find a way to get in. The work “Mending Wall” is a poem written by Robert Frost about two neighbors with different perspectives in which one of them thinks that building a wall makes good neighbors, while the other is questioning the reason behind building a wall. Despite the fact that Youssef Idris and Robert Frost represented two different perspectives in both poems, the concept of the wall is tackled differently as a symbol of a class struggle and a superfluous barrier.

The two texts “The queue” and “...