Borders

Robert Frost’s “Mending Wall”, Komonyakaa’s “Slam, Dunk & Hook”, Cofer’s “The Game”, and Jane Jacob’s “The Death and Life of Great American Cities” all either directly or indirectly refer to some sort of physical or metaphysical boundary. In all but one of these works is the boundary a negative aspect.
Mending Wall is a complex poem that is literally about two neighbors and their yearly routine of rebuilding a fence between their two properties. Each year the fence made of boulders deteriorates and crumbles, and each year they build it back up. One year, the speaker starts to question why they undertake their ritual, for they have no cows and have no real need for a boulder fence. His neighbor quickly responds “Good fences make good neighbors.”
Looking deeper into the meaning of the poem, one could interpret the meaning in many ways, but in most cases it would have to be related to segregation. The building of walls to keep others out is an ancient practice, and the author makes reference to this in his use of “elves,” “spells,” and “old-stone savage.”
The big question is why the neighbors would consistently rebuild a doomed and unnecessary wall. Relating this story to segregation of races would make sense in that segregation has been around almost forever, it seems irrational and unnecessary, and sooner or later segregation is usually bound to fall to integration.
The Game was also a poem about boundaries, except in this circumstance there was not a physical boundary but a social boundary. This social boundary existed between a humpbacked girl who lived a life of seclusion. Instead of going to school and playing with the other kids, she stayed at home, played with her brother, and helped her mom with chores; there existed little outside contact.
In this situation the boundary present separated the “normal” kids and the physically deformed girl. This boundary is present in every society, a boundary that creates a certain outcast nametag on those who are physically different than the rest of the society. This separation, like the separation of the first poem, is unnecessary and unjustified.
Jane Jacobs’s “The DEATH and LIFE of GREAT AMERICAN CITIES” is perhaps the most straightforward story of boundaries. In this piece, the author states that borders create a sort of dead end that kills surrounding areas. While some borders are physical and some are simply town lines and city boundaries, they all come with negative side-effects. These borders deaden the areas nearest to them and then slowly creep inward until they so closely circumvent an area that it cannot cause any more destruction. Borders devastate communities. To counteract this devastation the author claims that we must mix communities and replace the rough edges of borders with a smoother transition.
The last work, “Slam, Dunk, & Hook” by Komonyakaa is very different in it’s use of borders. Unlike the other three works, this work describes basketball as a game that induces people to get so involved and caught up in playing it that they are able to ignore the happenings of the outside world. Players were “tangled up in a falling,” so much so that when one of the player’s mom died all he did was play basketball non-stop. The author tells of basketball as a serene, yet intense game that inspires and creates nirvana. The game is beautiful, but dangerous; dangerous perhaps because it can become such an obsession. Regardless, the use of boundaries in this poem is much different and perhaps much more positive than the other works.