Do good fences make good neighbors?

Recently in class, we've encountered this renowned poem by Robert Frost called Mending Wall. This poem is famous for the message portrayed in the last line, "good fences make good neighbors". Mending Wall by Robert Frost is about two people, the speaker and the neighbor, mending fences, or stone walls, along their property line. The speaker thought of the wall as a barrier to human contact, communication, and understanding, but the neighbor thought of the wall as a necessity because good fences make good neighbors, meaning you have to set certain boundaries. As this poem progressed, the ambiguity of which side the author, Robert Frost, really supported, created a controversial topic. Some said that Frost supported the speaker's point of view and some say that he supported the neighbor's point of view.

Some people believed that Frost supported the speaker's point of view because Frost was writing in the first person's point of view of the speaker, however, I believe that Robert Frost supported the neighbor's opinion. For one, this line was repeated twice and second of all, this line became the most famous line out of all the lines in the poem. Lastly, this poem was ended with the neighbor's point of view and thinking, "good fences make good neighbors".

I personally believe that good fences make good neighbors, because I believe that human interaction or any kind of relationships should have a foundation based on boundaries. For example, you would set boundaries between relationships such as friends or even acquaintances, so you don't offend or cross them. Take international relationships as another consideration, governments in each country would set boundaries between each other so they know what is classified as acceptable terms or not. So in a sense, making walls and fences to protect not only yourself but also others is really important. Making boundaries and set them straight to cause minimal confusion and conflict is the idea that is portrayed in the sentence "good fences make good neighbors". Some would say that this, making walls, setting boundaries, are a very conservative way of thinking, that people should sometime step out of their comfort zone to interact and understand each other. I disagree. I believe that all types of relationships should have boundaries set so you know the limit, and then you would know how many steps you can back up, and grasp on to what extent does your comfort zone end.