How does Robert Frost's use of a first-person speaker in "Mending Wall" help develop the poem's central idea? Since readers can understand the speaker's inner thoughts and feelings, Frost can show how much the speaker resents his neighbor for wrecking their shared wall. Since readers know the speaker's emotions, Frost can stress the idea that those who choose to live in isolated areas often develop strange beliefs and customs. The fact that readers must guess at what the neighbor wants to do with the wall helps reinforce the idea that both men think rebuilding the wall is pointless. The fact that readers are only provided with the speaker's feelings and perspective helps to stress the idea that he and his neighbor do not see things the same way.

The use of a first-person speaker in "Mending Wall" helps develop the poem's central idea because:

D. The fact that readers are only provided with the speaker's feelings and perspective helps to stress the idea that he and his neighbor do not see things the same way.

Explanation:

In "Mending Wall", the speaker and his neighbor meet up to repair a wall that has been torn down. The speaker reveals that his neighbor likes the wall, that he thinks "[g]ood fences make good neighbors." However, the speaker does not agree with that saying. He spends a great deal of the poem reflecting on why having a wall is important. What difference will it make? What does it keep out and what does it keep in? However, he never asks his neighbor what he means, why that saying is taken as a universal truth by him. All we know are the speaker's thoughts and feelings. All we know is that he disagrees with his neighbor's perspective . Yet, ironically, he complies and rebuilds the wall with the other.