After he and his brother purchase the convertible, he describes a great big willow tree. In Indian society, willow trees signify wisdom so I gather that perhaps it sticks out In his memory because in the great wide open of God’s creation, perhaps he and his brother gleaned some great wisdom about life In general under the limbs of this willow tree. He mentions how his brother went off to Vietnam upon their return. One can’t help but to Imagine the completely different surrounding that his brother found himself in.
I imagine wetlands, tropical angles, hot and sticky air that feels as though you are breathing water due to the humidity. Just as they might have found a bit of themselves in the great wide open adventures they had in the car prior to the war, his brother lost a lot of himself in the wet, humid, dangerous jungles of Vietnam. In Robert Frost’s “Mending Walls”, the setting is again outdoors. This time, the setting is in cold, damp England. I gather this from the way the author speaks about fox hunts and stone walls between neighbors.
Here, he and his neighbor are again outside walking the stone wall border between heir properties. Two deferent people united and yet separated by a simple wall. Walker 2 While their wall is a physical wall, the wall that later separated the brothers in the previous story was an inner wall made up of the remaining demons of war along with the inner struggles of a prisoner of war returning to life as a civilian. Just as the two neighbors walk their walls to repair the gaps by replacing the loosened and missing boulders, the two brothers tried to repair the gaps to their relationship with the last ride out in the red convertible.
The revealing theme is the same in both works. In the red convertible, the family tries to ignore the different personality that has engulfed the older brother upon his return. They keep It quiet and don’t mention it but in whispers. They want to keep things the same even though It Is clearly evident that they will never be the same again. In Mending Walls, the writer asks his neighbor why must they keep the wall up when he has no cows nor does his neighbor, they both only have trees and it is clear that neither type of tree will move to encroach upon ten toners proper
HIS enlarger, not wanting to go galls t Nils Tanners wellness whom we are led to believe holds great regard for tradition states that “good fences make good neighbors”. Regardless of whether it makes sense to have the wall or not, it has always been that way and therefore it will continue that way as well. It is similar to the family way of thinking in the red convertible. It is clear that everyone from the younger brother to the friends, neighbors and even the mother in the story can see that the older brother is not the same upon his return from Vietnam.
The known is scary to them so instead of tackling the bigger issue and getting him the help he needs, they go back to the way things were. They try to act as if everything is still the same. They ignore the fact that he has been through things they cannot imagine and instead try to pretend he is the same old person he was before. This must be extremely frustrating on the brother and eventually the only way he can think of to make them happy and also to relieve the nightmare he lives in day after day is to end it all with one giant leap into a rushing river at the close off perfect day.
