The Writing On the Wall: A Brief Exploration of Barriers and Walls

Julian Kwong
Jul 30, 2017 · 5 min read

Through hazy recollections of my youth I have vague memories of building pillow forts to protect myself from whatever imaginary monsters were tormenting me. Add an overactive imagination and soft fluffy pillows and cushions become impenetrable barriers to the imaginary hordes and I became the undisputed master of a small corner of my home, until the illusion was broken by my parents telling me to put everything back in place.

Walls are deeply embedded within the human psyche amongst almost every society. From the time that humanity decided to build permanent settlements, there has been a need to build walls to protect the pockets of civilization from barbarians and hostile tribes. Visit any sufficiently old city around the world and you will find some remnant of their old city walls, now crawling with tourists instead of guards.

Whether they be made out of earthworks, stone, brick or concrete the basic message of a wall as always been the same: A perceived barrier between us and a threat of great magnitude, a physical reminder of safety and security. And yet for many throughout history, walls have also served as reminders of division.

The Peace Walls in Belfast

I was recently reminded of this when visiting the famous Peace Walls during a trip to Belfast in Northern Ireland. The city itself had definitely changed for the better. The specter of sectarian violence had largely abated and the city played host to a vibrant tourist sector that paid homage to the city’s past. Yet constant reminders of the city’s divided past and present could still be found. Travel beyond the city center and into the suburbs and it was easy to see where each neighborhood’s loyalties lay, by checking whether houses flew the Irish tricolor or the Union Jack. Yet nothing symbolized division in Belfast like the Peace Walls, outlining the separation between nationalist and unionist communities. Though they’ve been transformed into tourist destinations, the fact that some of the gates are still closed at night provide a vivid reminder of the conflict that happened a mere generation ago.

Perhaps no greater example of division exists than the Berlin Wall, built by the Soviet Union to prevent defection and emigration out of communist East Germany and into the West. Through its complete separation of West and East Berlin, the Berlin Wall became the living symbol of the Iron Curtain and thus, the Cold War in Europe. When Ronald Reagan told Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this Wall”, he was speaking towards what the wall had symbolically become through the Cold War, and what it’s fall would symbolize.

The wall captivated the imagination of the West for nearly half a century, becoming the setting in real life and fiction for daring spy escapades, lethal attempts at crossing and tense prisoner exchanges. When it finally fell in 1989, an event captured by the media around the world, it symbolized the ending the Cold War, a return to a unified Germany and the collapse of communism in Europe. The Berlin Wall still captures the imagination today, with wall fragments scattered around the world as a testament to its enduring cultural legacy. Those few stretches of wall left are adorned with graffiti, hopefully standing forever as a vivid reminder of the Cold War, but also of how the spirit of freedom endures through concrete barriers and barbed wire.

It is unsurprising then, that walls of every sort have popped up in almost every fictional medium, and have stood as a symbol for any number of things, whether it be an obstacle for the heroes to overcome, a sign of sanctuary or to signpost the audience towards accepting a fictional Cold War scenario.

In the popular manga/anime series Attack on Titan, three massive circular walls protect the remnants of humanity from the hordes of mindless, man-eating humanoid giants known as Titans. While most of humanity views the mysterious walls as the last line of defense, protagonist Eren Jaeger views the walls as a restrictive prison, and yearns to venture beyond to discover the wonders of the world, at least at the beginning of the series. Yet the series also subtlety demonstrates the ways in which walls can divide humanity. We see that life in the further reaches of the outer walls resembles a late medieval/Renaissance standard whilst the more affluent and safer inner walls show clothing and an architectural style closer to that of the Victorian era.

When the wall fails…

Walls play a much smaller role in Guillermo del Toro’s homage to mecha and kaiju movies, Pacific Rim, but demonstrates the false sense of security that walls can offer, a potent mixture of humanity’s hubris and desperation. Even when proven ineffective against the onslaught of giant monsters that threaten humanity, the leaders of the world continue to put their faith into a global network of walls as the first and last line of defense, although this is more likely to serve as the standard monster movie bureaucratic obstacle to our heroes rather than any sort of commentary on walls.

Walls will likely remain a feature of human civilization until the end of time. The symbolic and visual reminder of separation and protection is too much of an attraction for policymakers to ignore, and there will always been a need to signpost “us” and “them”. Drumpf’s frequently referenced and proposed US-Mexico border wall, despite every economic, environmental, political (not to mention common sense) obstacle continues to receive attention as symbol of his administration’s approach to immigration. In an age where division is the byword applied to almost everything in life, it seems almost fitting that more and more walls are being built or proposed around the world. Let’s hope it’s only temporary.

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