Once these disparate parts were held together by a common enemy, by the fault lines of world wars and the electrified fence of communism. with the end of the cold war there was the creeping concern that without a focus for hatred and distrust, a sense of national identity would evaporate, that the left side of the hyphen – african-american, mexican-american, irish-american – would overwhelm the right. –"a quilt of a country," anna quindlen what is the denotative meaning of “electrified fence”? what is the connotative meaning of “electrified fence” in the passage? what does the use of this phrase reveal about how the author views communism?