Poem: "Out, Out-" by Robert Frost
I chose this prompt because Frost really uses techniques to describe the scene of the accident. He also uses many different techniques to describe the mood during the accident and what it really shows about human beings.
In "Out, Out," by Robert Frost, the mood shifts from anticipation to detachment and indifference. Frost explains the scene of the poem with vivid description as the boy is hard at work, but seems to run out of words to say when their is a tragic accident. Before the accident the scene is given in great detail and with a sense of elegance. Boys often take on dangerous and rigorous tasks that seem to be a man's job, but it is so accepted in our culture that when something happens to the boy, he is treated as though he is a man. The young boy in this story was working with a saw, which seems would be a job for a man, but when something goes wrong the characters see it as his fault because he let the saw slip. Frost works to show the comparison between the innocence of the young boy and the experience of man to take the blame away from the boy. Through personifications and metaphors, the author is able to create a lead up to an intense scene, but through comparison and a mood shift he is able to create the overall meaning of the poem.
Robert Frost uses personification to bring the scene to life and create a sense of fear or anticipation. In lines 1 and 7, Frost writes, "The buzz saw snarled and rattled in the yard."
These lines show the life of the saw and the potential danger that it could be. The innocence of the boy seems to be emphasized by the roughness of the saw that acts as a person in the poem. "Leaped out at the boy’s hand, or seemed to leap," Frost shows that the saw had a mind of its own and again brings the saw to life. Frost also used metaphors to describe the setting in which the scene took place. "And from there those that lifted eyes could count Five mountain ranges one behind the other Under the sunset far into Vermont." Frost compares the mountain ranges to the sunset to show that the area was extremely beautiful, but the sun was soon to set and the day would be over shortly, which could have saved the boys life if only it had set sooner. Frost painted the scene with elegant speech and with a great flow of words.
Throughout the poem, the author makes references to a boy and a man. In this poem, Frost uses the comparison between man and boy to create the mood and overall meaning. In the line "Since he was old enough to know, big boy Doing a man’s work, though a child at heart—" Frost shows how young boys were expected to take on the work of a man at an early age. Although they were still young and basically a child, everyone saw them as men and treated them as men in this time period. The reason that Frost incorporates this comparison is because he wants to take the blame of the boys death out of the hands of the boy and into the hands of the adults that were all around. The boy knows that he is going to die as he has lost to much blood, but wants to die with pride, which is why is last lines are "‘Don’t let him cut my hand off— The doctor, when he comes. Don’t let him, sister!’" Frost created this comparison that worked really well to show how boys often are forced to grow up much faster than they should have to.
At the end of the poem, the author makes a major shift. The shift starts with the line "Little—less—nothing!—and that ended it." At this point in the poem the author changes his writing from elegant to short and indifferent. It is as if the author has no words left to say or does not know how to react to the death of such a young boy. Where the author was using metaphors and personification, he is now using nothing but a tone of detachment and indifference. This mood shift shows how the boys are treated as men and if it not them who have died then they continue on with their lives. This contributes to the overall meaning of the poem, which is that death can be painful, but eventually everyone must move on with their lives. In this case, it seemed that not the characters nor the author seemed to care about the death of the boy because the characters continued on and the author ran out of words, but the author was trying to show his disagreement with such young boys being treated like grown men.
The poem "Out, Out," by Robert Frost, shows the realities of the world, but also shows the authors view, which is him standing up for the innocence of the young boys. Personification was a vital technique to show the brutality of the saw, which resembled the difficulty the boy faced. The saw resembled the reality of adulthood and emphasized the danger the young boy in taking on the lifestyle of a man at a young age. The comparison between boys and men showed the authors view on the situation and how he disliked the fact that the adults did not do something different that could have saved the boys life. In the end of the story, the mood shift showed the reality of the rest of human nature. Death is a hard thing to face, sometimes people react with a sense of indifference because that is the easiest way for them to cope. The author's indifference showed his possible way of coping, but also the harshness of the characters who may have been the boys family, but simply continued on with their lives without any sadness or harm.
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