FREE ESSAY ON OUT,OUT-- BY ROBERT FROST

OUT,OUT-- BY ROBERT FROST

Kendal Kelly 
AP Lit 1st Block
Ms. Bingham
March 4, 2001
Necessity vs. Selfishness
Robert Frost's insightful yet tragic poem "Out, Out--" employs realistic imagery and the
personification of a buzz saw to depict how people must continue onward with their lives
after the death of a loved one, while also hinting at the selfish nature of the human
race, whom oftentimes show concern only for themselves. 
The poem narrates the story of a boy who dies as a result of accidentally cutting off his
hand with a buzz saw in his own yard. Frost employs imagery to reveal the setting, the
boy's "yard" in "Vermont" right before "sunset", using vivid detail to describe the "five
mountain ranges" within eyesight of the yard. The narrator foreshadows the tragic event
to come when he "wishes" that the workers would have "[called] it a day" and "[given]"
the boy "the half hour that (he) counts so much when saved from work", the adult
responsibility of cutting wood with a buzz saw. While "nothing [was happening]", the
boy's sister comes out to tell he and the other workers that "supper" is ready. The boy,
in his excitement at the signal to end the day's work, accidentally cuts himself with the
treacherous buzz saw. Frost reveals a sense of the boy's pain by employing the oxymoron
"rueful laugh", displaying both the boy's extreme surprise and deep sorrow at the
near-amputation of his hand. Frost continues to depict the shocking scene by describing
the boy's reaction as he "[holds] up the hand, half in appeal…half as if to keep
the life from spilling" from his body. The adult responsibilities the boy has been faced
with, combined with the horrific mangling of his own hand, lead to the boy's own terrible
revelation that "all" will soon "spoil", which foreshadows yet the next tragedy, the
death of the boy. Frost utilizes dialogue to convey the boy's pleading voice as he begs
his sister to not let the doctor "cut [his] hand off". The syntax Frost chose was
specifically selected to reflect the boy's life as it begins to diminish. Compared with
the first few lines of the poem, the concluding ones consist of short, choppy sentences
as death closes in on the boy. The doctor arrives and gives the boy "ether", an
anesthetic, after which Frost describes the boy's breathing as shallow and weakening
while he "lay and puffed his lips out with his breath". Frost paints such real images
with his words that the reader can almost see as "the watcher at (the boy's)
pulse…[listens] to his heart" as the beating fades from "little" to "less" to
"nothing", which "[ends]" the boy's life. The theme does not become clear to the reader
until the last sentence, depicting how the family and friends "[are] not the one dead",
so they "turn to their affairs", and proceed on with their lives. Frost conveys the
necessity of how people must go on, even after a tragedy such as the death of a loved
one, because life continues, and so must they. Even though going on with life is a
necessity, the speed in which the family and friends proceed to do so causes the reader
to wonder what their motives are--necessity or selfishness.
Frost personifies the buzz saw so that it seems to come alive with a will of its own. The
phrase "snarled and rattled" repeats three times throughout the poem to depict an image
of the buzz saw whirring back and forth. At times "it [runs] light, or [has] to bear a
load]", which conveys the saw as a living being that must carry something. Frost gives
the buzz saw an ominous air, a will of its own, when it "[leaps] out at the boy's hand"
"as if to prove saws [know] what supper [means]". In this way, Frost shies away from the
fact that the boy brings death upon himself by getting momentarily distracted from
cutting the wood, accenting blame on an inanimate object. Along with faulting the buzz
saw, the reader can also cast blame on the parents for making the boy, "a child at
heart", take on adult responsibility to "[do] a man's work", which results in a freak
accident and ultimately, the boy's death. 
In "Out, Out--", realistic imagery and the personification of a buzz saw convey Frost's
theme of how we as human beings must continue onward with our lives even in the face of
tragedy, along with hinting at the selfish nature of the human race, who have a tendency
to only be concerned only for themselves.