The Inevitability of Death in Robert Frost's Out, Out
The Inevitability of Death
All too soon, life fades away. Everything and everyone in it as well. Time is but a vapor and there is only one chance to hold it in one’s hand. Once that vapor has gone away, nothing can be done to get it back; only for those whose vapor has not gone to continue living. This theme has been taken on and used by many different writers, such as, Robert Frost in his poem, “Out, Out”. This poem is about a young boy who is cutting wood in his yard when his sister comes outside to tell him that it is time for dinner. Out of excitement, he loses control of the saw and cuts his hand terribly. He begs his sister not to let the doctor cut off his hand, however, he knows that he has lost too much blood. The doctor arrives and while the boy is under anesthesia he passes away. Though this event was altogether a tremendously tragic one, the boy’s family and friends have to move on with their lives. Robert Frost builds the theme of the inevitability of death through the use of different types of figurative language, imagery and symbolism, and no set sentence structuring.
Frost uses different types of figurative language in his poem, “Out, Out”. He uses personification when describing the boy cutting his hand. “At the word(supper), the saw, as if to prove that saws know what supper meant, leaped out at the boys hand, or seemed to leap-”(Out, Out). Frost uses the personification of the saw to give the blame to someone else as to reinforce the idea of the inevitability of death and to also bring forth the idea that one’s life is many times cut short and taken by others rather than by their own decisions or doing. Frost also uses repetition to create a sense of sound and visual in this poem. When he is talking about the saw he describes it over and over again as to have “snarled and rattled”. “The twin-sided aspects of life are echoed here. The buzz-saw at once transforms itself into the metaphor of the Giver of Life:it gives, yet it takes.
All too soon, life fades away. Everything and everyone in it as well. Time is but a vapor and there is only one chance to hold it in one’s hand. Once that vapor has gone away, nothing can be done to get it back; only for those whose vapor has not gone to continue living. This theme has been taken on and used by many different writers, such as, Robert Frost in his poem, “Out, Out”. This poem is about a young boy who is cutting wood in his yard when his sister comes outside to tell him that it is time for dinner. Out of excitement, he loses control of the saw and cuts his hand terribly. He begs his sister not to let the doctor cut off his hand, however, he knows that he has lost too much blood. The doctor arrives and while the boy is under anesthesia he passes away. Though this event was altogether a tremendously tragic one, the boy’s family and friends have to move on with their lives. Robert Frost builds the theme of the inevitability of death through the use of different types of figurative language, imagery and symbolism, and no set sentence structuring.
Frost uses different types of figurative language in his poem, “Out, Out”. He uses personification when describing the boy cutting his hand. “At the word(supper), the saw, as if to prove that saws know what supper meant, leaped out at the boys hand, or seemed to leap-”(Out, Out). Frost uses the personification of the saw to give the blame to someone else as to reinforce the idea of the inevitability of death and to also bring forth the idea that one’s life is many times cut short and taken by others rather than by their own decisions or doing. Frost also uses repetition to create a sense of sound and visual in this poem. When he is talking about the saw he describes it over and over again as to have “snarled and rattled”. “The twin-sided aspects of life are echoed here. The buzz-saw at once transforms itself into the metaphor of the Giver of Life:it gives, yet it takes.