“‘Out, Out –’”

Thesis: Robert Frost uses imagery, syntax, and euphemism in his poem “‘Out, Out –’” to add to the dramatic effect of the young boy’s death.

Imagery

            “The buzz-saw snarled and rattled in the yard” (Frost 1)

Describing the buzz-saw as snarling and rattling in the yard creates an image of a hungry, chained guard dog waiting for food or intruders.  Raging guard dogs tend to cause fear in those that are near the dog and that is what Frost attempts to do with the saw; Frost tries to portray how terrifying the saw seems, especially to the young boy using it.  Portraying the fear of the saw adds to the dramatic effect of the boy’s death because it makes his death by scary saw much more bone-chilling.

            The saw “leaped out at the boy’s hand” (Frost 16)

With the image of the saw as a raging dog already established, the image of the saw leaping at a hand becomes quite frightening.  If one were to image themself as the boy they would be terrified by a thing as destructive as raging guard dog coming at their hand most certainly to destroy it.  The image of a leaping, snarling, rattling saw coming at one’s hand is meant to frighten the reader and make the reader feel as if their hand is the one being sawed off, heightening the dramatic effect of the boy’s death by saw.

Syntax

            “They listened at his heart, / Little–less–nothing!–and that ended it” (Frost 31-32)

The use of the dash when describing the sound of the heartbeat of the dying boy helps create the scene of his death.  When someone is dying and there is nothing the doctors can do, as is in this case, the scene is usually portrayed as having everything slow down until it stops.  The dashes help to create physical pauses that are both seen when reading the poem and heard when speaking the poem.  These pauses add to the dramatic effect of a heartbeat slowing down, which is associated with death.

Euphemism

            “And they, since they / Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs” (Frost 34)

“They” is referring to the other workers in the yard and “their affairs” is the work of the workers.  This statement shows how the workers reacted to the boy’s death; although the death was a tragedy, the other workers did not let the death get in the way of their work since their livelihood depends on how much work they complete.  This quotation is a euphemism for the fact that the workers cannot let the boy’s death interrupt their work, an idea that is unfathomable in current society, especially given the conditions of his death.  The lack of mourning for this tragedy adds to the dramatic effect because it makes the reader realize how awful and inhuman work was and how it seemed as if people didn’t care about what happened to child laborers.