Out, Out

In “Out, Out-”, Robert Frost utilizes symbolism to compare the death of a forcibly matured child to that of a drafted soldier. Throughout the poem, he uses personification, and symbolism to achieve this. The personification of the saw personifies a barking, hostile dog, that, because of his upbringing the child trusts. The symbolism is present throughout the poem, as to reinforce the idea of the hostility of war. The child’s superior figure, which is thought to be his father, symbolizes the oblivious officials that send and opt to draft soldiers into the war. The last line represents the apathy that soldiers are forced upon as their friends and fellow peers die. “Out, Out-” by Robert Frost is meant to question the ethics of wartime by paralleling

The same goes for the officials that promote wartime propaganda. Instead of explaining what would be witnessed in war, they glorified it, instilling a sense of nationalistic virtue in recruits. The recruits, instead of pride and nationalism, returned mentally disturbed. Most did not return. In the same way, the boy held an honorable image in his mind, one where was working to support his family. He was not, however, prepared for the causality that was inflicted upon him. The speaker presents the boys horrors, fully realizing the dangerous position he is in, “He saw all spoiled. ‘Don’t let him cut my hand off - / The doctor, when he comes. Don’t let him, sister!’” (25-26) Michael R. Little explains in his analysis of “Out, Out-”,

“The tragedy of the poem is only in part that the boy dies; another aspect of the poem's tragedy is that the boy dies without ever having been allowed to live a boy's life; he dies doing grown-up

And they, since they / Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs.”(33-34) After the boy had taken his last breath, his family continued on with work. They knew that production would slow and output would suffer if they delayed. So, they pressed on, despite what they felt. The higher officers and platoon leaders during war enforced the same mindset on inexperienced recruits. They were aware that stopping on a battlefield would put the war effort at risk at large. This forced lack of concern created a feeling of guilt in the survivors, because they were essentially forced into apathy for the dead. Again because of the glorification of war, many new recruits were not prepared for this and suffered grave mental scars that would last most if not all of their