Figurative Language In Out, Out By Robert Frost

In the beginning of ‘Out, Out—,’ the author personifies the saw through grammatical structure and precise language in order to reveal the control tools have over the humans who use them. To begin with, Frost deliberately arranges his words to show who is more accountable for the accident of boy’s hand getting cut. For instance, the reader notices that the saw frequently “bear[s] a load” and thus seems to hold more responsibility for a task than the boy (Frost 8). However, it is not until line 15 that the saw takes on the characteristics of a double-edged sword. The author carefully phrases his sentence, noting that “the saw…leaped out at the boy’s hand” (Frost 17). Instead of placing the boy as the subject, the author makes the saw the subject,
Indeed, from the onset of the spoem, the poet attributes the “snarl[ing] and rattl[ing]” (Frost 1) saw with animal-like qualities, creating a stark contrast to the boy who finds half an hour of work arduous (Frost 11-12). The irony here is that human created tools to make their lives easier, but such convenience comes at a price. Consider the jarring image of “life…spilling” from the boy’s hand (Frost 23). The hand is now the inanimate object, whereas the saw, hoping to “prove [it] knew what supper meant,” has come to life (Frost 16). By granting the saw with living characteristics, the poet asserts the unstated drawbacks of modern-day tools and helps the reader recognize how tools are expanding their superiority over humans. Some people might believe that the example of the saw severing the boy’s hand is too extreme; nevertheless, accidents like these are prevalent. If humans refuse to fulfill their roles in society and increase their dependency on inanimate objects for completing their jobs, it could only be a matter of time before humans lose total agency to robots, as seen in numerous science-fiction films and