Out, Out-

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  • "Out, Out-"
    • Themes
      • Youth
        • depicts youth as an idealised, edenic state full of possibility
          • poetic tone becomes increasingly jaded and didactic
            • Narrative perspective/ voice
              • narrator sets the scene from an outsider's perspective, reporting incdident with objectivity and contstraint
              • tone becomes reflective and complacent
                • "and nothing happened: day was all but one"
              • "call it a day I wish they might have said"
                • use of first person shows sympathy for the boy and emphasises the need for others to empathise with the young boy
                • "saved from work"
                  • ironic use of "saved" as we have an image of a powerless little boy under the heartless control of adults
              • first person narrator who acts as a recorder and a commentator
              • feel of an omniscient narrator in some places
              • solemn
              • philosophical tone
              • clear sense of the reader who is being addressed
              • voice of the boy and the sister
              • single verse paragraph to capture one single incident
              • rhythm of normal voice captures the normality of the scene
              • use  of short sentences and minor sentences and imperatives
            • youth is portrayed as a time of unchecked freedom that is taken for granted and then lost
      • Loss of Innocence
      • Untitled
      • Life is short and fragile in composition
    • Characterisation
      • "leaped out of the boys hand, or seemed to leap-"
        • the saw is personified as a well-trained animal responding to its master's signal
        • tone becomes frightening- theme of the fragility of life emerges
      • "his sister stood beside him in her apron to tell them 'supper' "
        • domestic, homely image  and turning point
      • "that ended it" - as thought the boys is an object
    • Structure
      • unrhymed iambic pentameter  aka blank verse
        • until "the hand was gone already"
          • the breaking of such a regular, rigid form heightens the sense of immediacy and intimacy
            • the flow of the poem dies, just like the boy is about to
      • story begins in the middle of events - dropped straight into action
      • o
    • Language
      • "snarled and rattled"
        • juxtaposition of animalistic outburst of emotion with the sounds of manmade machinery
        • auditory imagery
        • buzz saw is described with human characteristics
          • compared to a predatory animal
        • onomatopoeic sounds plus the repetition and rhythm give it a mechanical effect making it appear that this saw has a mind of its own
          • tranquil setting
    • Time
    • Endings
      • Pragmatically explains that life continues to go on
      • the poem's pulse winds down with with the boy's
      • "and they, since they were not the one dead, turned to their affairs"
        • they against one
        • very detached and surprising given the lack of grief expressed at this fatal accident
          • workers are hardened in the face of death
            • Untitled
    • Plot, journey and destination
    • Setting/ place
      • Title
        • alludes to Macbeth's speech after the death of his wife
        • shows the briefness of life
        • effectively captures the moment of death
        • brings  together themes of word, death and the meaningless of life itself
      • family farm, evening, "supper time"
      • "under the sunset far into Vermont"
        • the majestic settings emphasise the relative smallness of the boy
        • peaceful setting of the farm is deceptive
          • calm tone conveys the impression of a safe, quiet, rural spot away from the noise and bustle of the city
      • "dust", "sweet-scented stuff"
        • sense of sight, smell and tough are evoked
        • tranquil setting
      • Vermont- magnitude/ majestic of the setting makes the boy seem even more significant in comparison
      • a specific wood yard
      • the end of a working day
    • Narrative perspective/ voice
      • narrator sets the scene from an outsider's perspective, reporting incdident with objectivity and contstraint
      • tone becomes reflective and complacent
        • "and nothing happened: day was all but one"
      • "call it a day I wish they might have said"
        • use of first person shows sympathy for the boy and emphasises the need for others to empathise with the young boy
        • "saved from work"
          • ironic use of "saved" as we have an image of a powerless little boy under the heartless control of adults
      • first person narrator who acts as a recorder and a commentator
      • feel of an omniscient narrator in some places
      • solemn
      • philosophical tone
      • clear sense of the reader who is being addressed
      • voice of the boy and the sister
      • single verse paragraph to capture one single incident
      • rhythm of normal voice captures the normality of the scene
      • use  of short sentences and minor sentences and imperatives
    • Motifs/ symbols
      • powerful images of death
        • "but half as if to keep the life from spilling"
        • "little- less- nothing"
    • Moments of crisis/ key events
      • "the doctor put him in the dark of ether"
        • almost pathetic fallacy as the "dark" is snyonomous with the putting out of a candle and the extinguishing of life
          • Untitled
      • "the watcher at his pulse took fright"
        • "watcher" is an industrial term rather than comfortable relation of mother and father for example
      • "no more to build on there"
        • the speed wit which
      • Untitled
    • Tragedy
      • Untitled
      • title and its origin in Macbeth
      • indifference to life as suggested by the title and the ending of the poem
      • loss of the child
      • terruible manner of the child's death
        • tragic in a modern sense
      • the child's suffering
      • the villainy od the saw
      • use of shock
      • absence of God or the divine intervention

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