Humanity Cannot Escape Nature
The poem “Out, Out-” written by Robert Frost revolves around the story of a boy who suffered a tragic death after cutting his arm while working outside. It discusses the themes common to Robert Frost’s works such as nature, humanity and their connection. In this poem, a boy is outside doing what seems to be a normal everyday chore however, once distracted by the call for supper, he accidentally injures himself to the point where he comes close to death and does eventually pass away because of the injury. Frost plays with the emotions of the reader as it is hard to tell if he is on the side of nature or humanity. The tone of the poem provides a glimpse of the emotions present as the characters generally do not
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Regardless of the fact that it describes a gruesome accident that takes the life of a young boy, Frost seems to be distant from the events. Upon reading this poem the readers feel a hint of emotion but cannot pinpoint this emotion. The tone goes from being calm to shocked and sad, and finally back to calmness and maybe numbness. At the end of the poem, Frost talks about how the family coped with the boy’s death as “since they were not the one dead”, they “turned to their affairs” (37). This gives the reader an idea of what humanity has come to, since the death of this boy is not mourned. Frost deliberately leaves this part out of the poem to emphasize how humanity is now changing and how emotions are being taken out of it. Therefore, humanity is being linked to nature, as they both move on after death. Frost carefully displays this so that the readers don’t feel the emotions they need, rather they feel the way the characters in the poem are feeling. He does this to show how people now-a-days are living in the moment and not thinking about or feeling what actually matters. The poem emphasizes how superficial people are becoming, but regardless of that, they are still part of nature: because the boy still dies as he is part of the circle of