Robert Frost's "'Out, Out'—"

• Published in: American imago 1977-04, Vol.34 (1), p.12-27
• Main Author: Henderson, Archibald
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Accidents; Aprons; Children; Coitus; Fathers; Mothers; Mountain ranges; Parents; Poetry; Suppers
• ISSN: 0065-860X; 1085-7931

" ' Out, out '—" involves a conflict between a boy and a buzz-saw. It is anonymous protagonist (boy) versus anonymous antagonist (saw). It is the story of a modern Yankee knight attempting to slay a medieval dragon. Out of the tension thus generated, an exciting climax develops. The buzz-saw is a device reflecting a technological community. Its acceptance and use by the boy suggest his acceptance of the Reality Principle. The saw coordinates with the Super-ego of the boy who, identifying with his father, uses the machine to be creative in the community. External and internal images, then, cooperate to cause the boy to conform to the rules of a world that is a closed system—one from which, especially after he loses a hand, he sees no avenue of escape. The saw is also a model of the boy's Ego. It is like an Ego with clumsy defensive structures to control the libido. Though the libido in the oedipal stage urges fulfillment of kill-the-father, marry-the-mother wishes, it cannot overcome the controls offered by the Ego, and by the Super-ego externalized in buzz-saw and doctor. It does not achieve integration of the Super-ego in a productive psyche. Again, the saw may be a totem, a sort of Moloch, which the boy, instead of symbolically incorporating, sacrifices himself to. Insofar as it alludes to the image of the parents in coitus (' the beast with two backs '), it relates to the moment of the Primal Scene, in which the child would or could incorporate (identify with and repress) the parental figures oedipally. Instead, the boy invites death in the loss of a hand. Finally, the saw is a provocation to masturbate in response to the functions of the machine. Fear, desire to retaliate, wish for release, need to control (at least in fantasy) what is going on, and urge to self-punishment are motives in prompting masturbation. It is guilt springing from the various reactions to the buzz-saw that finally breaks the boy's spirit and induces suicide. The buzz-saw in its manifold significances triumphs. As the ending of " ' Out, out '—" shows, Frost could not rid himself of guilt over what must have been a reflection of his own experience. But in presenting a multi-dimensional picture of a boy who confronts a series of socio-sexual crises, Frost has created a poem of enduring depth and breadth.