TPCASST

Title: "Out, Out-" by Robert Frost is the title, and it means the escape from daily work that the boy wished for and the reprieve he got in the form of the saw.

Paraphrase:

"Then the boy saw all—


Since he was old enough to know, big boy


Doing a man’s work, though a child at heart—


He saw all spoiled."   In this quote the author is saying the boy knew that if they cut his hand off he wouldn't be able to work, and he understood that that meant he couldn't support a family etc.






Connotation: When Frost uses the words " snarled and rattled" to describe the saw it has a negative connotation because when you describe wild animals you use words like snarled, and rattled has a ghostly connotation related to death and fear.






Attitude: The author's attitude is sympathetic to the boy and mournful of his death, especially when he says, "Call it a day, I wish they might have said
To please the boy by giving him the half hour"






Shift: There is a shift at the end of the poem when Frost says, "No more to build on there. And they, since they Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs." It is a really quick shift that happens because the boy has died, and to keep with the theme of the poem Frost depicts them as dispassionate about his death. They too are stuck in their cycle of work just like the boy was, so they must continue on.



Title Revisited: I still think the title was the boy's hope to break out of the cycle of work and do something, anything else.




Theme: The theme of the poem is that sometimes people trap themselves in their lives and daily routines, and there's no emotion behind anything they do so they might as well already be dead. The boy died from being trapped in the cycle of work he didn't want to do, which was kind of ironic but made sense because doing the same things over and over again can kill you.

Tobermory

The last line of Tobermory was very clever in a way. German irregular verbs are different from regular verbs in that you have to change the whole word when you conjugate them, not just the ending. In the context of the story I think this last line is important to the theme because its saying that to fix a problem, like Tobermory gossiping about all the bad things they've said and done, you have to eliminate the problem. In this case the problem was the people and their bad behavior, not Tobermory calling it like he saw it. Tobermory's death only changed the ending it didn't change the whole word. That is why the tone of the author was very sardonic toward the end. While at the same time saying that you can't really teach an animal new tricks, he was also saying that the same thing goes for humans.

Brave New World

     Living in a consumer society I can't really help but think we are living in a Brave New World. This idea of subliminal projection Huxley talks about seems to plague every day life, maybe even influence it to the extent of controlling and manipulating it. From the time I wake up in the morning to the time I go to sleep I'm bombarded with trivial things like pop culture. Of course I buy in to it sometimes because that's what our society seems to care about most. It's in this way that I think we are being projected on. I don't see commercials about real world problems. I see commercials about celebrities and the hottest new brands and movies etc. These things appeal to our subconscious because they have nothing to do with reason and conscious decisions. They appeal to our wants and desires, and that's why it's easy for us to be controlled by them. I can like a song or a brand because I think it sounds good or looks good, but the message I am receiving about drugs or high society can be lasting. In this way they keep us dormant, and this makes us unaware about what is going on, like the soma they use in the book.
     Another point Huxley made about technology and mass communication being instruments of very effective, but potentially evil messages makes me think we are living in a world where that exists. I don't know anyone who doesn't have a television, computer, or phone. In this way people are receiving messages all day long. Some of it may be harmless, but messages can be sneaky and evil. Like the hypnopaedia in the book, messages are drilled in to our minds all the time. That's why fast food chains and big corporations develop jingles and slogans. They want us to associate the cool phrases and happy jingles with good food and a good time, not with heart problems and diabetes.
     Huxley talks a lot about politicians and communist nations. From the political aspect about candidates I can see where we might be going astray. Huxley said that candidates were merchandised, but I think it's gotten to the point where people in general are merchandised, kind of like in the book how people only cared about appearance and outward personality. There was no getting to know someone on a real basis, they only saw what the person wanted them to see. I think our pop culture and the brands and the fake nature of it all dehumanizes people. When you have the front cover of a magazine bashing on some celebrity because she gained 20 pounds you know you've got a problem.