Contrast Used in 'out, Out' and 'disabled'

Explore how contrast is used in ‘Out, Out’ and ‘Disabled’

Contrast is used effectively in Owen’s Disabled and Frost’s Out, Out. Owen’s poem is about a victim of war who suffers the consequences of youthful enthusiasm, whilst Frost’s poem, which also includes conflict, is about an unfortunate accident which leads to a very similar fate as Disabled. Both poems include a theme of victimhood throughout which is contrasted with how life could have been without their accidents. They use contrast in order to convey their messages. Both poems use conflict differently, and I will explore how it is used in both poems.

  To begin with, Owen uses contrast in Disabled in the first and second stanza with mood and tone. The words ‘ghastly’ and ‘saddening’ create a depressing mood in the first stanza. Furthermore, the word ‘hymn’ suggests a theme of death at a funeral, which conveys the soldiers state after war. Frost, however, creates a tone of peacefulness in the beginning of the poem. We infer that he does this so that the reader has a false sense of security, with words such as ‘sweet-scented’. He does, however, remind us of the dangers of a buzz-saw in the first line by writing that the saw ‘snarled’. This metaphor gives the reader a sense of uneasiness right at the start, and foreshadows the events later in the poem. Owen flips the mood in the second stanza, just as Frost does, with words like ‘gay’ to create a more jovial mood in order to represent the mans past life before his injury. Frost flips the mood as well when he creates a tone of uneasiness around the ‘snarling’ saw, but then conveys a peaceful setting.

  Owen uses contrast to relate to the irony throughout the poem. He states that the reason he went to war was to ‘please his Meg’, which suggests that the soldier was interested in girls, and girls were interested in him. Yet now that he has returned with his injury, no girl wants him. Furthermore, he uses contrast in the second stanza to show how the soldier used to like ‘a blood smear down his leg’, yet now his wounds leave him disabled. Frost uses contrast similarly to show how quick the accident was. The ‘day was all but done’, which suggests that the boy was very close to finishing work. This makes the reader think how unfortunate the boy was, and makes us feel pity. Furthermore, Frost shows how close the boy was to the end of the day when he describes the setting ‘the sunset far into Vermont’. This suggests the end of the day, yet the boy does not make it that far.

  The use of onomatopoeia in Frost’s Out, Out with the sounds ‘snarled’ and ‘rattled’ suggest that the saw has a mind of it’s own. This contrasts with the setting because the boy should be safe in his own home, yet the saw is clearly dangerous. The juxtaposition of the setting and the saw make the effect of uneasiness. Owen also uses sound in his poem such as the crowds that ‘cheer’ goal. This suggests that people prefer to cheer about something unimportant like football rather than something a lot more influential such as war. The soldier has sacrificed himself for his country, yet footballers get more glory than him. Owen does this to show how unfairly soldiers are treated after war. Furthermore, both poems use sound play such as sibilance and assonance. These two techniques create an effect of casualness in some cases, but uneasiness in others. For example, Owen uses assonance to show how happy the soldier was before the war, to please the ‘giddy jilts’. Just as he went to war to please Meg, he also joins in with the game of football. This suggests to us that he enlisted for the war as casually as joining in in a kick-about. Owen does this to emphasise how a simple decision can lead to such a drastic change in someone’s life. Frost uses sibilance similarly in his poem in the first line. The ‘s’ sound of ‘buzz saw snarled’ conveys an image of a snake making a hiss noise. This suggests that the saw is like a snake, ready to strike at any moment, just as it does later on. This use of contrast makes the reader wary of the main object in the poem.