T.S. Eliots The Wasteland Essay - 3278 Words

T.S. Eliots The Wasteland In T.S. Eliot’s most famous poem The Wasteland, a bleak picture of post-war London civilization is illuminated. The inhabitants of Eliot’s wasteland are living in a morally bankrupt and spiritually lost society. Through fragmented narration, Eliot recalls tales of lost love, misplaced lust, forgone spirituality, fruitless pilgrimages, and the â€Å"living dead†- those who shuffle through life without a care. These tales are the personal attempts of each person to fulfill the desires which plague them, though none ever stop to consider that what they want may not be what they need, nor do they consider why it is they feel they must do these things. Through studies in Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic perspective†¦show more content†¦It is not, however, a reasonable excuse for their actions. As Jean-Paul Sartre states in his essay â€Å"The Humanism of Existentialism,† â€Å"Man is nothing, but what he makes of himself† (36). Under such a view the inhabitants, and humanity in general, are completely responsible for the choices they make and the state of affairs they find themselves in. It is not enough for them to just do whatever they feel like doing. Humanity must go further and we must know that we are making an active choice and will be forced to live with the consequences of such a decision. There is, yet, one more way to look at the actions and decisions of humanity. In The Ethics of Sex, Mark Jordan states, â€Å"[One] require[s] rather a persuasion to change his actions† (55). What this means is that, in order to make a big change to the corrupt way we are living, humanity must see the consequences of our actions. Right now we have not see enough reaction or negative consequences and without that, humans will continue to go for the easiest search and not work toward something we actually need. However, Jordan believes that this change will come by something God does, but this is not the w ay that people will find change. Instead, we must look within ourselves, not at outside forces, such as God, to find a reason to change. Otherwise humanity will continue the mistaken searches and never find the fulfillment needed. One of the most obvious ways that theShow MoreRelated T.S. Eliots The Wasteland Essay1285 Words   |  6 PagesT.S. Eliots The Wasteland Traditionally, authors begin their compositions at the beginning and then proceed to an end, creating a logical flow of information towards a conclusion. T.S. Eliot threw most traditional form out the window as he composed The Waste Land. The voice changes, the structure varies, his allusions are elusive, and the first section of the poem is entitled â€Å"The Burial of The Dead.† This of course does not speak to a beginning, but to the conclusion of what could be oneRead More T.S. 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His father was Henry ware Eliot who was theRead MoreCan we conclude that T.S.Eliots ideas about culture are elitist and leave it at that?1759 Words   |  8 Pages(1948) The Class and The Elite: Notes towards the Definition Of Culture. London: Faber Faber Ltd.) This seems to demonstrate that Eliots ideas about culture are basically elitist, however, although Eliot recognised the division in culture, he did not disregard the masses, indeed he said I ... should like an audience which could neither read nor write.(Eliot T.S. The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism.) This remark could hardly be farther from a desire for a limited and highly literate audienceRead MoreEven Among The Giants Of Literature, Such As Arnold, Wordsworth,1181 Words   |  5 Pagespoem which describes men stranded in a desert watching their only hope begin to fade away. Canto III of â€Å"The Hollow Men† best represents the essence of T.S. 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Eliot’s â€Å"The Wasteland† T.S. Eliot’s highly influential 433-line modernist poem is perhaps the most famous and most written-about long poem of the twentieth-century. Eliot’s composition brings forth a reader to understand the work through its historical context and to understand cultural and intellectual history through this piece of literature, which documents the new discipline of the history of ideas. In other words, The Waste Land is subject to New Historicism to further