The Wasteland Essay - 1747 Words

T. S. Eliot’s â€Å"The Wasteland† depicts a definitive landscape of desolation, reflecting the damaged psyche of humanity after World War I. Relationships between men and women have been reduced to meaningless social rituals, in which sex has replaced love and physical interaction has replaced genuine emotional connection. Eliot’s â€Å"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock† goes a step further in depicting these relationships: the speaker reveals a deep sexual frustration along with an awareness of morality, in which he is conscious of his inability to develop a connection with women yet cannot break free from his silence to ask â€Å"an overwhelming question† (line 10). â€Å"The Wasteland† and â€Å"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock† together illustrate that†¦show more content†¦Her lack of response to the clerks advances along with her depiction as â€Å"hardly aware of her departed lover† (250) reveal how sex is n ot associated with love in her mind. Perhaps most importantly, the action shown in the phrase â€Å"smoothes her hair with automatic hand† (255) epitomizes this detached and passionless sexual encounter. With this automatic hand we know that this encounter is not anomalous, but routine--as everything in the typist’s life has become mechanized. The degrading effect of this mechanization is the loss of meaning in life which has extended from her job as a typist to her relationship with a lover. No thought is put into these actions, just as no thought is put into a meaningful connection between the two. In another sense, â€Å"The Wasteland† depicts relationships between the opposite sex as barren of emotional attachment by means of the conversation between the drunken women in the second section, â€Å"A Game of Chess.† The sexuality here is portrayed as raging fertility followed by an abuse of abortion medication, as the character Lil is encouraged to have unwanted sex with her husband because â€Å"if [she doesn’t] give it to him, there’s others will† (149) but does not want to have any more children. We can see that Lil’s frustration in her relationship with her husband is connected to his superficiality: though absent, he is quoted to have said to Lil, â€Å"I can’t bear to look at you† (146),Show MoreRelatedAnalysis Of The Wasteland By T. S. Eliot2210 Words   |  9 PagesIntertextuality in the Wasteland One of the masterpieces of Anglo-American modernism, â€Å"The Wasteland† by T. S. Eliot, was published in a time when European society had just emerged from World War I, a war that had traumatized and destabilized the whole continent and its society making it reconsider much of its beliefs and previous assumptions. A sense of disillusionment and cynicism grew among people who did no more believe in the humanity and order of the world surrounding them. Eliot hasRead MoreTeenage Wasteland585 Words   |  2 PagesTeenage Wasteland The teenagers I interviewed were all relatively affluent, by all appearances and their own admission, and this in and of itself created some differences between their perspectives and my own. In general, however, I think that the passage of time and the different values and perspectives of parents and of teenagers in the current era are more responsible for the changes in responses that I observed in the interview as opposed to what I myself might have said as a teenager in answerRead MoreThe Wasteland by T.S. Eliot1017 Words   |  4 PagesT.S. Eliot’s most famous poem â€Å"The Wasteland,† a grim picture of post-war London is analyzed as being the most important poetic work of the twentieth century. The first glance at this poem leads one to the conclusion that the content of this piece is bleak and depressing. The assumption can be made that Eliot has diagnosed his society with a terminal disease, which he chooses to describe through his poem. After further analyzi ng â€Å"The Wasteland† it can be seen that out of the dust of this barren placeRead MoreThe Wasteland Analysis990 Words   |  4 Pagesâ€Å"The Wasteland† Analysis After World War I, a movement known as Modernism changed poetry and literature. T.S. Eliot was one of the most influential Modernist writers in his time. His most famous poem, The Wasteland, is a great example of this movement. The poem talks about the negative impact of war, especially World War I, on society. It uses many literary techniques that present Eliots negative message about the decline of Western culture due to war. These literary techniques include metaphorRead MoreThe Wasteland Essay1686 Words   |  7 Pagesincreasing militarism, imperialism, and alliances and lasted from 1914 to 1918. The poem, the Wasteland, a classic of Modernist literature published in 1922 by T.S Eliot, wholly captures the turmoil, barrenness and despair felt by the masses during WWI, also commonly known as the war to end all wars. This is done through the fragmented and melancholic depiction of a barren, physical and emotional â€Å"wasteland† devoid of any life, joy or human emotion. Thu s, the poem, as a whole, highlights the degradationRead MoreThe Effects of a Teenage Wasteland852 Words   |  4 Pages Anne Tyler’s â€Å"Teenage Wasteland† is a story about a modern day family of four and the relationship issues they experienced with each other. The story is presented in third person limited; however, the reader is shown much about how the mother of the family feels and the troubles she experiences in her relationships with her husband and children, primarily her son Donny. Daisy is portrayed as a mother who worries that she had failed Donny because of his continual disobedience toward the authorityRead MoreThe Myth Of The Wasteland781 Words   |  4 PagesSacrifice. The Wasteland will try to tear you down, make you a monster or strip you of your will to fight. The Wasteland†¦ and to a lesser degree, life itself. Every day is a struggle against the forces that attempt to compromise and erode anything good in your heart. It helps to have a cause, a purpose; but I have seen too many who have put their faith in those alone and been lead grievously astray. Every pony has a virtue, whether they realize it or not. And it is your virtue and your friendsRead MoreAnalysis Of The Poem The Wasteland 1313 Words   |  6 PagesT.S Eliot’s â€Å"The Wasteland† is a fragmentary poem written in the early 1900’s, the poem displays themes of physical existence and the non-existence of a modern life. In fact, which can be seen in the first part of the poem itself, which is broken down into 4 iridescent yet, colorless parts. The Burial of the Dead, Game of Chess, The Fire Sermon, Death by Water and What the Thunder Said; they are all profoundly related they are designed to convey the over arching themes of the poem. It has countlessRead MoreThe Wasteland, by T.S. Eliot857 Words   |  4 Pagesliterary, and mythic allusions. Using themes and techniques from his earlier work, Eliot publishes The Wasteland. The Wasteland is a poem Eliot wrote after his divorce with his wife Vivienne Haighwood. Critics say the title of the poem, the wasteland, comes from his thoughts on his marriage. This poem is considered to be â€Å"one of the most difficult poems in a difficult literary period†. The Wasteland is a poem that is said to be of his most influential work. At first glance, critics considered theRead MoreThe Wasteland and The Matrix Essay1481 Words   |  6 Pagesquestion. The same is true of commentaries on the state of mankind. T.S. Eliot’s The Wasteland is considered by many to be the greatest poem of all time. During Eliot’s time, the world was beginning to place more value on pop culture than high culture. Gone were the days where most were familiar with the works of the greats. The Wachowski Brothers’ film, The Matrix, deals with similar themes as The Wasteland . The science fiction film set in world that has been taken over by machines and centers