Reality :: Eliot Maddy Wasteland Death Essays

RealityDeath is something we all fear at one point in our lives it binds us together as mortal human beings, and eventually touches us all. But in our consumer driven society the subject of death is often times lost among our busy schedules. Personally, I never have dealt with a setting which gave me cause to fear for my life, and not many people in this day and age are faced with such a tremendous circumstance. But during Elliots lifetime, people were faced with the fear of death every day, and even every moment. The situation of the times was hard on everyone, and just like death, it brought all of the social classes together under one roof. In T.S. Elliots The Wasteland death was immediately mentioned in the first (English) bed (title of the first section), The burial of the Dead. The line exemplifies a strong sense of reality and it justifies the title of the poem. Reality is one of Elliots strongest themes he, by no means, skirts the issue of death. flavour over the first sta nza, Eliot relates death to the people how they see it, and how it affects them. And it is here where it becomes apparent that Elliot wishes to relate his belief that death touches us all in the same way. The quote, I will show you fear in a handful of dust is very powerful, because it sums up the fear of the people in those times. The quote itself signifies the dust gutter that swept the prairie between WWI and WWII. People were starving because of drought and depression they had no money, and were forced to sell their homes, to go live in cities, where disease and famine caused interminable deaths. Cities were overrun with people jobs were scarce, and peoples lives were often times expendable in the work place. Child labor was commonplace because it was necessary to feed the family the clarified children were employed for meager wages and performed jobs which often cost them their lives. It was a time in our history where many people lost hope, and despair was found everywhere. aft(prenominal) reading such a depressing line, I found it incongruous that directly after that quote, Elliot wroteFrisch weht der WindDer Heimat zuMein Irisch KindWo weilest du?The translation of this piece statesThe Wind blows newlyTowards the homelandMy Irish ChildWhere are you roaming?The two phrases that caught my attention were, The Wind blows freshly/Towards the homeland.