Reality :: Eliot Maddy Wasteland Death Essays

franknessDeath is something we all fear at one point in our subsists it binds us together as mortal human beings, and eventually touches us all. But in our consumer driven society the subject of death is oftentimes 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 large number in this day and age are faced with such a dreadful circumstance. But during Elliots lifetime, people were faced with the fear of death both day, and even every moment. The situation of the times was hard on everyone, and honourable 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) dividing line (title of the first section), The burial of the Dead. The line exemplifies a strong sense of realism and it justifies the title of the poem. Reality is one of Elliots strongest themes he, by no means, skirts the study of death. Looking over the first stanza, Eliot relates death to the people how they see it, and how it affects them. And it is present 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 bowl that swept the prairie between WWI and WWII. People were famished 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 countless deaths. Cities were overrun with people jobs were scarce, and peoples lives were often times expendable in the work place. babe labor was commonplace because it was necessary to feed the family the small children were employed for scrimpy wages and performed jobs which often cost them their lives. It was a time in our storey where many people lost hope, an d despair was found everywhere. After interpreting such a depressing line, I found it incongruous that instantaneously after that quote, Elliot wroteFrisch weht der whirlDer Heimat zuMein Irisch KindWo weilest du?The translation of this piece statesThe Wind blows pertlyTowards the homelandMy Irish ChildWhere are you roaming?The two phrases that caught my attention were, The Wind blows freshly/Towards the homeland.