Analysis of The Waste Land, by T.S. Eliot

The Waste Land, written by T.S. Eliot, is poem portraying the lack and/or the corruption of culture in England during the post WWI period. Eliot uses a form of symbolism, in which he uses small pieces from popular literary works, to deliver his message. He begins by saying that culture during the post WWI period is a “barren wasteland.” Eliot goes on to support this claim by saying that people in England are in a sort of shock from the violence of World War I. Eliot believes that the lack of culture open doors for immorality to grow among the populace.

Eliot’s use of symbolism can be very disorienting. It has been proposed that this choppy medley is actually furthering his point by representing the “ruins” of a culture. An article by Glyndŵr University states that, “Eliot wants us to experience that sense of fragmentation for ourselves, and this is why the poem uses a kind of collage technique - assembling chunks of texts together in what seems a random and arbitrary way - to recreate this sense of cultural rubble”. Eliot purposely used fragments of well known literary works to give the appearance that the culture was in pieces. Eliot style complemented the main point of his poetry, adding to the appearance of a culture in ruins.

In the years following WWI, culture was almost nonexistent in England. People were more focused on getting back to living a normal life than arts or music. Eliot echoes several books of the Bible to describe this culture.

What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow

Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man,

You cannot say, or guess, for you know only

A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,

And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,

And the dry stone no sound of ...

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...ck of culture on the fact that people were more focused on getting back to normal life than art and music and various other forms of culture. Eliot thought that this emptiness in culture gave way to immorality in society. However, he believed that there was still a chance for the renewal of society. Eliot thought that religion would be able to save England’s society. Eliot’s poem condemns England’s post WWI culture and offers a solution to the problem.

Works Cited

Davis, B. (2003). http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/. Retrieved February 25, 2014, from http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~bedavis/davisjmhreview.pdf

Eliot, T. S., & Rainey, L. (2005). The Annotated Wasteland with Eliot's Contemporary Prose. Devon, PA: Duke & Company.

Glyndwr University. "Untitled." Glyndŵr University - Home. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 May 2014. .