The Wasteland and The Matrix

Historically speaking the fate of world has always been called into the question. 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 around the plight of unsuspecting hero, Neo and other who have been freed from the computer simulated reality of The Matrix. Both worlds of “The Wasteland” and The Matrix center around the struggles the inner self faces when modern society no longer reliable for spiritual sustenance. It is the lack of spirituality in modern culture that leaves the masses starved intellectually and out of touch with historical and high culture.

"The Wasteland" begins with The Burial of The Dead. The first part of the poem paints a pictures of place where even spring is unenjoyable. April is a time when, “Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain,” ( 3-4). What should be a time where flowers are in bloom and people are happily thriving is not so. There is an underlying message that people once lived in a better time. There is void which has yet to be filled and a longing for something more. This is a similar scene to the opening of the Matrix. The audience is introduced to Thomas Anderson, who will later become Neo. He is living a seemingly lackluster and unfulfilling life. He is surrounded by the pollution and corruption of the big city and has no emotional ties ...

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...to subjects relevant to today, such as religion.Eliot argues that without religion we are all lack direction and more importantly we lack substance in our lives. Without religion, we are superficial and it is due to this that we turn to pop culture. Pop culture is a filler for that which is intellectually rewarding. Eliot recognized this and for this reason he wrote “The Wasteland”. Eliot’s poem made bold statements about what was really happening in the modern world. Whether one argue with Eliot’s positions or not, his work joins the canon of the classic and ironically provides an opportunity for readers to plug into something greater.

Works Cited

Eliot, Thomas Stearns. The Waste Land. New York: Horace Liveright, 1922; Bartleby.com, 2011.

www.bartleby.com/201/

The Matrix. Dir. Andy Wachowski and Larry Wachowski. Warner Bros. Pictures, 1999. DVD.