The Works of T.S. Eliot and Yulisa Amadu Maddy

Love of Life and Fear of Death in the Works of T.S. Eliot and Yulisa Amadu Maddy

Both T.S. Eliot and Yulisa Amadu Maddy have experienced difficulty and

hardship in life. Eliot lived through two world wars and Maddy struggled

with oppression and poverty growing up in his homeland of Sierra Leone. These life

experiences are reflected in their writing. Both of these writers present the reader with the concept of human mortality in such a way that not only is the fear of death prevalent in their work, but also the love of life.

Mortal loss was more than just a threat at the time T.S. Eliot wrote The Waste

Land. Written in the years following the "Great War", today known as World War I, the

destruction and the loss of human life was a very real concept for T.S. Eliot and the rest of the world. When people were shown just how impermanent human life was, they

placed a higher value on living. As transient examples, Eliot cites great and powerful

cities of the past such as Jerusalem, Athens, and Alexandria to exemplify the

impermanent nature of life. In the same way that a person will eventually die, Eliot says that all great cities will crumble. This mentality suggests that death is an all-powerful force that cannot be escaped by anyone or anything. When this life lesson is accepted, the readers are left feeling helpless to control their own paths of life.

The fragmented style in which the poem is written leaves the reader feeling lost

and vulnerable. The poem leaps from scene to scene and even from language to

language. Although the actual subject matter of the scenes is unrelated, the same themes

appear throughout the poem. Depressing themes such as life without love, instability in

life, and the premature end of life are presented to the reader in a way showing how

each of the aspects of life, though difficult to accept, are necessary for life to exist. The

main theme presented in Eliot’s poem shows that death is a part of life. Eliot points out

that until death occurs, rebirth and transformation cannot take place. The concept that

death is a necessity is a very difficult concept to accept, leaving the reader

disillusioned. The fragmented and disillusioned feelings the reader receives from

reading The Waste Land mimics the emotions felt by the world after the war.

The recurring sensory images that Eliot uses appeal to the reader’s fear of the loss