"The Waste Land"

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses how Eliot's incorporation of fragmented pieces within the poem's form and content, parallel the lack of inter-connectivity within the working-class of London society.

From the Paper:

"T. S. Eliot builds his poem, "The Waste Land," on a foundation of fragmented pieces, through which he constructs a horrifying image of the lack of connectivity between individuals in London society. He mixes incomplete allusions, citations, speeches, languages, and phrases to produce a complete poem, but creates no connection between each literary scrap. The poem's content resembles this same system of fragmentation. He describes humans in terms of parts, specifically the body parts they use to work in an industrialized society. As a result, he portrays functioning members of society as fragments that find completion within the laws of society. Like the poem's unconnected form, however, the fragmented human beings lose their ability to connect with each other, thus illustrating what Eliot fears has happened to London society. The rules set forth by London society force working-class citizens to take on a machine-like persona, abandoning their individualism and their ability to form relationships within the human population. Thus, Eliot incorporates fragmented pieces within the poem's form and content in order to parallel the lack of interconnectivity within London society, as well as to pose a solution to this problem, demonstrating the necessity of a revolutionary reorganization of societal fragments."

More papers on "The Waste Land":

• Analytical Essay # 89026 : "T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land"
• Poem Review # 3958 : "T.S. Elliot's "The Waste Land"
• Analytical Essay # 52973 : "T. S. Eliot's "The Waste Land"
• Analytical Essay # 100700 : "T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land - An Analysis of 'The Fire Sermon'"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: