We started reading "The Waste Land" by T.S. Eliot today in class. However, when I looked at our syllabus a couple nights ago, and saw that we had to read the entire poem, I was worried. I usually do not read very deep and critical thinking poems. I like everything sweet and simple (I wish the world would work like that). However, when I started reading all the lines in the poem, I realized this is far beyond my brain. How can someone think like this? Either T.S. Eliot is a genius to write a poem in such a way that everything connects to each other. On the other hand, he could possibly be a total lunatic who came up with the most random things to talk about in a poem.
Nevertheless, when we discussed the first part, The Burial of the Dead, I actually comprehended a lot more in class than on reading on my own. What my fellow classmates said made the first part somewhat clear. I understood that there were four different speakers in the first part, and I felt like they were all trying to find something, some kind of answer. This made sense for the last two speakers, the tarot card reader and the London bridge scene because in both of those parts, there were people who were looking for some kind of answer. However, that theory does not fit well with the first two parts.
Then, I remembered the whole concept of memory and desire, and tried to see if that is how all the four parts in the first section were connected. The first two are a good example of memory because the speaker in the first one remembers her childhood memories about playing with her cousin when she was younger. The second part also seems like the narrator is remembering a woman from his past that he possibly could have loved. The fourth one could also be considered in the memory category because the narrator is recollecting his memory about the dead person buried, and wanting to know what happened to it. However, the third part did not seem to have any memory connection as all.
So things I am not sure about in the first part of The Waste Land are
1. How are all four parts in The Burial of the Dead connected?
2. Why does everything so random?
3. Why are there random languages in various parts?
4. Is Death the main theme of the first section or not?
Nonetheless, I just hope that this poem would be a lot easier as we read further into it.
3 comments:
Hey, I liked what you said about discussion in class and I feel the exact same way. I am learning so much more through the discussion and people's ideas than just trying to make my own crazy ideas about Eliot's poem. I feel that Eliot is somewhat of a lunatic because he does jump from so many narrators and settings that I get lost. But if his work got published, he did something right.
I want to address some of the questions (discretion: these are simply my opinions)
1. The obvious answer is death, but it is also important to note the craziness of the narrators. Kids going down the mountain in the snow of darkness, tarot card readings, death of trees and the unlivingness of a stone, and lastly the ghost of a dead man. The four sections revolve around how death can happen anywhere, at anytime, and to anyone.
2. Randomness.. uh? Good question.
3. Maybe that's how they did speak or possibly he learned German and spent time in Europe. It is also interesting in the sense that it caught my attention in trying to learn what those lines mean by having to read the back of the book.
4. I think death is the theme of the first section under the overlying theme of the Waste Land. The waste land includes death as well as many other things.
I hope this sort of helps...
My most logical guess right now would be that each fragmented story or event within a section is in itself an allegory that ties with the theme of the section, and that perhaps each section that constitutes "The Waste Land" represents a different aspect of whatever Eliot is trying to symbolize/portray. With that in mind, I'm going to try reread it section by section and hopefully make some connections.
To answer your other questions, my initial reaction to the language thing was that it was simply a stylistic idiosyncrasy of Eliot's, but now that I think about it, it could represent a certain commonality among all the different cultures and countries that were involved with WWI - something to kind of bring everyone in the world under an umbrella meaning/representation.
And I do think the overall theme of the first section is death. At least for now.
I know what you mean! I had a lot of trouble my first couple times reading this poem, and I am glad to know that I am not the only one.
I think your thought that all four narrators of the first section are trying to find an answer to something is a really good observation, but it also seems to me that it is a little unclear as to how they are all related.
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