The WasteLand (by T.S. Eliot) By: Mahdy Yassine, Saad Samhoun, and Ziad Samhoun

Introduction Thomas Stearns Eliot was born in Missouri on September 26, 1888. In 1915, his first poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” was published. Seven years later, during his healing process from exhaustion, he published one of the most prominent poems, “The WasteLand”.

Achievments Because of his big influence on poetry and his career achievements, T.S. Eliot was granted a Nobel Prize in Literature and an Order of Merit in 1948. A few of his famous poems include: “Four Quartets” (1943), “Ash Wednesday” (1930), The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism (1933), After Strange Gods (1934) and Notes towards the Definition of Culture (1940).

Eliot spent a part of his life supervising over younger poets, and helping them out. He died in London on January 4, 1965.

Explanation of The Waste Land The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a novel written in 1925. The novel was greatly influenced by T.S. Eliot’s poem, “The Waste Land”. Ezra Pound, another famous poet edited The Waste Land, before its publication. It was also rumored that his wife, Vivien, had a role in editing the poem. The poem consisted of five parts: “The Burial of the Dead”, “A Game ofChess”, “The Fire Sermon”, “Death by Water”, and “What the Thunder Said” consecutively.

The First Part The first part starts off with a portrayal of how terrible spring is. Then, a German woman named Marie is mentioned. Her childhood is explained thoroughly. The poet moves on to describe a literal ‘wasteland’ with a description of infertile grounds and dead trees. Last, “Burial of the Dead” is when the speaker goes into London that is overrun by zombies. Stetson, the dead figure from a past war was asked about the fortune of a dead body that was concealed in his garden. The poem started off with a glimpse of joy, where two girls were having fun sledding and drastically changed to a terrible description of spring and land. This shows how war can affect society heavily.

The Second Part The second section of the poem, “A Game of Chess”, starts off with a wealthy woman sitting in her exquisite room. She waits for her lover, and she starts crying. An image is found on the wall of Philomel, a woman from ancient Greek myths who was raped by King Tereus. Then the section moves onto a conversation between two ladies in the bathroom of a bar. They speak of a friend called Lil whose husband has left for war. Lil’s hideous looks are caused by the medication she’s been taking for abortion after having five children, but her husband won’t leave her alone.

The Third Part Furthermore, the third section, “The Fire Sermon”, starts off with describing the Thames River and how it has become polluted. The character expresses sorrow because of the extinction of magic. Philomel is mentioned again, and then a blind prophet called Tiresias from a myth, that was turned from a guy to a girl for seven years by the Goddess Hera. Then a story about two people having loveless sex is explained relating to the theme of the spread of violent love. The clerk having intercourse leaves Tiresias alone with sad music playing in the background.

The Fourth Section The fourth section, “Death by Water”, describes Phlebas the Phoenician, who drowned and was torn apart but sea creatures in the deep ocean. The narrator asks the reader to compare his mortality to Phlebas’s.

The Fifth Section Finally, the fifth section, “What the Thunder Said”, a huge stony land is present. It is dry of all sources of water. Then, two guys are walking along, and one notices a third person with them, but there wasn’t anyone actually there. Thunder cracks over them and it sounds like it is saying three words in Sanskrit, which mean “give, sympathize, and control”. Then the word Shantih is repeated several times during the scene, which stands for “the peace that passeth all understanding.” The write gives us hope at the end, showing that even if civilization is ruining itself there is still faith.

Materialism Both the Wasteland and The Great Gatsby discuss materialism and how it has corrupted society’s morals. The characters in the novel are all attached to their money and try their best to become wealthier.

Daisy Daisy does not true love Tom, but she married him for his wealth. She is also astonished by Gatsby’s ,mansion and she starts crying when he shows her all his shirts.

Gatsby He leaves his parents and works with Dan Cody because he didn’t want to be poor. He told Nick that Daisy’s voice is “full of money”. He also used to like her house and he admired her wealth when he first met her. Many people would go to his parties but then when he died no one showed up to his funeral. One friend calls only to ask for his shoes.

Tom Nick realizes at the end of the novel that Tom and Daisy always create problems because they are careless and all they find important is their wealth.

Myrtle George Wilson describes how his wife used to cheat on him but God was still watching, showing how people lost all their religious and moral values for materialism.

The valley of ashes The valley of ashes in the novel can be seen as a direct reference to The Wasteland as the valley itself is a wasteland. This wasteland is monitored by the eyes of doctor T. J. Eckleburg, which can be seen to resemble the eyes of God and how people are forgetting their morals because of greed and materialism.

Modernism Modernist Writers such as: During times of globalization, and just after the horrifying consequences of WWI on society, did the modernist literature come to existence. Modernists wanted to break away from those traditions, and artists found it hard to create content that represented the decline in those social standards. In order to break away from the Victorian-era conventions, writers like T.S. Eliot had to adopt the first person point of view in his writings, and use themes of despair to describe a world with no traditions. The modernist literature includes fragmentation (unclear beginnings, middles and endings), motifs, juxtaposition, allusions, symbolism and a satirical type of language.They were realistic fiction.

How is Modernism Connected to the Style and Spirit of the Great Gatsby? The Great Gatsby is a modernist novel, in which it represents a loss of tradition and revolts against the corrupted world. The novel shows topics like cheating, violence, racism, and the corruption of the American dream which are all represented by characters such as Tom and Gatsby.(Ex: Tom cheats on Daisy, Tom hits Daisy, he said that Whites need to do something or blacks will take over America(racism), Gatsby’s obsession with Daisy and his desire for an unattainable relationship, the valley of ashes represents a wasteland(represents the corrupted American dream) etc…)