Post-WWI "Waste land"

T.S. Eliot threw so many different fragments into The Waste Land its hard to pick the most prevalent theme. He references the Grail Quest, sterile relationships, and religious texts (as well as everything else) to ultimately progress his response to the fragmentation of Western culture proceeding WWI. 

Eliot frames his Waste Land in "April, the cruellest month" to symbolize the situation European nations were facing post WWI. The Western front- France, Belgium, and England were left in shambles and starting the process of regrowth. Eliot portrays an uncertain tone and questions how to rebuild London, the "Unreal City;" 

"You cannot say, or guess, for you know only
A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,
And the dry stone no sound of water."

The narrator has a pessimistic view of the future. No shelter, no water, no relief; he is describing a wasteland not filled with life or certainty. One could say he is searching for the fertility of his Nation like a knight on his quest for the Grail. It's hard to connect them to much due to the constant pessimistic tone and the fragmented multi vocal narration but the constant allusions to the Grail Legend hint a search for something. Section III also starts off with lifeless living conditions; "The river's tent is broken; the last fingers of leaf/ Clutch and sink into the wet bank. The wind/ Crosses the brown land, unhead. The nymphs are departed." There is no life left, no vegetation, no people. Eliot continues to overemphasize the absence of water, life, and happiness. He is clearly referring to nations finding themselves after losing identity of who they are after the war. 


Looking at the last stanza the narrator is sitting "upon the shore Fishing." Fishing for the truth to try and make some kind of sense out of this fragmented time. "Shall I at least set my lands in order?/London Bridge is falling down falling down falling down" I took these lines pessimistically, should I just take care of myself because the society of the past is done. "These fragments I have shored against my ruins;" this line really sounds like a creed sandwiched between fragments. What I took from this was that his poem is fragmented like the world he lives in. Trying to rebuild and advance while also honoring and learning from those before us. I'm not to sure what to make of The Waste Land, but I do know one thing; I have no problem with Britain claiming Eliot as theirs.