The Waste Land

The Wasteland was a response to the fragmentation of Western culture after the end of World War I. After World War I, many European countries were in debt and spiritually exhausted. They thought themselves the pinnacle of civilization, and then they fought a war not for morals, not because one country sought to conquer another, but because of chaos and secrecy, resulting in millions of lives lost horrifically, and the environment destroyed by the war. This can be more clearly seen on page 1325, when Eliot goes on about a rock without water. Water in the Wasteland symbolized many things, from life and death, to spirituality and a necessity for the sustainment of life. Here, it has a more religious feeling as Eliot uses it describe how the spirituality of Western Culture had become dreary and almost in a dying state after World War I. The water can be a symbol for spirituality itself and Eliot makes sure to note in the footnotes that he was referencing a part in the Bible with in which water was referred to as spiritual life. Spirituality was still quite important to Europe back then, especially Britian with it's Church of England headed by their monarch. So the lack of spirituality would be a true dread to British to realize that they had fallen so far, which was perhaps Eliot's point to highlight how with the falling of spirituality in society, so would Western culture begin to collapse.

On page 1321, the bar patrons hold a conversation concerning one of the bar patron's husband coming back from the war and whether or not she had spent the money given to her properly. The whole conversation takes place while the bar is closing and the wife is told that her husband would leave her if he realizes how irresponsible and selfish she was with the money given to her. Her response was that she cared little. Another patron, all of them being friends, hinted at replacing her husband, but not in a devious way. The whole conversation maintains of dreary tone with out enthusiasm, as if the patrons had lost all interest in the conversation despite it pertaining to the husband of the wife and therefore one of their friends. Their dreary and empty conversation is due to the state of mentality that the war has placed the people, and therefore the culture, of Western civilization. Depressed by the war and horrible aftermath, especially debt, the people are beginning to let go of their morals, not out of fun or want, but out of depression. With the loss of morals, the state of mentality, and therefore the culture, of Western civilization will falter further than it already has in a downward spiral. This can be further seen as almost everywhere in the Wasteland, the characters are depressed, such as on the first page of the story, pertaining to the narrator's thoughts on how April is cruel month. These thoughts are a result of the narrators depression and how she wishes everything to be left covered up and not forced into life so that she not feel dead inside by the site of all the life around her while she maintains in depression.