Amathophobia :: Eliot Wasteland Maddy Future Present Past Essays

AmathophobiaDeath is the great equalizer. We all have unique experiences in life, but we each succumb to the same final fate. Rich or poor, strong or weak, exalted or scorned everyone is humbled when faced with his avouch mortality. Death does not play favorites, and Death will find everyone. Though often frightening, some argue that the thought of death also heightens appreciation of life. British novelist EM Forster wrote, Death destroys a man, the idea of Death saves him. Indeed, lasting that time on earth is limited can motivate people to take risks. The full term carpe diem implies that life is short, and every moment must be captured before it expires. The urgency of this phrase stems from the common fear of leaving things unfinished or unattempted. Fear is a powerful motivator, and death is the ultimate fear. Death is the primary theme in TS Eliots The Wasteland. Written just four years after the conclusion of realism War I, The Wasteland mirrors the despair felt by much o f the post-war generation. The poem begins with a section titled Burial of the Dead. In this section Eliot deems April the cruelest month, breeding lilacs emerge of the dead land, mixing memory and desire, stirring dull roots with spring rain. With these lines, Eliot suggests that springtimes regeneration of life only causes people to remember what was mixed-up in the past. Eliot again addresses death in the very next stanzaWhat are the roots that clutch, what branches growOut of this stony rubbish? Son of man, 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. unlessThere is shadow under this red rock, (Come in under the shadow of this red rock), And I will show you something different from either Your shadow at morning striding behind youOr your shadow at evening rising to meet youI will show you fear in a handful of dust. This stanza is teeming with biblical allusions. The speaker is talking to Jesus, the Son of man, about a dead tree that gives no shelter, thereby hinting that Christs death on the cross (or dead tree) yields little comfort. Eliot also mentions a dry stone with no sound of water. In John 47-26, Jesus tells a Samaritan woman that whomever drinks the living water he provides will never thirst again.