Perspectives on How Social Values Changed on the Poem "The Waste Land" (Essay Sample)

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Waste Land Poem Discussion (1a)
The Waste Land is a poem written by T.S. Eliot around the 1920s, illustrating the society in which individuals lived around the 20th Century. The poem is divided into five parts, and the main theme exhibits a picture of modern Europe in a barren and disjointed world. The poem shows the readers how the artistic and social movements of modernism influenced the way of life in western society in the period after World War I. Europe was going through industrialization, social and technological developments around the 20th Century. Around World War I, Europe and other parts of western society experienced war's adverse effects, which affected individuals’ beliefs in Western culture and foundations (Brooker). The effects of World War I created a situation of disillusionment, and poets and artists such as Elliot were searching for new perspectives of seeing and understanding literature, philosophy and culture. The Waste Land is Elliot's perspective on how social values changed and how the modernist movement influenced his perception of a modern individual's mind. The poem is Elliot's quest for redemption in a disillusioned world due to its sterility and spiritual emptiness.
The essential aspects of the poem show a metaphorical state of Europe as a wasteland. The connection between the historical context of Europe in the 20th Century and the poem exhibits the actual condition of western society in the early decades of the 20th Century. Europe is compared to a wasteland because of its condition after World War I. There was the despair of spirituality among individuals in the post-war era due to the loss of humanity. Elliot states, “had not thought death has undone so many” (line 63). Elliot is in a state of confusion at the view of the war’s effects. He also views how every man fixed their eyes before their feet to