The Hollow Men - TS Eliot and society
Uploaded by kash on Jun 07, 2002
The poem is one of the most powerful literary methods used to convey ideas or opinions. Through vivid imagery and compelling metaphors, the poem conveys to the reader the thoughts and emotions of the author. Modern poets, however, manipulated traditional forms of poetry and sought to greatly influence the ideas of their readers. T.S. Eliot is a prime example of a modern poet who wrote controversial and thought-provoking works, particularly “The Hollow Men”.
Modernism is the time period between 1865 and 1950 that consisted of a change in the perspectives of how people examined themselves and their role in society. Many things occurred during these eighty-five years that accounted for great social change. Among these things were World War I, the Civil Rights Movement, prohibition, women’s suffrage, the Great Depression and World War II. Particularly after World War I and during women’s suffrage, society’s standpoint on certain issues changed dramatically. After World War I, people’s attitudes were brimming with high expectations for themselves but were soon lowered after the economy’s fall. During women’s suffrage, society’s focus on simple traditions shifted to concentrate more on urban culture. The Great Depression also caused major stress and hopelessness for the nation resulting in a time of despair for much of the world. Meanwhile, many writers emerged, such as Ezra Pound, e.e. cummings, Langston Hughes, Wallace Stevens and T.S. Eliot. These writers found themselves in a generation of consecutive movements. While having to sustain their creativity, they had to go forward with the seasons at the same time. Their works are characterized as “breaking away from patterned responses and predictable forms”(Reuben). Many of their pieces contested tradition against new methods. The outlook of society changed from a moral perspective to fast times. Many people tended to look individually from average events that occurred in their daily lives to find greater reasoning.
T.S. Eliot is considered to be one of the most prominent poets and playwrights of the modern era and his works are said to have promoted a “reshape [of] modern literature” (World Book). He was born in 1888 in St. Louis, Missouri and studied at Harvard and Oxford. It was at Harvard where he met his guide and mentor Ezra Pound, another well-known modernist poet. Pound encouraged Eliot to expand his writing abilities and publish his...