Themes in The Waste Land Anonymous College

The Waste Land, at first glance, can often be mistakenly perceived as fragmented and scattered and having no coherent pattern or meaning between the five short poems. T.S. Eliot’s creative style of writing creates this impression, as there is no specific narrator or protagonist throughout the poems and chooses instead to allow several different voices to tell of their personal experiences. However, when the poems are read in relation to each other, while trying to understand the historical context at the time, the five contrasting poems somehow seem to suddenly morph together with brighter clarity and deeper meaning. T.S. Eliot expertly uses several themes and motifs in these poems to help illustrate the kind of society that existed immediately following WWI. By analyzing three of the most prevalent themes presented in The Waste Land, such as, lust, death, and fragmentation, one can better visualize and comprehend what society was like in the eyes of T.S. Eliot during this time.

The theme of lust can be found in several parts of The Waste Land, especially in the poem, The Fire Sermon. In the Fire Sermon, it starts off by describing the river Thames and how it is devoid of Nymphs, garbage, and of all life in the river. It then...