T.S. Eliot and PTSD in His Poems, “The Hollow Men” and “The Waste Land”

T.S. Eliot shows how World War I affected Americans by the symbolism in his poems, “The Hollow Men” and “The Waste Land”.

World War I or The Great War in historical terms that lasted 4 years between 1914 and 1918, had affected many individuals whether or not they participated in the war. The effects of the war are not only reflected in those years but particularly started to appear during the 1920s as well. Especially, many young Americans who left for the war returned home as changed men, and most importantly the home they left behind had changed too.

For many soldiers that had returned, the United States of the time was different from the United States before the war. Especially increasing the voice of women in the society and their change in the social status during the war was something new for the many veterans who returned to the United States.

Moreover, the changes in society and the effects of the war together made the post-war integration to normal life very difficult for the veterans. One of the famous literary figures of the time T.S. Eliot is not a stranger to this situation as he reflects these issues in his works.

Post War Trauma in T.S. Eliot’s “The Hollow Men”

Post War trauma or the shell shock was a highly related issue during the 1920s in the United States.  This issue was not only an individual problem but also affected society as a whole.  Annessa C.Stagner states that “During the 1920s in the United States, the figure of the uncured shell-shocked veteran took on new meanings, as the wound of shell shock became part of larger debates over the nature of mental illness and the government’s responsibility to care for its veterans” (Stagner 256).

Veterans started to have problems with integrating into the 20s society, both in the working place and at home.

Larson, Dana. The Hollow Men Artwork. 2016 https://murderinthecathedralblog.wordpress.com/2016/02/21/the-hollow-men-by-t-s-eliot/ 

In the Poem “The Hollow Men”, Eliot starts with the poem with the lines “We are the hollow men/We are the stuffed men”(Eliot)  as the veterans are hollow characters in the United States at the time, stuffed with the pain and effects of the war troubling them still. Usage of “we” instead of a more individual approach also suggests that this situation is not an individual problem but a common struggle among the veterans.

Moreover, this struggle to integrate into the society and therefore the feeling of not belonging to a certain place keeps coming back in the poem by the narrator. “Between the idea/And the reality/Between the motion/And the act… Between the conception/And the creation/Between the emotion/And the response”(Eliot) stuck in between, the narrator of the poem is lost, yet not alone.

Furthermore, the style of the poem and how it is constructed also suggest that the narrator in particular shares his/her own perspective on the situation, in a way more subjective approach to the matter. The style of the poem is generally a free verse poem, reader delves more into the opinions of the narrator. As Carl Krockel also states in his book War Trauma and English Modernism: T. S. Eliot and D. H. Lawrence, “ Eliot’s aim in his poetry was to transcend personal history, not objectify it” (Krocker 156).

In a way, Eliot reflects the emotions and feelings of a war veteran rather than writing a poem about the war itself. In this aspect, very different from the traditional war poetry, Eliot’s style considered as “[He] duplicates the modernist appropriation of history through formal strategies that seek not so much to displace as to master, and in mastering, to articulate its own authentic stance.” (Gabilondo 44). Therefore, he reflects more on society and on the individual rather than war itself.

Post War Trauma in T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land”

Another poem that reflects a similar aspect is “The Waste Land” by T.S. Eliot. Wasteland for many a clear symbol for Europe after World War I (The Great War). Europe was a land devastated and destroyed by the weapons of mass destruction. Although, the United States had not been affected by the destruction, on home soil, their young and bright future have affected by the scenery of war in Europe.

Yet, the wasteland is not necessarily a symbol for the battleground in Europe. As mentioned before, war veterans who returned to the United States had a lot of trouble to be a part of the society again and integrate into the lives of the people who had never seen the things which war veterans had seen.

Book Cover of The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot. Wikipedia.1922. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Waste_Land 

Therefore, this struggle to fit in creates situations where the veterans have a hard time realizing what is the reality. This particular issue can be seen in “The Waste Land” when the narration changes in the poem, “My nerves are bad tonight. Yes, bad. Stay with me./Speak to me. Why do you never speak? Speak./What are you thinking of? What thinking? What?/I never know what you are thinking. Think./I think we are in rats’ alley/Where the dead men lost their bones.”(Eliot 68,69)

This scene can be interpreted as the narrator talks with a person but in the meantime remembers the scenes from the battlefield-like flashbacks. This interpretation can also be seen in  Jeffrey A. Arp’s article: 

“In The Waste Land, the trenches of the Great War have become a site of anxiety for the poem’s urban narrators, dissolving the boundaries between the battlefield and the city, between the combatant and the civilian. In The Waste Land, the horrors and stress of the war and postwar periods turn the jostling London of the civilian world into the death-filled trench of the battlefields.” (Arp 14)

The struggle of the narrator suggests that for many war veterans post-war life in the United States was as hard as the life during the war in Europe. Therefore, one can claim that the war veterans live in a complete wasteland whether in Europe or in the United States. They left for the war and fought for the dream to return to their home after the war. Yet, the problem was the place they returned was not the same place they left behind.

Thus, they were still in a wasteland, in a middle ground, lost like in purgatory. Also, the poem includes various songs and phrases. The narrator keeps singing and remembering. In a way, it is a way to stay connected with the past and with the place where the narrator considered as home, in this case, London.

This even can be interpreted as how everything has changed in the United States. How these colonies have changed so much and now how different is the 1920s’ the United States than the 1700’ United States. After all, although London may be the home for the soldier in the poem, it is also the oldest home of the roots of the United States.

Overall    

To conclude, the effects of the World War I have been severe. This can be seen in the literary works as well in the other art forms. In particular, T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land” and “The Hollow Men” poems reflect the emotions and the psychological state of the war veterans and their struggle to fit in the society of the 1920s. As many men left their homes for the war, the place they left behind has changed during the war as well as the men on the battlefield. Thus, neither the men who return nor the place of return was the same as before.

This affected many war veterans and their lives. While many focus on the war itself or the pleasures of the 1920s, Eliot’s poems “The Waste Land” and the “Hollow Men” reflect these issues and the problem of being lost in society. The lack of belonging for those who experienced the war on the home soil. Therefore, in the end, the war veterans can be seen as the hollow men in the society and they are on a wasteland since the place they live in is not recognizable, and feel at home anymore.

Sources:

Arp, Jeffrey A., “Urban trenches: war poetry and the unreal city of the Great War in T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land” (2005). Retrospective Theses and Dissertations. 179. http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd/179

Eliot, Thomas Stearns. The complete poems and plays of TS Eliot. faber & Faber, 2011.

Gabilondo, Patricia Anne, “Modernity and War in the Poetry of T. S. Eliot.” (1992). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 5435. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/5435  

Krockel, Carl. War trauma and English modernism: TS Eliot and DH Lawrence. Springer, 2011.

Stagner, Annessa C. “Healing the Soldier, Restoring the Nation: Representations of Shell Shock in the USA During and After the First World War.” Journal of Contemporary History, vol. 49, no. 2, 2014, pp. 255–274., www.jstor.org/stable/43697299.