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Memory and Desire, Comparing Both the Wasteland by Ts Eliot and John Steinbeck's of Mice and Men

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Memory and Desire, Comparing Both the Wasteland by Ts Eliot and John Steinbeck's of Mice and Men
Memory and Desire both influences an individual’s reaction to events both past and present, therefore positioning one’s expectation of the future

Both Memory and desire influence an individual’s response to the nature of events of the past and the present. Like the ebb and flow of the waves seen in 30 Years in the Wilderness Memories also comes back and forth in one’s mind. Both memory and desire shape and inform our human reactions. Memories connect individuals with the past and develop them as an individual for the future. As humans we test our memory constantly as an indication that we remain mindful and alive. Desire is the feeling that accompanies an unsatisfied state of mind and when and when an individual finds a meaningful reason to exist. T.S Eliot’s poem the Wasteland explores the centrality of memory and desire and how they both influence an individual’s reaction to future events. Similarly in the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck these ideas are shown as well however through the use of linguistic and language techniques.

We engage in the past to come to terms with the present. Through the use of the sound of the wave movement and the fading of the words “memory and desire” in 30 Years in the Wilderness” the idea of memories being engaged by individuals at different stages of their lives to come to periods with the present. “Under the brown fog of a winter dawn, a crowd so many, I had not thought death had undone so many”. Here the “brown fog of a winter” is portrayed as an unhappy place and indicates that the world is being replaced with complexity. Although they are crowded on the bridge they feel disconnected from each other and isolated. Europe is a mess especially during the aftermath of world war one. Individuals are depending on their childhood memories to cope with the consequences of war, their memories are a source of escapism and they are immersing themselves in their memories. Similarly in the novel Of Mice and Men by John

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