"The Hollow Men" by T.S. Eliot is a poem of struggle for meaning amongst the meaningless. T.S. Eliot shows the reader how in this day and age society is becoming less and less active and beginning to become more careless in the way in which we live and behave, as represented throughout the poem. It brings out all of our worlds weaknesses and flaws. Eliot brings out the fact that the human race is disintegrating. We are compared to as hollow men with no emotions, cares, and nothing inside. Hollow men all look different in some way, but inside we are all the same. We shift in whatever direction we are being blown in. In The Hollow Men, by T.S. Eliot examines the absence of spiritual guidance, lack of communication between individuals, and absence of direction of outstanding and pro founding leadership.
Lines 5-10 present that the majority of the world talking, but over nothing, and nothing worth being heard. As rats feet over broken glass, meaning we hear something but nothing worth paying attention to. As wind in dry grass, indicates there is some sound being made, but it is an unknown sound that can be easily ignored. As hollow men we waste our life away talking and talking, but not doing.
In "The Hollow Men" the poem exhibits the decrease of leaders in our world. Today everyone is becoming the same and no one is brave enough to speak against the currents. When our leaders do speak out, it is not heard by everyone, and therefore does not usually follow through, as said in lines 52-60. Those people who are being heard whether for a good cause or bad are still the ones being heard. Whether Mother Theresa or Hitler they are still the ones brave enough to speak out and have enough power to touch others.
Our society is becoming so materialistic that every other importance such as our religion and beliefs are slowly fading away. In our society everything revolves around money and things that can be bought with it, but when we die and go to the other kingdom nothing that was owned by us will have any importance unlike religion and beliefs that will always be with us. Soon we will have nothing to live for except for our final journey to deaths kingdom. Sections II through IV describe death and how it is perceived to the hollow men. The hollow men have no idea what life truly means and therefore can not possibly understand what death does. Possibly it is the same as life is and now that death has come there is nothing to be done because everything has been accomplished in the minds of hollow men.
"The Hollow Men" exemplifies the losing of religion and spiritual guidance and the loss of those who guide others in the right direction. As time goes on we are letting go of our beliefs for cars, money, and jewelry when in fact we will have no need for them after we have left our dying kingdom. While we are slowly dying we only wish for all of our flaws to disappear and all of our dreams to come true without any of our own effort. If only we tried to fill out the hollow part of us we could restore all that has been lost.
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