The world is a wasteland harboring hollow men .
"Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality".
-T.S. Eliot.
Being an expatriate T.S. Eliot was extremely affected by World War I and as a .
result his writings were blatantly dominated by his cynical views of the world around .
him. Constructed in 1925 Eliot's poem "The Hollow Men" was one of many depressing .
pieces that had evolved during the period between both World Wars. It's a poem that .
evokes a sense of hopelessness within society, assuring his fellow men that they will get .
lost in it or be defeated by it: His overall pessimistic claim being that our world is .
corrupt. Generally, Eliot is disgruntled by the profound imperfections in men within his .
social order; which include two-facedness, laziness and indifference. He's not pointing .
fingers but rather warning us that we"re all empty vessels living in a meaningless and .
negative world. This claim is supported by Eliot's usage of vague and abstract decaying .
imagery and repetitive references to symbolic words such as drought, dreams and death.
.
The poem consists of five segments all of which focus on the "subject of human .
nature in this world, and on the relationship of this world to another, the world of death, .
or eternity." The first part begins: .
We are the hollow men.
We are the stuffed men .
Leaning together.
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas! .
Instead of focusing on one main character, Eliot refers to every man or any man by using .
the reference "hollow men." Since the "hollow men" possesses a "headpiece filled with .
straw" a picture of a scarecrow denied a brain is envisioned. Without intelligence and .
common sense the "stuffed men" are basically helpless men tied to their posts. Eliot .
chooses despair as the only alternative possible in such a crooked world.