How Mortal Life Heightens the Appreciation of Life in Eliot and Maddy :: Eliot Wasteland Maddy Essays

How Mortal Life Heightens the Appreciation of Life in Eliot and MaddyMortal loss and the appreciation for keep are very important concepts in writing. Both T.S. Eliot and Yulisa Amadu Maddy use this concept very heavily in their writing styles. T. S. Eliots major theme in The Waste Land surrounds death and World War One. The title The Waste Land, gives the reader a feeling of being lost in a ball of waste and hopeless causes. The commencement ceremony part of the poem, The Waste Land, is titled, The Burial of the Dead. This negative title gives the reader a sense of gloom and death. The title is very declaratory of what is to come later on in the poem. The novel, No old No Present No Future, by Yulisa Amadu Maddy is very dark and its title gives the audience a sense of hopelessness and no sense of direction. The reader feels that if he or she is not in the past, present, or future, then where is he or she in the pass on of life? The beginnings of both pieces of literature give the reader a feeling of being lost and being depressed. Both works, The Waste Land and No Past No Present No Future, deal with death and mortal loss, and both authors, Eliot and Maddy use death to show the audience how important life is.In the first couple of lines in The Waste Land Eliot says, April is the cruellest month, breeding/ Lilacs out of the dead land, (lines 1-2). Breeding Lilacs gives a sense of hope for life, but at the same time, affiliated to April and its dead land, we are returned to the aspect of death. T.S. Eliot later in the poem states he will show you fear in a handful of dust, which is a peculiarity of human mortality, and Eliot describes in his poem the appreciation for life because of the threat of mortal loss. Eliot talks about how the dead tree gives no shelter(l.23). Without life we take over no shelter and no water or the necessities in nature. The examples of the dead and their inadequacy of shelter and water, gives the readers an understanding of wh at is needed to live. A living being mustiness have shelter and water, and an example without it heightens the appreciation of life. Eliot goes on to talk about the brown fog of London and how all of the people are hanging their heads smell at their feet.