Religion and War, Society's Evils: Candide, Chapters I - III

It was not difficult to notice the satirical elements in Voltaire’s Candide, which ridicules society and the principles of the universe, religion, and war that existed during the XVIth century. Like Gulliver’s Travels, Candide uses a lot of strange names which are very difficult to pronounce, such as the Baron of Thunder-ten-tronckh and metaphysico-theologo-cosmoloniglogy. I believe Voltaire decided to employ these complicated words in order to mock social pretensions and show that these were completely unnecessary and ridiculous for the development of mankind. Voltaire uses satire in order to appeal to society, especially the higher classes which were the only ones able to understand his humor, by taunting and undermining the ideas of war and religion that existed during that time.

Master Pangloss was instantly portrayed as a brute who taught metaphysico-theologo-cosmoloniglogy, a field of study too absurd to even make sense. During that time, many people used to believe that misfortunes and successes were attributed to God. Since no one could defy the word of God, every event that had taken place or was taking place was always perfect and the best outcome. Since an almighty God had created everything, nothing was useless and everything had a predefined purpose. “… there is no effect without a cause… ‘things cannot be otherwise than as they are; for as all things have been created for some end, they must necessarily be created for the best end. Observe, for instance, the nose is formed for spectacles, therefore we wear spectacles.’” (Chapter 1). Individuals at that time could not accept the fact that something could be wrong, as God was the Creator and he never made mistakes. Human inventions were not made to cure a problem, but rather to exalt God’s beauty and perfection.

This innocent view towards life presented by Pangloss was adapted by Voltaire in order to deride the fact that war, massacres, and death were simply the effect of a cause, and that certainly this effect was always the best outcome.
“After passing over heaps of dying men, the first place he came to was a neighboring village, in the Abarian territories, which had been burned to the ground by the Bulgarians, agreeably to the laws of war. Here lay a number of old men covered with wounds, who beheld their wives dying with their throats cut, and hugging their children to their breasts, all stained with blood. There several young virgins, whose bodies had been ripped open, after they had satisfied the natural necessities of the Bulgarian heroes, breathed their last; while others, half-burned in the flames, begged to be dispatched out of the world. The ground about them was covered with brains, arms, and legs of dead men.” (Chapter 3).
An endless panorama of human suffering and cruelty is described to the reader in a very casual and careless manner. After all, every disaster is the best possible outcome for everybody. Voltaire uses pain, death, and destruction not only to reveal the horrors of war, but also to ridicule mankind’s view of life. He is trying to appeal to the society of his time by emphasizing the difference between a right and a wrong indirectly through the use of irony. Humanity is imperfect, death and suffering still occur, and it is up to us, not God or destiny, to determine what the best outcome actually is. We must rely on human disposition, not submission to religion, in order to judge and act according to what is right or wrong. “Never was anything so gallant, so well accoutred, so brilliant, and so finely disposed as the two armies. The trumpets, fifes, hautboys, drums, and cannon made such harmony as never was heard in Hell itself. The entertainment began by a discharge of a cannon, which, in the twinkling of an eye, laid flat about 6,000 men on each side.” (Chapter 3).

The universe does not revolve around theology. In fact, human goodness is not based on religion, either. Contrary to what was believed during the eve of the Enlightenment, one does not have to believe in the deity of the Pope or repeat the words of the Bible in order to be considered a good, pious person. As Voltaire depicted in his work, individuals were perceiving an erroneous image of God, where people and words were more important than actions, which actually demand a lot more of self-sacrifice and benefit a greater amount of people.
“‘Hark ye, friend,’ said the orator, ‘do you hold the Pope to be Antichrist?’
‘Truly, I never heard anything about it,’ said Candide, ‘but whether he is not, I am in want of something to eat.’
‘Thou deservest not to eat or drink,’ replied the orator, ‘wretch, monster, that thou art! Hence! Avoid my sight, nor ever come near me again while thou livest.’…
A man who had never been christened, an honest Anabaptist named James, was witness to the cruel and ignominious treatment showed to one of his brethren, to a rational, two-footed, unfledged being. Moved with pity he carried him to his own house, caused him to be cleaned… ‘I am infinitely more affected with your extraordinary generosity that with the inhumanity of that gentleman in the black cloak and his wife.’” (Chapter 3).
This passage not only makes a parody of the Bible by making the Catholic man speak like the apostles in the Gospels, but also proposes a secular life. As Candid said, eating, drinking, and staying alive are matters which need to be accomplished independent of whether or not someone is religious. Voltaire proposes a separation of the Church with everyday life, which, according to Candide, is not to be influenced by God-fearing people or ecclesiastical matters. The man with the black cloak that denied to aid Candide is actually a priest (I mean, who else would wear a black cloak?) who, ironically, denies to perform the function that has been assigned to him by God. On the other hand, Voltaire shows that a secular person can, in fact, be good and help other people, arriving to the conclusion that one does not have to be a devout Catholic in order to obey the will of God. Voltaire even goes to the other extreme, up to the point where his satire is used to condemn the clergy and, therefore, advocate a shift of values of the society of his time.

Doublethink and Paranoia in a Misunderstood Life: The Crying of Lot 49

Although The Crying of Lot 49 uses satire in order to ridicule elements in society and create a humorous tone in the novel, Pynchon also employs many objects and people that serve as symbols to portray something important and relevant in society. The characters in the story generally bear names that are ironical, absurd, and contradictory, such as Dr. Hilarious, discussed in previous chapter. But what does this mean? Dr. Hilarious, a shrink, is supposed to cure society from all its pain and suffering; however, Hilarious is probably one of the characters that suffers the most because of his delirium and psychosis. What Pynchon may be trying to say through this individual is that society as a whole is pursuing the wrong purposes and taking the wrong paths in life, which will ultimately lead to nothing. Hilarious represents a person’s tool for achieving a goal, in this case sanity, which is way too corrupted to be able to heal humanity, thus making it achieve a false sense of security. Mankind is pursuing the wrong paths in life, ones that will ultimately lead to a false destination that is only a specter of what we wish to achieve or, as Orwell would have said in 1984, a manifestation of our ability to doublethink.

The Paranoids, another character in the novel, would generally be seen as a ridiculous boy-band that hangs out with girls and sings awkward songs; however, they behaved in a very peculiar and mysterious manner by following Oedipa wherever she went, possibly symbolizing something abstract and invisible but of great importance in her life. “Change your name into Miles, Dean, Serge, and /or Leonard, baby, she advised her reflection in the half-light of that afternoon’s vanity mirror. Either way, they’ll call it paranoia.” (p. 140). The Paranoids were more of a presence rather than a body, a feeling more than something tangible. They were permanently haunting Oedipa wherever she went, constantly reminding her that she carried a burden within herself that followed her everywhere she went, pursued her in her thoughts, and visited her in her dreams. The Paranoids started appearing when Oedipa began her quest of the Trystero and Pierce’s mystery, which is where all of her delirium, nervousness, and questioning about life originated; consequently, the Paranoids, as their name indicates, symbolize one’s psychosis when one decides to question the intricate web of “why’s” and “how’s” in life, ultimately leading to paranoia itself: “The toothaches got worse, she dreamed of disembodied voices from whose malignance there was no appeal, the soft dusk of mirrors out of which something was about to walk, and empty rooms that waited for her.” (p. 144).

Another symbol that caught my attention throughout the entire novel was the WASTE acronym, which is supposed to stand for We Await Silent Trystero’s Empire. Why did Pynchon decide to use the word “waste” as an acronym for the Trystero? One possible approach to this question may be found in what I discussed in my entry for chapter six, which you might want to refer to in order to possess a more complete idea of what I am talking about. The Trystero was a representation of God’s evil, or the Other, which corrupted the Word by establishing a secret web engaged in creating another truth people adhered to. The triumph of evil (Trystero) over good (Thurn and Taxis) fits perfectly into the definition of WASTE, which may be interpreted to signify the decline and deterioration of a civilization that has succumbed to the Other.

Finally, I would like to comment on the significance of Oedipa, the pillar on which the entire novel rested upon. Every time I used the Spell Check in Microsoft Word to revise my typos and spelling mistakes in my entries, I found that another option for spelling Oedipa was the word “oedipal”. This aroused a lot of curiosity in me, as the phonetics of these two words is very similar; besides, I believe that this “discovery” is not a coincidence, as the name Oedipa is not that common and there aren’t any other words that sound like it. The word “oedipal” is derived from Freud’s Oedipus complex, which can be understood as “The complex of emotions aroused in a young child, typically around the age of four, by an unconscious sexual desire for the parent of the opposite sex and a wish to exclude the parent of the same sex.” (Mac Dictionary). As the reader could notice, there weren’t any other major female characters in the novel besides Oedipa, who possessed and immense sex appeal towards men, such as Metzger. According to this theory and its relationship with Oedipa’s name, I can understand that this character behaves like a four-year-old. She has an naïve view of life, shattered when she became engaged in the complex Trystero mystery which, as I said before, tells the reader a lot about life as well. Oedipa may be the representation of those individuals that live a life in a carefree, superficial way (such as Mean Girls… no, I’m kidding). They don’t want to find answers, but once the mystery becomes a door she has to unlock in order to continue on with life, it becomes very difficult for her to arrive at the correct conclusion, never discovering the true reasons that make the mystery keep on going. “He might have written the testament only to harass a one-time mistress, so cynically sure of being wiped out he could throw away all hope of anything more. Bitterness could have run that deep in him. She just didn’t know. He might himself have discovered The Trystero, and encrypted that in the will, buying into just enough to be sure she’d find it. Or he might even have tried to survive death, as a paranoia.” (p. 148). Innocent people like Oedipa will never be able to understand the complexity of their own lives.

Reflections on Life and Death: The Crying of Lot 49

The final pages of the book The Crying of Lot 49 mark the reader the most because they escape the fictitious world in order to give the reader many insights about life. Oedipa never really discovered Pierce’s true intentions with the Trystero mystery. Although this may disappoint the reader, it actually gives us a life lesson much more valuable than the true identity of the stamp bidder or Oedipa’s fate. The novel ends with the words “Oedipa settled back, to await the crying of lot 49.” (p. 152). These few words, contained in the title as well, possess a vast significance. As the mystery unfolded, Oedipa became less and less curious about the outcome of events, until finally, at the auction, she didn’t care at all about what could happen. By saying the words “Oedipa settled back”, Pynchon is actually implying that in life, one must tranquilly wait for events to occur and not fret about what may or may not happen. What matters is the journey, not the final destination. Pierce’s true intentions were never revealed, which shows us that the end does not justify the means, but rather the means justify themselves. Who cares about the truth when you are doing what you think is correct, like Oedipa?

Like the Trystero mail system, life is composed of many hidden truths. There is always a reason, a plan, that explains the outcomes of every major event in life. Fate is not determined by luck or a predestined existence, but rather by a plot someone or something made up in order to alter the course of events. “Look at England, the king about to loose its head. A set-up.” (p. 130). What Pynchon is really trying to say is that everything happens for a reason. Many times we don’t know what this explanation is, and therefore recur to destiny as a justification for the events that happened. Like the Trystero, the real reason behind events is often a mystery which needs to be uncovered; however, the mystery is always there, no matter how difficult it may be to find it.

Death is a reality none of us can avoid, a fact that us humans cannot alter. Throughout the course of history, many men have tried to achieve eternal life, starting with Ponce de Leon’s search for the Fountain of Eternal Youth in Florida, continuing with Harry Potter and the sorcerer’s stone, and finally concluding with all the esthetic surgeries and procedures people subject themselves to today in order to look younger. However, like the Seventh Seal, death is always present. It haunts us everywhere we go, up to the point where it becomes completely unavoidable even in our fantasies. “‘Notice how often the figure of Death hovers in the background.” (p. 125). Although we cannot escape death, we can escape the dullness of life. Many times people break the rules not because they want to achieve a special purpose, but because it makes them feel free and powerful in an existence which will always lead to death. "Onto a network (Trystero) by which X number of Americans are truly communicating whilst reserving their lies, recitations of routine, arid betrayals of spiritual poverty, for the official government delivery system; maybe even onto a real alternative to the exitlessness, to the absence of surprise to life, that harrows the head of every American you know, and you too, sweetie.” (p. 141). People could have their letter delivered in the same way by the U.S. Postal system, but they decide to keep the Trystero alive just because they want to put an edge to their lives and break the pattern of events they would otherwise be subjected to.

Once we die, every memory of our existence is forgotten forever. Pierce managed to prolong his life with the Trystero mystery and his numerous assets around the state; therefore, he will be remembered for a vast amount of time. “…he might even have tried to survive death, as a paranoia… had a plot finally been devised too elaborate for the dark Angel to hold at once …?” (p. 148). Death cannot be avoided, but oblivion can be evaded. The only thing Pynchon tells us to do is to leave a legacy, a mark of our existence in the world which will able everybody to remember us by. Many individuals, such as Jesus, Einstein, and Madame Curie, have been so successful in achieving this purpose that they are known more than most of the people that exist in the world today. “‘Keep it bouncing,’ he’d told her once, ‘that’s all the secret, keep it bouncing.’” (p. 148).

The Oxymoron in Opposites: The Crying of Lot 49, Chapter 6

It has always been said that in order for something to exist, its opposite must be created, too. For example, in the KJB the figure of God, or Light, came into existence; therefore, the opposite of light, dark, must have come alive simultaneously. A point of comparison must be established between opposite extremes in order for these to gain strength and credibility when compared to their adversary. In the Crying of Lot 49, the reader was presented with the figure of God, or goodness, and the Other, its evil opposite, represented by the Trystero postal system. “…the Scurvhamite part, ran off the will of God, its prime mover. The rest ran off some opposite Principle, something blind, soulless; a brute automatism that led to eternal death… But the brute Other, that kept the non-Scurvhamite universe running like clockwork, that was something else again. Evidently they felt Trystero would symbolize the Other quite well.” (p. 128). By undermining the foundations of a postal system, which relies on other people’s written words in order to carry out its functions, the Trystero was impairing the importance of the Word, or God. There existed a complex web of secret letters and words which remained hidden from the world, and which in some sense corrupted the identity of the Thurn and Taxis system by concealing in itself another truth, another version of people’s accounts. In the KJB, the Word was the only light, the only reality people were expected to subject to; however, the evil and dark presence of the Other produced different words, a different and secret truth people began to adhere to. The Thurn and Taxis system declined with time, while the Trystero flourished in its own, private empire. “If Trystero has managed to maintain even partial secrecy, if Thurn and Taxis have no clear idea who their adversary is, or how far its influence extends, then many of them must come to believe in something very like the Scurhamite’s blind, automatic anti-God… It is their time’s ghost, out to put the Thurn and Taxis ass in a sling.” (p. 136). The Thurn and Taxis’ victory symbolized the triumph of an evil presence in the world, an unknown force that many times manages to absorb people into its reality, like it did to Oedipa. The contending identities of God and evil, subjected to eternal fighting, will someday come to an end with the triumph of the Other. Sins will continue to corrupt humanity, like the Trystero has done with Hilarious, Mucho, Metzger, and Driblette, until the end of the days.

Like the contrary existence of a good and evil force, reality and its opposite, nothingness, come alive in our world, too. “For it was now like walking among matrices of a great digital computer, the zeroes and ones twinned above, hanging like balanced mobiles right and left…Ones and zeroes… Another mode of meaning behind the obvious, or none. Either Oedipa in the true ecstasy of a true paranoia, or a real Trystero.” (p. 150). Life is compared to the binary system of a computer, where ones mean “on” and zeroes mean “off”. It evolves around the concept of truth and nonexistence. Objects, feelings, and anything else tangible or intangible must be real in any of the worlds in which we inhabit, whether it be the world inside our minds or the external world. Therefore, nothing can be half-true; either it is or it isn’t. Like Hamlet’s over used, clichéd phrase explains, the overall question in life relies on whether “to be or not to be.”

Both people and their souls are real beings that inhabit the earth. Although the external body of an individual is able to carry out more functions in life because of the messages the brain sends to the other organs, the soul possesses the ability to break itself apart into infinite pieces and travel around from person to person and from memory to memory. “Oedipa sat on the earth, ass getting cold, wondering whether, as Driblette had suggested that night from the shower, some version of herself hadn’t vanished with him. Perhaps her mind would go on flexing muscles that no longer existed…Only bring me that memory, and you can live with me for whatever time I’ve got.” (p. 133). People’s souls are composed of many small fragments that drift away once the individual has established a relationship with someone else. Sometimes people say that they will always carry each other in their hearts; however, the heart is a muscle that performs no other function than pumping the blood through our arteries and receiving the blood that comes from our veins. Although we depend upon it to live, our hearts do not possess the ability to love, which is contained in the subjective worlds inside our own minds. When two people share experiences together, a part of each of themselves will inevitably separate itself from the soul and come to inhabit the other person’s world inside his/her mind. This means that other individual’s souls, as well as our own experiences and thoughts, make us who we are. Our bodies are composed of one person, but our souls are composed of millions of individuals we encounter throughout life; therefore, the soul is much more powerful than the body.

The Crying of Lot 49 is composed of many symbols that talk about Oedipa’s and our own struggles with life. Its ending tells the reader a lot about life as well. These topics will be discussed in more detail in the next two entries.

Vocabulary:

Automatism: the performance of actions without conscious thought or intention.

Vertiginous: causing vertigo, especially by being extremely high or steep.

Cudgel: a short thick stick used as a weapon.

Addendum: an item of additional material, typically omissions, added at the end of a book or other publication.

Affluent: (especially of a group or area) having a great deal of money; wealthy.

Our Existence in Two Worlds: The Crying of Lot 49, Chapter Five

Our lives are marked by a succession of events that in one way or another influence who we are and what we accomplish; however, these incidents are relative. What may seem important or controversial to us is influenced by the people, goals, and feelings we cherish at that particular moment. The muted post horn and the Thurn and Taxis sys tem were Oedipa’s main focuses in life at the moment she began seeing the horn drawing everywhere she looked at. “And spend the rest of the night finding the image of the Trystero post horn.” (p. 94). When your mind is focused on something specific, everything around you suddenly becomes relevant and related to the purpose you want to accomplish. This principle undermines the idea of a predestined fate in the sense that what your mind sees and interprets is not always what is there, but what is important at that moment. “Now here was Oedipa, faced with a metaphor of God knew how many parts; more than two, anyway. With coincidences blossoming these days wherever she looked, she had nothing but a sound, a word, Trystero, to hold them all together.” (p. 87). It can be inferred that fate is just a product of each person’s mind, which remembers certain events not because of destiny, but because it sees what it wants to see. Einstein’s theory of relativity is not only true in the tangible universe we inhabit, but in the private, subjective worlds that exist in each of our minds as well.

According to this theory, humans inhabit two worlds: one in which experiences are lived, and another private one which interprets, analyzes, and sorts these events. “Since they could not have withdrawn into a vacuum (could they?), there had to exist the separate, silent, unsuspected world.” (p. 101). It can be said that the Earth and Tralfamadore were Billy Pilgrim’s two worlds, the last one being the personal universe that unfolded inside his mind. According to Dr. Hilarious, our subjective worlds mold our characters and make us the individuals we reveal to be in the external world. Fantasies, dreams, and illusions are formed in our minds and influence the actions we commit and the goals we accomplish in life. “‘Cherish it!’ cried Hilarious, fiercely. ‘What else do any of you have? Hold it tightly by its little tentacle, don’t let the Freudians coax it away or the pharmacists poison it out of you. Whatever it is, hold it dear, for when you lose it you go over by that much to the others. You begin to cease to be.” (p. 113). Both worlds, therefore, are necessary to carry on with one’s existence: the tangible world to make you real and the subjective world to mold your mind and soul into being a unique individual.

There is nothing more than this existence in parallel, alternate universes. The figure of God and other superior beings, therefore, is just and illusion which takes form inside our minds. “‘You know what a miracle is. Not what Bakunin said. But another world’s intrusion into this one. Most of the time we coexist peacefully, but when we do tough there’s cataclysm..” (p. 97). Each person’s minds recreates different forms of superior beings, whether it be conscience, the universe, or an all-powerful god. Our mind gains part of an identity, which is in charge of uniting our surroundings with what we think and who we are. When this is accomplished, a miracle, or an intersection between two parallel universes, takes place. Miracles were taking place in Oedipa’s mind every time she saw the Trystero symbol, which connected the exterior world with the one inside her mind. For the Stoics, miracles were taking place every time they managed to behave indifferently towards the events that took place. According to this, exterior happenings are molded by the all-powerful presence the mind has conceived in order to create an interpretation and a response that unfolds in the tangible world.

Another detail that caught my attention was the ethical dilemma raised when Oedipa decided to aid Dr. Hilarious instead of running away. “Oedipa noticed that the window opened on a safe line of retreat. ‘You could’ve run,’ she said.” (p. 108). Instead of fleeing, Oedipa chose to enter the psychiatrist’s office, although her own life was at stake because of the gun Hilarious was holding. “In front of his door, Oedipa stood hipshot awhile, questioning her own sanity. Why hadn’t she split out through Blamm’s window and read about the rest of it in the paper?” (p. 109). Everybody is confronted with decisions they must make in life. Many times, we are presented with options that will provide an easy solution to the problem. We must choose between that or its alternative, which is to get involved in the problem. This will probably be a barrier in one's life, but will ultimately benefit the greatest amount of people. Although the first option is easier and better for us, we often decide to make a sacrifice for other people. This decision is influenced by the morality one possesses, by an inner force commonly called conscience that makes a person feel remorseful when he or she is acting selfishly. Someone’s conscience is personal; thus, this force inhabits in the subjective worlds inside our minds. If our reality is divided completely between the external and internal worlds, what determines the ability of a superior force to act upon us and influence the decisions we make?


Vocabulary:

Numen (plural numina): The spirit or divine power presiding over a thing or place.

Cherubic: having a child-like innocence.

Interregnum: a period when normal government is suspended; an interval or a pause between two events.

Grit: small, loose particles of stone or sand; courage, resolve, and strength of character.

Innocuous: not harmful or offensive.

Projecting Different Worlds: The Crying of Lot 49, Chapter Four

This chapter, although short, concealed a lot of hidden meaning, confusing insights, and connections that tied almost every event in the novel together. “For one thing, she read over the will more closely. If it was really Pierce’s attempt to leave an organized something behind after his own annihilation, then it was part of her duty, wasn’t it, to bestow life on what had persisted… Under the symbol she’d copied off the latrine wall of The Scope into her memo book, she wrote Shall I project a world?” (p. 64). The phrase Oedipa copied into her notebook can have a wide variety of different meanings. “Shall I project a world” can be applied to the tangible world we inhabit, everybody’s world, or to her own, personal subjective world. When applied to the world humanity inhabits, the phrase may be interpreted to say that Oedipa, like most individuals, desires to leave a legacy or a mark of her existence. Oedipa wants to accomplish her current mission, unraveling the secret around the muted post-horn symbol, and therefore share a fragment of her life and accomplishments with the rest of the world. When applied to the world-within-a-world Oedipa may conceal within her mind, “Shall I project a world” may come to mean the desirability of this character to project, or reveal, her personal findings inside the universe of her mind. She is asking the question of whether or not she will someday be able to discover every meaning and truth about the symbol she found inscribed on the latrine wall. Oedipa believes it is her duty to bestow life upon the mystery that destiny has assigned her and give meaning to it inside her own, personal world. Will she be able to accomplish both missions?

Chapter four not only comprised a very implicit meaning of some details, but also tied together every small element presented to reader thus far. “Decorating each corner of the stamp Oedipa saw a horn with a single loop in it. Almost like the WASTE symbol. ‘A post horn,’ Cohen said; ‘The Thurn and Taxis symbol. It was in their code of arms.’ And Tacit lies the gold once-knotted horn, Oedipa remembered. Sure. ‘Then the watermark you found,’ she said, ‘is nearly the same thing, except for the extra little doojigger sort of coming out of the bell.’” (p. 77). The Thurn and Taxis symbol, as Cohen said, was muted, or silenced, probably in a conspiracy against this postal delivery agency. This means that every object with the muted post horn inscribed in it is in some way linked to the WASTE symbol in the bathroom nobody ever seems to want to talk about and to The Courier’s Tragedy and Tristero, from which Oedipa remembered the verse in italics. Everything has been interwoven into a type of mysterious conspiracy involving the WASTE acronym many people know but never really want to talk about. “She asked him then about the initials W.A.S.T.E., but it was somehow too late. She’d lost him. He said no, but so abruptly out of phase now with her own thoughts he could even have been lying.” (p.79). Pynchon uses this technique of avoiding one of the central questions of the novel in order to give a special importance to WASTE and everything it may conceal. But why is WASTE more important than the muted post horn or Tristero?

There was a very peculiar detail about Oedipa that really caught my attention throughout chapter four. Every time she visits a place or talks to somebody, the mystery about Tristero and the horn always comes up. For example, she discovered that there had been a T, standing for Tristero, on the night of the murder in 1853 in Fangoso Lagoons. “A cross? Or the initial T? The same stuttered by Niccolò in The Courier’s Tragedy. Oedipa pondered this.” (p. 71). Why did Oedipa infer that this incident was somehow related to a Jacobean play that was written in England? Aren’t there millions of names that begin with a T too? On her visit to Vesperhaven House, Oedipa found out that Mr. Thoth, a senior citizen, had a ring with the same muted post horn sign she had seen on the latrine door. What are the chances that one may encounter the same drawing in two very different places with dates a hundred years apart? Is all of this destiny, or is it mere coincidence? Was the order of the universe somehow manipulated to make Oedipa be at the right place at the right time, or was she simply lucky to find all these signs and make the correct connections between them?


Vocabulary:

Dross: something regarded as worthless.

Waive: refrain from insisting on or using.

Demur: raise doubts or objections or show reluctance.

Philately: the collection and study of postage stamps.

A Satirical Reality: The Crying of Lot 49, Chapter Three

Since the beginning of the chapter, one could notice the importance of Tristero in The Courier’s Tragedy because of the foreshadowing of events Pynchon used. The first paragraph of chapter Three started talking about the play, an event that would unfold much later. “Things then did not delay in turning curious. If one object behind her discovery of what she was to label the Tristero System or often only The Tristero…” (p. 31). This peculiar character was also mentioned right before the play began, even though he would come to appear at the very last line of the tragedy. “So began, for Oedipa, the languid, sinister blooming of The Tristero. Or rather, her attendance at some unique performance, prolonged as if it were the last of the night…” (pgs. 39-40). Naturally, the reader became curious about the play and conscious that it concealed some sort of significance. Its plot resembled the reality of the characters in The Crying of Lot 49 not only in the bone digging system, but also in the Thurn and Taxis’ monopoly of the mail conspiracy. Both of these events were notable in the play as well as in chapter Three, in Mike Fallopian’s Peter Pinguid Society and in Manny di Presso’s sue against Pierce Inveraity. Pynchon may be suggesting that we are all actors in a play, omitting the Stoic belief in the presence of a superior force and suggesting that life is a cycle. Events repeat themselves, giving time a circular, non-linear pattern.

“Dear Mike, it said, how are you? Just thought I’d drop you a note. How’s your book coming? Guess that’s all for now. See you at the Scope.” (p. 39). The Peter Pinguid Society’s mail delivering system is so ineffective that its members are forced to send weekly letters to prevent the organization from collapsing. The majority of these letters are irrelevant and useless. In fact, I believe that Peter Pinguid Society members waste more money sustaining their mail delivery system and sending worthless weekly letters than if they were to use the U.S. Postal Service periodically. This reminds me of the character of Julia in the book 1984. Many times individuals disagree with an idea but are unable to eliminate or replace it. So, their only remedy is to satisfy themselves by breaking the rules even though they know that losses will be their only accomplishment, like Julia’s capture in 1984. Human nature is not based on achieving supremacy over others, but in relieving one’s self from what you think is incorrect.

The Crying of Lot 49 seems fictional at first because of its satirical tone and comic plot; however, it manages to portray, as mentioned in the previous paragraph, the reality and behavior of the human race. Maybe the ridiculous, sarcastic mood of the novel is used by Pynchon to highlight the queer, often absurd character of individuals today. The bone affair Inverarity was involved in seemed humorous at the beginning. I mean, who would ever think of digging and selling a massive quantity of human bones? As the case advanced, the reader noticed that human vices, such as corruption and robbery, began taking hold of the situation. “‘No bribes, no freeways,’…” (p. 46). Many people today are involved in fraudulent businesses where bribes and money take the lead role to dominate the affair. By merging this reality with the satirical, humorous tone of the novel, Pynchon manages to portray the ridiculousness of human vices and the way that they undermine the seriousness of our civilization. Does this have anything to do with the WASTE acronym Oedipa found on the bathroom door? Is the author of the novel trying to suggest that humanity is a waste, an annoyance, a plague?

In all the utopia/dystopia novels we have read thus far, literature was suppressed in an attempt to restrain individuality and freedom of thought; hence, nobody knew who Shakespeare was. On the contrary, literature and freedom of expression are permanently present in The Crying of Lot 49. This is the reason why Oedipa’s ignorance of Shakespeare seemed so weird. “‘Who was he?’ she said. ‘Who was Shakespeare. It was a long time ago.’” (p. 60). Why does Pynchon undermine the importance of the greatest playwright in history? What effect is he trying to create on the reader?


Vocabulary:

Proselytize: convert or attempt to convert someone from religion, belief, or opinion to another.

Reconnoiter: make a military observation of a region.

Poignant: evoking a keen sense of sadness or regret.

Indite: write, compose.

Ancillary: providing necessary support to the primary activities or operation of an organization, institution, or system, such as ancillary services.

Strafe: attack repeatedly with bombs or machine-gun fire from low-flying aircraft.

Interim: the intervening time; meanwhile. Example: In the interim I’ll keep my fingers crossed.

Guarding Our Backs From Humanity's Vices: The Crying of Lot 49, Chapter Two

As the French Enlightenment philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau expressed in his book The Social Contract, the development of civilization corrupted people’s natural goodness. According to this theory, the passage of time and the development of technology lead mankind to slowly degenerate into a state of corruption and vice. The XXIst century brought forth a vast amount of changes meant to improve the lifestyles of people around the world; however, these have only made individuals more untrustworthy of each other and more prone to commit fraudulent actions. Oedipa Maas’ relationship with Metzger is also based on this unreliability and lack of confidence: “Either he made up the whole thing, Oedipa thought suddenly, or he bribed the engineer over at the local station to run this, it’s all part of a plot, and elaborate, seduction, plot. O Metzger.” (p. 20). Oedipa cannot believe that Metzger’s, or Baby Igor’s, appearance on the movie was a mere coincidence, but rather the deliberate product of a plan. It is sad to think that, amidst all the improvements that have been made to make our existences easier and longer, we still live our lives alert of what others may be thinking or doing. We no longer have to guard our backs from savage beasts or natural disasters, but from humanity’s vices.

It is amazing to see how different contexts can alter the meaning of a group of words. According to The Crying of Lot 49, “A lawyer in a courtroom, in front of a jury, becomes an actor, right? Raymond Burr is an actor, impersonating a lawyer, who in front of a jury becomes an actor.” (p. 21-22). This would seem similar to what Epictetus said in his Handbook: “Remember that you are an actor in a play, which is as the playwright wants it to be. If he wants you to be a beggar, play even this part skillfully, or a cripple, or a public official, or a private citizen. What is yours is to play the assigned part well.” (section 17). However, the different contexts in which these two expressions take place make their meanings become totally different, even though they cohere when read as independent sentences. The Handbook of Epictetus is developed in a context where a superior force, such as the universe, is in charge of every event that takes place in the world. This superior force, then, controls our individual fates and is the one responsible for assigning the parts we should play in life. The Crying of Lot 49 mentions no god or force in charge of controlling destiny; moreover, the satirical tone of the novel makes Metzger’s words lose a profound significance. Our roles as actors do not seem metaphysical or intertwined between the presence of an all-powerful god, but mixed within the corruption and vice we have seen in the book thus far in Oedipa’s lack of confidence in Metzger and others. “It’s all part of a plot, an elaborate, seduction, plot.” (p. 20).

Like Billy Pilgrim so often mentioned in Slaughterhouse-Five, each independent event in life is already written. The Tralfamadorians used the concept of the fourth dimension in order to be able to travel from event to event, comparing this ability to the panoramic view one had of a landscape. Mankind, who lives in the third dimension, is obliged to live each particular moment one at a time, not able to see beyond the limits time imposes on him. The third dimension restraints his point of view about life. Instead of a desert where no boundaries are present, humans see life as a movie, where one event chronologically follows the other. “‘You want to bet on what’ll happen?’ ‘Of course not,’ said Oedipa, ‘the movie’s made.’” (p. 22). Human life is predestined, there is nothing else we can do but sit back and enjoy the show.

Vocabulary:

Plinth: a heavy base supporting a statue or vase.

Escrow: a bond, deed, or other document kept in the custody of a third party.

Deference: humble submission and respect.

Zither: a musical instrument with strings.

Seeing the World Through Pynchon's Glasses: The Crying of Lot 49, Chapter One

Sometimes authors use characters’ names in order to convey a certain meaning or portray an important characteristic of the individual or the literary work per say. Thomas Pynchon uses satire in the names of the characters of the book The Crying of Lot 49 to reveal secrets about their true personalities and life styles. For example, as Natalia mentioned in her blog, the fact that Dr. Hilarious was trying to drug his patients with a substance similar to LSD does not seem hilarious at all; however, his personality and attitude is very unique and amusing. Doctors are supposed to care for the well-being of their patients, not use them as lab mice to test their own experiments. This is what makes Dr. Hilarious uniquely hilarious.

Mucho Maas, or “Much More” is also a very peculiar character. Like Billy Pilgrim, Maas is a social outcast who is seldom understood by others. His sensibility, like that of Billy Pilgrim, leads him to try to escape humanity’s vices.
“But the endless rituals of trade-in, week after week, never got as far as violence or blood, and so were too plausible for the impressionable Mucho to take for long. Even if enough exposure to the unvarying gray sickness had somehow managed to immunize him, he could still never accept the way each owner, each shadow, filed in only to exchange a dented, malfunctioning version of himself for another, just as futureless, automotive projection of somebody else’s life. As if it were the most natural thing. To Mucho it was horrible. Endless, convoluted incest.” (p. 5).
By quitting his job at the used-car shop, Maas is trying to escape the hollowness of the modern world and the lack of individuality and consciousness present in each character. Like T. S. Eliot expressed in his poem The Hollow Men, humanity has become barren, void, and unable to construct a unique existence. Mucho Maas’ name suggests that there is much more inside this character than the apparent craziness and unbalance perceived from outside.

As strange and humorous The Crying of Lot 49 may seem, it actually conceals a huge amount of meaning. “She could carry the sadness of the moment with her that way forever, see the world refracted through those tears, those specific tears, as if indices as yet unfound varied in important ways from cry to cry.” (p. 11). Sometimes in life we construct our own lenses, or points of view, to observe and interpret every situation we encounter. Similar to Billy Pilgrim and the fourth dimension, Oedipa Maas is trapped in her own world, in her own sadness. Like Gilgamesh, Jesus, and Winston Smith in 1984, Oedipa makes judgments and decisions in life hidden behind her tears. Events and occurrences are distorted by her vision and opinion about things, which leads her to think and act in a specific manner. I believe that this is what makes each of us unique and different. This reminds me of the saying “walk a mile in another person’s shoes,” which should be modified to say, “see the world through another person’s glasses.”

Finally, I would like to question the title of the book. Does lot forty-nine have anything to do with the lots Mucho Maas used to work in? Does the crying part relate in any way to the tears that refract each person’s view of the external world? What is the significance of the title of this work to the development of the story? Does it conceal any sort of meaning, like the names of the characters or the quotes in the first chapter?


Vocabulary:

Convoluted: extremely complex and difficult to follow.

Finesse: do something in a subtle and delicate manner.

Rapport: a close relationship in which the people or groups concerned understand each other’s feelings or ideas and communicate well.

Ambivalent: having mixed feelings or contradictory ideas about something or someone.

Corrections on Previous Blogs

Mr. Tangen, here are my corrections for the blogs on The Waste Land. The first sentence is the original, incorrect version and the second is the fixed result:

It reminds me of the Geek gods and Titans of the waters, Poseidon, Ocean, Pontus, Nereus, Triton, and Proteus.

It reminds me of the Greek gods and Titans of the waters, Poseidon, Ocean, Pontus, Nereus, Triton, and Proteus.


In this case, the reader only makes very long pauses in the end of stanzas, which are understood as something similar to paragraphs.

In this case, the reader only makes very long pauses at the end of every stanza, which are understood as something similar to paragraphs.


Besides emphasizing important sections, the the speaker accented specific words in each of the verses.

Besides emphasizing important sections, the speaker accented specific words in each of the verses.

Individuality Sunken Into Oblivion: The Hollow Men, by T. S. Eliot

A title is the first impression a reader receives from a work of literature, somewhat like a summary of the overall meaning of the text. The Hollow Men, a poem by T. S. Eliot, possesses a title that conveys a vast amount of meaning and mystery. Like The Wasteland, The Hollow Men transmits a message of emptiness and vacancy. It makes the reader think about a barren and void humanity, an existence that has no meaning or purpose whatsoever. The fist stanza of the poem emphasizes the significance of the title by mentioning how mankind has succumbed to a state where free will or the ability to construct one’s own thoughts is inexistent.
“We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats’ feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar” (lines 1-10).
The words “hollow”, “dried voices”, “quiet”, and “meaningless” illustrate human insignificance, or our lack of strength and mental capacity to formulate our own thoughts and ideas. As the poem indicates, our brains, filled with straw, have become useless. Even though mankind makes an effort to unite and act collectively, our quiet whispers are incapable of advocating any change. Our voices, soft as the “wind in dry grass” (line 8), are so miserable and insignificant that they still remain unheard and barren as our hollow minds.
“Shape without form, shade without colour,
Paralysed force, gesture without motion;” (lines 11-12).
As this oxymoron shows, mankind is existent and tangible, like shapes and shades, but lacks the meaning and spark that makes each one of us unique and distinct, such as forms and colors. We live our lives as machines that perform every function necessary to go on living, but do not have the free will necessary to make us different from others. We are indifferent to our personality, and our minds are hollow and meaningless. We prefer to exist as ordinary beings instead of extraordinary individuals.

“And voices are
In the wind’s singing
More distant and more solemn
Than a fading star.” (lines 25-28).
In this stanza, Eliot emphasizes the fact that man’s actions are hollow and insignificant by using the words “distant” and “fading”. Our uniqueness is fading away, becoming more distant every time as our lives loose meaning, purpose, and importance. Eliot portrays us as dead men in a dead man’s land, as individuals who, as the book 1984 says, have lost their essence and uniqueness.
“This is the dead land
This is the cactus land …
The supplication of a dead man’s hand” (lines 39-40, 43).

“The eyes are not here
There are no eyes here
In this valley of dying stars
In this hollow valley” (lines 52-55).
These four lines caught my attention not only because of the repetition of the word hollow, but also because of the metaphorical meaning of eyes. By talking about the absence of eyes, Eliot is referring to the lack of vision present in the world. We are unable to see, observe, or analyze our surroundings, and hence unable to formulate our own thoughts and interpretations of the world and what we see in it. The dying stars represent us, humans, and how their glow, or our individuality and uniqueness, are fading away and becoming a “hollow valley”.
“Sightless, unless
The eyes reappear
As the perpetual star
Multifoliate rose
Of death’s twilight kingdom
The hope only
Of empty men.” (lines 61-67).
Eliot proposes God, or the perpetual star that has always existed since the beginning of times, to be the only solution in order to reestablish human free will and individuality. Religion is “The hope only / Of empty men.” (lines 66-67), the only mechanism of abandoning a barren existence and living as people that have the ability to think in a unique manner.

The Hollow Men is written in free verse with no established meter. Eliot may have chosen this structure in order to symbolize the lack of order in the world; however, I disagree with the overall organization of the poem. I believe that an established rhyme scheme and meter would have structured the poem in such a way as to symbolize the existence of the hollow humanity and how, by behaving like machines, we forget to live as unique, separate individuals with a distinct, free, and un-empty mind. I also wonder why Eliot decided to make an allusion to the children’s song “The Mulberry Bush” at the beginning of the fifth section of the poem. What does this nursery rhyme signify? What exactly does the “prickly pear” represent?

The last couplet of the poem conveys as much meaning as the title.
“This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.” (lines 97-98).
The end of the world and of the human race will not be caused by wars, violence, and disasters, as the Book of Revelations suggests, but by our emptiness and our incapability to think, act, or respond, as emphasized earlier on in the poem. We will see things crumble, but we will only lament and whimper as hollow men. Our voices, “quiet and meaningless” (line 7), will be unable to react and we will be forced to succumb to lamentation of the fate that awaits us. I believe that these last couple of lines are trying to advocate change in humans in order to transform our mentality of machines into one in which mankind will be able to react according to what our individual nature indicates, and thus turn away from the hollow existence we are living now.

If Not For You, I Shall Wear the Bottoms of My Trousers Rolled: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, by T.S. Eliot

T.S. Eliot’s The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock is nothing close to a love song. It never talks about love or anything related to this feeling, and instead focuses on Alfred Prufrock, the narrator, and his aging and death beside a woman who is merely mentioned. When compared to Bob Dylan’s song “If Not For You”, one would clearly see that these two texts, apart from having a specific rhyme and meter, do not share almost any similarities.

Bob Dylan
“If Not For You”
a If not for you
b Babe, I couldn't even find the door
b I couldn’t even see the floor
a Id be sad and blue, if not for you

a If not for you
c Babe, the night would see me wide awake
c The day would surely have to break
a It would not be new, if not for you

d If not for you, my sky would fall
a Rain would gather, too
d Without your love Id be nowhere at all
a Id be lost, if not for you

a If not for you
e The winter would hold no spring
e Couldn’t hear a robin sing
a I just wouldn’t have a clue, if not for you

d If not for you, my sky would fall
a Rain would gather, too
d Without your love Id be nowhere at all
a Id be lost, if not for you

a If not for you
e The winter would hold no spring
e Couldn’t hear a robin sing
a I just wouldn’t have a clue, if not for you

a If not for you

Bob Dylan’s song, written in iambic form, has a clear-cut rhyme scheme, as every verse rhymes with another verse in the same stanza in an orderly way. Although there is not a constant meter throughout the entire song, one can see that the first and second stanzas have verses with four, nine, eight, and nine syllables, respectively, while the other two stanzas, repeated at the end of the song, have verses with a different amount of syllables. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, on the other hand, has no established meter. Every line has a different number of syllables, which are not organized in an orderly fashion; however, the poem is also written in iambic style. Although there is no constant rhyme scheme, there is rhyme present throughout the stanzas:
“The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes,
The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes,
Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening,
Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains,
Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys,
Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap,
And seeing that it was a soft October night,
Curled once about the house, and fell asleep.” (lines 15-22).

In both works, there are specific stanzas that are repeated, somewhat like a chorus. These, I believe, very important sections of the text which, like a song, are repeated over and over again in order to make the most impact on the reader. In The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, however, these stanzas are very random:
“In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo.” (lines 13-14 or 35-36).
These do not follow the general flow of the poem, but are rather a sort of parenthesis to the entire work. Unlike If Not For You, where the chorus and the rest of the lyrics unite to form one sole unit, the “chorus” in Eliot’s piece breaks apart from the rest of the verses in order to convey a different idea.

Even though both of these texts share some similarities in structure, they are completely different in describing the significance of love and women. In Bob Dylan’s song, the woman he loves is a basic need in his life. Without her, “Id be nowhere at all / Id be lost, if not for you.” (lines 11-12). In this song, the woman is necessary in order to continue living. She is the essence of Bob Dylan’s existence, somewhat like the pillar on which his thoughts, emotions, and actions rest. In The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, love for a woman is never preached. Its title, unlike If Not For You, has nothing to do with love or the significance of a special woman in Prufrock’s life. It actually talks more about Prufrock and his life than the woman he supposedly loves:
“I grow old… I grow old…
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.” (lines 120-121)
Since this poem never actually talks about a woman, it is not clear whether Prufrock really loves her or not; however, one can notice that Alfred Prufrock is not completely dependent on the woman, like Bob Dylan. Instead, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock seems to talk more about the passage of time and death, moments which are always spent beside a woman that is seldom mentioned.
“And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker
And in short, I was afraid…
Till human voices wake us, and we drown.” (lines 85-86, 131).
Whether Prufrock does not love the woman or simply decides to express his affection for her in a different way is not clear; however, one can see that Eliot decided to break away from the normal guidelines and patterns that are constantly seen in love songs.

Gods, Shakespeare, and Hell: The Wasteland, sections Three and Four

Sections three and four of The Wasteland, titled The Fire Sermon and Death By Water, possess many allusions that, although obvious, are only distinguishable once you read the poem for the second or third time. The titles of both of these sections, for example, are references to well-known places or people. The Fire Sermon makes reference to Jonathan Edwards, the famous revival preacher of the First Great Awakening. Edwards always preached sermons that talked about human condemnation in a wrathful, burning hell. The Fire Sermon, therefore, makes an allusion to Edwards’ speeches about “sinners in the hands of an angry God”, burning and withering in hell.

Line 175 of the poem makes an allusion to A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The words “The nymphs are departed” make me remember Titania, who used to own many fairy servants she dispatched every time she talked to Oberon. T. S. Eliot, therefore, makes an allusion to Shakespeare, the famous English playwright.

Besides making allusions to English-speaking characters, Eliot also made allusions to Greek mythology. “I who have sat by Thebes below the wall lovers” (line 244) reminds me of the myth of Pyramus and Thisbe, in which these two lovers were separated by a wall. I wonder why Eliot would choose to talk about a tale of two lovers in a poem such as The Waste Land, a text with a very pessimistic mood. If Eliot is trying to preach the purposelessness of life, why does he make an allusion to two characters who actually have the motivation in life to find love?

On the following line, Eliot talks about hell once again. The verse “And walked among the lowest of the dead.” (line 245) makes an allusion to Dante, the voyager, in his work Inferno. Here, Dante and Virgil, another Roman poet, make a voyage through each of the nine circles of hell, walking “among the lowest of the dead”. This allusion is probably one of the clearest references to a well-known person in the text, as it focuses on the mayor theme of a work of literature and not on the small details, such as those mentioned previously when I talked about the allusion to A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

The words “O Lord Thou pluckest me out”, in lines 309 and 310, make a very clear allusion to the Judeo-Christian Bible, especially because of the use of old-English present in this verse and throughout the KJB. This line reminds me of the Old Testament, where characters used to appeal directly to God and talk to him as if he was a normal person.

Finally, the title of the fourth section, Death By Water, is also an allusion to a well-known individual. It reminds me of the Greek gods and Titans of the waters, Poseidon, Ocean, Pontus, Nereus, Triton, and Proteus. The Greeks used to believe that natural disasters were attributed to the gods, who dominated a specific area of the universe. The death of Phlebeas, the Phoenician sailor in this fourth section, makes an allusion to these Greek figures, masters of the seas.

The Oral Significance of Poetry: The Waste Land read by a different speaker at http://librivox.org/the-waste-land-by-t-s-eliot/.

Many times, when we read a certain text, we forget to grasp the essential details the author subtly includes throughout the lines. When someone reads a piece of poetry for the first time, they generally accent different words or phrases than the author. Every time I read a poem, I pause in between verses in order to interpret each of these phrases as a single, independent unit; however, when I listened to a different speaker read the T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land, I discovered that he does not make any pauses in between verses and reads the entire stanza as a sentence. In this case, the reader only makes very long pauses at the end of every stanza, which are understood as something similar to paragraphs. This makes the poem a lot easier to understand, as the speaker made The Waste Land sound like a story, where the verses converged to form a series of clauses that together conveyed more meaning than each of the verses alone.

In order to emphasize the meaning of certain fragments of the poem, the speaker accented several words that, as one may understand, are crucial to understanding the author’s purpose in writing this piece. For example, I noticed that the speaker focused attention on the sixteenth line of the poem, a verse that I had never really paid attention to when I had read the poem to myself. “In the mountains, there you feel free.” (line 16), may conceal a vast significance that may be crucial to understanding the message of the poem. Mountains in general, especially snowy ones, are isolated placed where there is infrequent human activity. Eliot may be trying to say, therefore, that humans may only be free when they are distant from civilization and its evils; thus, it is understood that T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land is condemning mankind and everything associated with it.

Besides emphasizing important sections, the speaker accented specific words in each of the verses. For example, in lines twenty-six to thirty, the reader emphasized a series of words, which are showed in capital letter in the following example:
“And I will show you something DIFFERENT from either
Your shadow at morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;
I will show you FEAR in a handful of DUST.” (lines 26-30).
This makes the poem a lot easier to understand while simultaneously establishing the mood of the piece. The words “fear” and “dust” make tone of The Waste Land negative and pessimistic. The mood of the poem is one of the most important elements to understanding the meaning of the poem as a whole. If I had accented different words when I read the piece to myself, such as “show”, “morning”, and “rising”, I might have thought that T.S. Eliot was trying to convey a message of happiness and discovery instead one of misery and hopelessness.

Life Is A Game of Chess: The Waste Land, sections I and II

When you read a poem for the second time, not only are you able to grasp its meaning better, but pay attention to all the small details. The first time I read The Waste Land I was only able to comprehend the main idea and some literary devices and symbols used throughout the poem; however, when I read its first two sections for the second time I noticed that, already knowing the general meaning, I could now focus on the smaller details with more ease.

I still agree with the ideas I expressed in my previous entry which, as I can see now, are actually a little vague. I mentioned how the modern man was lost in a world that, apparently, seemed to have no meaning. As I read section II, A Game of Chess, I realized how T.S. Eliot contrasted the lives of the rich and the poor:
“From satin cases poured in rich profusion;
In vials of ivory and coloured glass…
‘What are you thinking of? What thinking? What?
‘I never know what you are thinking. Think.’… (lines 86-87, 113-114)
The setting in which this excerpt takes place is a rich person’s home. The reader can observe that, at the end, a character questions the thoughts of another individual, but is unable to decipher what he/she is thinking. The excerpt concludes with the word “Think”. I believe that this may actually be an appeal to the reader, telling him to think about the world, about his fate, about the purpose of life in a crippled and destroyed earth. A similar tone of despair and disillusionment is present when Eliot talks about the poor. I believe that he may be suggesting that all of us inhabit a world that has no conscience.

I also paid attention to the titles of the sections, especially that of section II, A Game of Chess. This actually reminds me of the film The Seventh Seal, in which the chess game symbolizes the game of life. I believe that by using this symbol, Eliot is trying to invoke a feeling of apprehension in us, the readers to try to make us reflect about the way we are living our lives.

I also noticed that there are many more literary devices that Eliot uses in a very subtle manner but which manage to have a great impact on the reader. For example, on line five Eliot juxtaposes the ideas of winter and warmth. Later on, in lines twenty-for and twenty-five, he repeats the words “red rock”, an alliteration. These objects represent real-life situations that, in one way or another, condemn man to a meaningless existence. In lines fifty and fifty-five, he uses symbols like the wheel and the ring to represent life and its cyclical structure. He may be trying to emphasize that life repeats itself, and that the events that are occurring now or that have occurred in the past will certainly occur again in the future. Eliot may be trying to say that, independent of what we do to preserve peace and order, wars will always occur; therefore, a macabre and pessimistic view of life is obtained, complemented by the imagery and word choice of the entire poem. In line sixty-seven, Eliot mentioned the “…dead sound on the final stroke of nine.” This allusion makes reference to Dante’s Inferno, probably suggesting that the end and eternal pain are near.

These literary devices, along with the rhyme and meter of the poem, manage to create a special effect on the reader. I did not notice any sort of rhyme throughout the poem, except in lines eleven through sixteen, written in iambic pentameter:
a “Bin gar keine Russin, stamm’ aus Litauen, echt deutsch.
a And when we were children, staying at the archduke’s,
b My cousin’s, he took me out on a sled,
c And I was frightened. He said, Marie,
b Marie, hold on tight. And down we went.
c In the mountains, there you feel free.” (lines 11-16).
I wonder why, out of all the lines in the poem, Eliot decided to make these rhyme. Are they significant in some way? Do they conceal any hidden meaning?

Neither Living Nor Dead: The Waste Land, by T.S. Eliot (1888-1965)

T. S. Eliot’s poem The Waste Land conveys the modern man lost in a world that appears to have no meaning:
“Son of man,
You cannot say, or guess, for you know only
A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,
And the dry stone no sound of water.” (lines 20-23).
Not only is this poem long and difficult, but like other utopia/dystopia texts, it portrays a society that is crumbling over. In my opinion, T.S. Eliot uses the symbolism of a crippled and ruined nature to refer to the modern world. The pessimistic tone of the poem contributes make the reader feel depressed and lost in a meaningless world. Like Kurt Vonnegut, Eliot is trying to appeal to society in order to promote change. Submerged in a world of confusion following the wars, T. S. Eliot, like most other authors mentioned, is expressing his feelings of hopelessness in a meaningless world. I believe that this is the reason why the author uses different languages throughout the poem.
“Frisch weht der Wind
Der Heimat zu
Mein Irisch Kind,
Wo weilest du?...
Quando fiam ceu chelidon-O swallow swallow
Le Prince d’Aquitaine á la tour abolie…
Datta. Dayadhvam. Damyata.” (lines 31-34, 428-429, 432).
Employing a variety of languages makes the reader feel confused in a disoriented world that has no apparent purpose. It actually reminds me of the tower of Babel, which led to the creation of the languages of the world and subsequent confusion and separation of the people. Maybe Eliot makes references to this Biblical event to try to express his grievances against the wars that occur in the modern world and how these have created absurd divisions and enmities among countries.

I also noticed that, in order to make his point, Eliot uses a pessimistic style throughout each of the five sections of the poem. Many of these verses make reference to nature and the devastation of man.
“I will show you fear in a handful of dust” (line 30)
This line caused a great impact on me not only because of the great use of imagery, but also because of the strength its words possess. This is a great example of “le mot juste”. I also noticed that, by making references to Genesis, Eliot is implying that the handful of dust is really man. The sentence “I will show you fear in a handful of dust” is really saying “I will show you fear in mankind”. T.S. Eliot is therefore portraying a devastated humanity which, apparently, lives in a world of constant dread, emptiness, and nothingness.

T. S. Eliot uses various literary devices to convey his ideas. For example, in lines 140, 167, and 168, the phrase “HURRY UP PLEASE IT’S TIME” was repeated. Besides, it was written in capital letters. I believe that by the use of these literary devices, Eliot is trying to emphasize the figurative meaning of these words. “HURRY UP PLEASE IT’S TIME” may not be a message to Lil, but to humanity in general.

Like many of the works we’ve studied this year, The Waste Land is an allegory. The stories of other people’s lives are actually reflecting the reality of our world and our lives in the same way that nature represents destruction. In section V, What the Thunder Said, Eliot makes references to water. He talks about a barren landscape and the absence of water.
“If there were rock
And also water
And water
A spring
A pool among the rock” (verses 346-351)
It is important to notice how short verses and repetition emphasize the word “water”. I believe water can either symbolize life or, in a more Biblical approach, the loss of faith. I remember that the Gospels talked about how Jesus’ faith led him to be able to walk on water. The absence of this liquid, therefore, may symbolize the absence of faith and hope. Thus, this excerpt is also tied to the underlying theme of the poem: the existence of man in a world that apparently has no meaning or purpose.

These ideas of disillusionment and disorderliness are further conveyed in the rhyme scheme of The Waste Land. Although the length of the lines varied, I discovered that the entire poem is written in iambic pentameter; however, there is no pattern in the use of accented and unaccented syllables, either (NOTE: the capitalize syllables are accented and those in lowercase are unaccented):
“APril IS the CRUElest MONTH, BREEding
LIlacs OUT of THE dead LAND, MIxing
MEmory AND deSIRE, STIRring…” (lines 1-3).
By repeating two accented syllables, interrupted by a comma, Eliot emphasizes each of the verbs. The pause and the interruption of the iambic pentameter highlight the importance of the words “breeding”, “mixing”, and “stirring”.

The only place in which I found a brief rhyme scheme was at the beginning of section V:
a “AfTER the TORCHlight RED on SWEAty Faces
b AfTER the FROSty Silence IN the GARdens
a AfTER the AgoNY in STOny PLAces…” (lines 222-224).
All of these lines have 11 syllables; however, I do not think that this orderliness has any figurative meaning. I think that by using a constant pattern, Eliot manages to emphasize the words “After the”, repeated at the beginning of each verse. If these lines did not have the same number of syllables, the entire effect the repetition causes on the reader would be destroyed.

It is amazing how every little detail in The Waste Land is aimed at trying to portray a devastated, meaningless world. The use of language, rhyme, symbolism, and other literary devices manages to create an effect on the reader that, along with the pessimistic mood of the text, makes the him/her question themselves about their existence. Our universe, as depicted by T.S. Eliot, is barren, insignificant, hollow, meaningless, "neither living nor dead". (lines 39-40).