Thinking Activity on The Waste Land

      Thinking activity on 'The Waste Land'

1> Friedrich Nietzsche mentions the concept of ‘The Ubermensch’, which means- the superior man; who justifies the existence of the human race and also it means as a goal which is set for humanity. Nietzsche’s idea is different from that of Eliot that is in the way- Nietzsche thought that a bit of morality can lead towards different world whereas Eliot dealt with ‘past, present and Modern world’ in the poem ‘The Waste Land’. Eliot pointed out that spiritual salvation can be achieved by following the Buddha philosophy.

2> For you the salvation of the man lies in the preservation of the cultural tradition, which, in our more mature years, lives with great vigour within us than does primitiveness, and which we must preserve if chaos is to avoided. This was said to Eliot because Freud importance to free outlet of basic instinct. As it was considered to be the basic desire and so there’s nothing wrong in it. This thing brought Western society to face chaotic life and this thing brought to spiritual degradation, people burning with lust and many more profanity in society.

          So, Eliot had to write- salvation of man lies in the preservation of the cultural tradition to revive faith in God, and in this way gave solution to the preservation of cultural tradition. Eliot and Freud gave their own views in this regard. It is true that the free vent to the repressed primitive lead to a happy life but it had to be in a limited way. The problem is that Freud what people are upto. So, both the views are important but in a limits.

3> The Indian allusions are of “Ganga”, “Himavat”, “Data”, “Dayadhvam”, “Damyata” and “Shantih, Shantih, Shantih”. He makes use of Indian allusions in the last part- which symbolically means that he looks to Indian Spirituality for the solutions to his questions. Data means be a giver, what have you given? Dayadhvam means sympathy for others. Damyata means Self- control. He ends his poem with the lines Shantih, Shantih, Shantih which had been taken from Upanishad.