T. S. Eliot "The Hollow Men" P.1599
“We are the hollow men”
“We are the stuffed men”
It occurred to me while reading this piece that “we” could be any number of groups of people. Who is Eliot referring to, a religious group, the leaders of government, business giants, or maybe just the society as a whole? Does he include himself in this grouping? I think that this is also a poem we can all place our own empty souls into. Almost as if a checkpoint on life. Are “we” living a hollow existence? Or a gauge to measure others, are they really living a life or is there death among the living? In the first section of this poem Eliot talks about how the “dried voices…whispered together” I can see our modern day political rhetoric. Each candidate making the same meaningless promises, never coming to pass. In hearing these “dried voices” it does become blur barley recognizable one from the other and invoking about as much emotion as “rats feet over broken glass” would.
I really started looking at myself after reading this. How horrible would it be to become:
“Shape without form, shade without colour,
Paralysed force, gesture without motion”
Though I often feel this pressure coming on, forces of society, conforming me to its set standard. I strive to be free from its grasp. Not set by rules or meaning, but an explorer of ideas, pulling them into me and pushing them out to everyone around me. I know this is inside me, and at times I am a solid from, bright and colorful, with fluid swift motion. What darkens my dreams, stops my progress and mutes my colors? The complexity we form around our lives, the day to day business we make, endless schedules, trying to be what we are ‘supposed to be‘. Silly things really like make the best cupcakes for the school bake sale, have the kids in music, sports, and art classes to be “well rounded”. This idea of a cookie cutter person, who is all he or she is ‘supposed to be’, these are the “we” who are hollow, dead among the living. Living without real purpose or passion. Letting all of those dreams inside burnout, only to be met again in “death’s dream kingdom” the place of sorrow and regret of a life never lived.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Washington -“Up From Slavery” P. 665-687
DeBois – “The Souls of Black Folk” P. 894-910
The way to Freedom
“We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by the Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” This was the way to freedom as our Founding Fathers so said. This is the basic right for all who enter this life. Here in 2010 we still live in a world that this ideal has to be constantly strived for. A little more than a hundred and fifty years ago, a few years after the Emancipation Proclamation two leaders for the black race emerged. These men were great orators, well-educated, and very sensitive to the needs of his race. Booker T. Washington was a young boy when slavery ended, yet old enough to understand its effects, and old enough to remember life as a slave. On the other side W.E.B Du Bois grew up a freeman in the North. Still he felt the effects of being black in that day and age where race was a very large issue.
These men had the same purpose and passion; the betterment of an entire race, Washington works as a young boy, heavy labor, and horrible conditions. He wanted nothing more as a boy, than to read and write. His childhood is full of sacrifice but eventually he gets the opportunity to be educated. In this time he realizes how much of his race does not have this chance and they desire it more than anything. On page 676 Mr. Washington talks about how amazing it was to witness “A whole race trying to go to school….Few were too young and none too old to make the attempt to learn.” His focus through his life is that of compromise and humility. He wants to give his race opportunity where none existed before. That opportunity he feels however, needed to be handed out in small steps. He was building the ladder to freedom.
Du Bois becomes educated at Harvard, then at Berlin College, but though he is a published author and had many accomplishments as a graduate student, he cannot secure a position at a larger university. His youth seems to have been riddled with disappointment, slammed doors, and rough roads to success. This embitters him and through that embitterment he sees that the world wholly rejects the Negro and does not wish to stand equal with him. He becomes an enthusiastic activist for equal civil rights, right now!
These two different paths are opposed by each of these men one to another. Washington uses empathy, storytelling, humility and compromise to get accomplished the goal of growth and development within his race. Du Bois believes the only way this can be accomplished is through not compromising, never agreeing to be less than the men and women that this race is; equal, creative, and strong. Never backing down and degrading yourself to less than what you really are. I wonder which I would follow today, if it were my choice. I don’t believe it would take very long to decide.
DeBois – “The Souls of Black Folk” P. 894-910
The way to Freedom
“We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by the Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” This was the way to freedom as our Founding Fathers so said. This is the basic right for all who enter this life. Here in 2010 we still live in a world that this ideal has to be constantly strived for. A little more than a hundred and fifty years ago, a few years after the Emancipation Proclamation two leaders for the black race emerged. These men were great orators, well-educated, and very sensitive to the needs of his race. Booker T. Washington was a young boy when slavery ended, yet old enough to understand its effects, and old enough to remember life as a slave. On the other side W.E.B Du Bois grew up a freeman in the North. Still he felt the effects of being black in that day and age where race was a very large issue.
These men had the same purpose and passion; the betterment of an entire race, Washington works as a young boy, heavy labor, and horrible conditions. He wanted nothing more as a boy, than to read and write. His childhood is full of sacrifice but eventually he gets the opportunity to be educated. In this time he realizes how much of his race does not have this chance and they desire it more than anything. On page 676 Mr. Washington talks about how amazing it was to witness “A whole race trying to go to school….Few were too young and none too old to make the attempt to learn.” His focus through his life is that of compromise and humility. He wants to give his race opportunity where none existed before. That opportunity he feels however, needed to be handed out in small steps. He was building the ladder to freedom.
Du Bois becomes educated at Harvard, then at Berlin College, but though he is a published author and had many accomplishments as a graduate student, he cannot secure a position at a larger university. His youth seems to have been riddled with disappointment, slammed doors, and rough roads to success. This embitters him and through that embitterment he sees that the world wholly rejects the Negro and does not wish to stand equal with him. He becomes an enthusiastic activist for equal civil rights, right now!
These two different paths are opposed by each of these men one to another. Washington uses empathy, storytelling, humility and compromise to get accomplished the goal of growth and development within his race. Du Bois believes the only way this can be accomplished is through not compromising, never agreeing to be less than the men and women that this race is; equal, creative, and strong. Never backing down and degrading yourself to less than what you really are. I wonder which I would follow today, if it were my choice. I don’t believe it would take very long to decide.
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