Impression on The Hollow Men 《空心人》读后感

Impression on The Hollow Men

Outline

Background:T. S. Eliot was one of the greatest poets of the last century. His works

have influenced poets, criticists and scholars of a whole generation. In the poem The

Hollow Men, Eliot satirized the straw men, which could be regarded as a comment on

the moral and spiritual emptiness of society at that time.

What the hollow men are like:The hollow men are those who are empty in spirit,

lack of motivation, pursuit, and faith. They have to lean together to stand still. The

focus of their life is gone; the backbone of their spirit is destroyed. They are alive

with flesh and blood physically but dead without motivation and pursuit spiritually.

What their life are like:In death’s kingdom, even the violent souls will be judged,

yet the hollow men dare not face it. They can only live in the dead they

possess are merely dying bodies; what they can do is only praying to the broken stone

and trembling with tenderness at the same had no idea what their future

would be, and what kind of fate they would have. For them, life is torture, so that

life is very long.

How their world ends: No one will care for their death; they will die unnoticed in the

at the last moment of their life, they do not find their dignity, gone with a

weak whimper.

Reflection:There are countless hollow men even in modern society. Modern

citizens who are oppressed by heavy work or suffocating life by the

pressure of life, people’s passion, wisdom, peaceful mood and profound thinking are

squeezed out in their mind. They are modern hollow men. We should try to listen

to the sound from our heart, from deep our heart, surpass the profane

world, embrace our spirits and return to the pure era.

Key words: The Hollow Men, T. S. Eliot, Spirit

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Table of Contents

Declaration ..................................................................................................... 错误！未定义书签。

Outline .............................................................................................................................................. I

Part I ................................................................................................................................................ 1

1.1 Background .................................................................................................................. 1

Part II ............................................................................................................................................... 2

2.1 Analysis of the poem ................................................................................................... 2

2.1.1

2.1.2

2.1.3

What the hollow men are like ........................................................................... 2

What their lives are like .................................................................................... 2

How their world ends ........................................................................................ 3

Part III ............................................................................................................................................. 4

3.1 Reflection on modern society ..................................................................................... 4

Acknowledgement ........................................................................................................................... 5

References ........................................................................................................................................ 6

I

Part I

1.1 Background

T. S. Eliot was one of the greatest poets of the last century. He described

himself as “a royalist in politics, a classicist in literature, and an Anglo-Catholic in

religion”; and he had manifested a reliance upon authority and tradition. His

masterpiece, The Waste Land, is one of the major works of modern literature. Its

subject, the apparent failure of Western civilization which World War I seemed to

demonstrate, set the tone of his poetry until 1930. His works have influenced poets,

criticists and scholars of a whole generation.

The Hollow Men, the poem this paper is going to illustrate, was written in 1925, a

few years after World War I. In this poem, Eliot satirized the straw men, which

could be regarded as a comment on the moral and spiritual emptiness of society at that

time. People were extremely desperate because of the disillusionment of their

dreams after World War I. As its name implied, The Hollow Men represented the

empty inner world of those who were devoid of faith and spirituality.

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Part II

2.1 Analysis of the poem

2.1.1 What the hollow men are like

“MistachKrutz—he dead. / A penny for the Old Guy”, the two epigraphs gives two

typical examples of the hollow men directly at the beginning of the poem.

MistachKrutz was a domineering imperialist who tried to control everything through

spirit and finally died miserably, with his soul lost. Old Guy tried to blow up the

British Parliament with gunpowder in 1605, and was burned up on Nov. 5th every year

in the form of a stuffed effigy by children who went around begging for pennies to

buy fireworks. Krutz was hollow because he lost his soul at last, while the Old Guy

is literally hollow in stuffed effigy, losing the ability of thinking and acting.

The first section of the poem further illustrates what the hollow men are like: “We

are the hollow men / We are the stuffed men / Leaning together / Headpiece filled with

straw”. With a few sentences, Eliot vividly shows us that the hollow men are not

really hollow in physical form. They are hollow in spirit. In that sense, they are

alive with flesh and blood physically but dead without motivation and pursuit

spiritually. It reminds me of the scarecrows that the farmers used to frighten the

birds. Or they even may be more deplorable than the scarecrows which at least can

stand by themselves performing agricultural functions. The hollow men, they have

to lean together to stand still. The focus of their life is gone; the backbone of their

spirit is destroyed.

“Our dried voices……Are quiet and meaningless / As wind in dry grass / Or rats'

feet over broken glass / In our dry cellar”. Without spirit, the voices of the hollow

men are dried; what they say are meaningless, for no one would think them important.

They are just like aimless rangers, wandering together on a deserted land. No one

would listen to their whisper, or those who hear it would choose to neglect it. For

those who have motivation and pursuit, and whose souls are not lost, the grass in their

garden is green and vibrant, the glass they hold is full of fragrant wine. On the

contrary, the hollow men can only enjoy dry grass and broken glass. “Shape without

form / shade without colour / Paralysed force / gesture without motion”. These lines

reflect that what the hollow have are just empty shells. With only physical body but

not spirit, they are utterly worthless persons. We can declare that they are not living

in this world but just existing in the world.

In short, the hollow men are those who are empty in spirit, lack of motivation,

pursuit, and faith.

2.1.2 What their lives are like

The hollow men claim that they are not lost violent souls but only the stuffed men.

They try to comfort themselves by this trick, but soon they find that in death’s

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kingdom, even the violent souls will be judged, yet they themselves dare not face it.

Those who have crossed with direct eyes, those who live with souls, their world are

full of sunlight and songs that are more distant and solemn than a fading star,

showing vitality, power and beauty. In contrast, the faithless hollow men do not

believe all of these would appear in their world. They even dare not be nearer.

Without any hope, they tragically chose to wear deliberate disguises: rat's coat,

crowskin, crossed staves. What a striking and dazzling contrast! The shining

sunlight and twinkling star are fading away, leaving the hollow men desperate in the

hollow valley. The distant is insurmountable between the life of the hollow man and

the sunlight and star, the life of those with souls.

The third section of this poem describes the living condition of the hollow men.

“This is the dead land / This is cactus land”.They are actually dead so that they can

only live in the dead land. On the dead land, the hollow men lose their ability to

action and sign of life. What they possess are merely dying bodies; what they can do

is only praying to the broken stone and trembling with tenderness at the same time.

Praying to the broken stone, without faith in heart, the hollow men can never find

their shining sunlight and stars. So “The eyes are not here / There are no eyes here”.

What the world left with them are the valley of dying stars, the broken jaw of their

lost kingdoms, which reflect the debility of their lives.

The perpetual star and the multifoliate rose have become the only hope of empty

men. But will the hope save them? Will they arrive at the expected kingdom at last?

Definitely not. The shadow in section 5 which falls between idea and reality, motion

and act, conception and creation, emotion and response, desire and spasm, potency

and existence, essence and descent might hold the hollow men back when they have a

sudden and good idea and attempt to do it. There are two entirely different worlds at

the two sides of the shadow. It is an abstract, holy and spiritual world at one side,

which is orderly, bright and warm. At the other side, there is a broken profane world

which is physical, dark and cold. The hollow can live in the shadow at most. Like

people at that time, they lost their directions because of the disillusionment of their

dreams after World War I. They had no idea what their future would be, and what

kind of fate they would have. For them, life is torture, so that life is very long.

2.1.3 How their world ends

“This is the way the world ends / This is the way the world ends / This is the way

the world ends / Not with a bang but a whimper”. At last, the hollow men cannot

avoid death; they come into the world silently so do they leave the world. Not with a

bang but a whimper. People go on with their lives as if nothing happens. No one

will care for their death; they will die unnoticed in the end. This is the essence of

their world: broken, empty and meaningless, so there is no power for them to create a

bang. Even at the last moment of their life, they do not find their dignity, gone with

a weak whimper.

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Part III

3.1 Reflection on modern society

It is obvious that this poem does not only portray the misfortune of several

individuals, but also the tragedy of a generation. When we are sympathetic to the

hollow men in that ear, we should also realize that there are still countless hollow men

even in modern society. The western people were buried in the shadow of the war,

while the modern hollow citizens are shrouded in the shadow of reality.

“My biggest hope now is that I can find a great amount of money on the street,

pick it up, and then marry a beautiful wife.” said by a computer programmer who has

worked for two years after graduation. He is a representative of the modern citizens

who are oppressed by heavy work or suffocating life style. With the development of

economy and society, people are increasingly pursuing material stuffs: money, cars,

houses, etc. All of these are like the straw stuffed in the hollow men, useless and

meaningless. Driven by the pressure of life, people’s passion, wisdom, peaceful

mood and profound thinking are squeezed out in their mind. They are modern

hollow men.

The wings of their dream are fractured before stretching. The aim of working

day and night is to maintain an acceptable life. The modern men, they never think

about what their work can bring to themselves and the society; they do not feel

excited about what they have achieved anymore. The efficiency is decreasing; the

passion is vanishing; the creative ideas are withering. They are trudging with

emptied bodies.

On the other hand, humanbeings are born with empty bodies. Who we can be

depends on what we use to stuff in our bodies. The pure men are as rare and

precious as endangered animals. Not all of us are Queequeg, and few can be

uncivilized Washington. But at least in this bustling world, we should try to listen to

the sound from our heart, from deep inside. The approach to hear the sound inside

can be varied. For instance, we can feel the peace of life, the passion towards

dreams and the inner voice of our heart in the song of literature and the arts. Feel

our heart, surpass the profane world, embrace our spirits and return to the pure era.

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Acknowledgement

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References

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Vision, (25), 88-89.

Day, T. (2008). 'Between the Conception / And the Creation: T.S. Eliot’s The Hollow

Men. English, 57(219), 235-244.

Gillis, E.A. (1961). The Spiritual Status of T. S. Eliot’s Hollow Studies in

Literature and Language, 2(4), 464-475.

Li, M. (2010). Empty and End [空虚与末日].Science &Technology Information, (34),

192-193.

Tao, D.Y. (2009). Desperate between Light and Shadow [绝望在光与影之间].

Foreign Literature Study, (3), 102-108.

Troy, U. (2001). Eliot's The Hollow Men. The Explicator, 59(4), 199-201.

Zhang, J. (1998). The Hollow Men and the Development of Eliot’s Thoughts [《空心人》与T.S.艾略特的思想发展]. Foreign Literature, (01), 54-57.

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