Walking, Dead Roots

You can have too little or too much of me. I can hurt you and help you. What am I? If T.S. Eliot were asked the same riddle, his reply would sound something to the effect of, “(insert cryptic reference followed by a second baffling allusion) … Adam’s ale … (insert another mystifying reference just to make it parallel).” The reader would then have to infer after rereading the passage twenty times that Eliot meant water. Because so much of Eliot’s writing in The Wasteland contains references and allusions the audience needs a cipher to understand, the reader often finds it hard to grasp the underlying themes. Even when the audience starts to piece together the puzzle, the remaining pieces seem like round edges trying to fit into rectangular spaces. One instance where Eliot leaves his readers bewildered exists in the water riddle. Drinking water sustains life, but drowning causes death. Consuming too little water leads to dehydration. Nevertheless, water in baptism symbolizes rebirth. Eliot uses water’s contradictory properties in The Wasteland as a symbol of life and death in Western civilization during the 20th century.

            Eliot suggests that though the end of winter and the beginning of spring rains generally produce feelings of life and renewal, spring generates the opposite response in the people of Western civilization. Eliot writes that April consists of “dull roots with spring rain” (4). Because people have become stiffened to life, they essentially act as dull roots. When the rain hits the roots, they do not absorb any water to grow new flowers. Foregoing their purpose on earth, the roots contribute nothing to life; they only take up space and remain subject to nature. Eliot published The Wasteland after World War I, so society was still recovering from war’s trauma, causing the traumatic events to harden people. When happiness did come along, it could not touch people because they were too numb to emotion to recognize the joys of life. Like the roots refusing to absorb water and fulfill their purpose in life, people treated their existence as nothing and rejected any meaning Earth or Heaven had to offer them. Even though Eliot has 20th-century Western civilization in mind, his observations still apply today. Without a purpose to existence, no reason exists to seek self-betterment or to further society. People would just be a bunch of walking, dead roots blind to the renewal and life of spring rains.   

            In the section of the poem titled “Death by Water,” Eliot warns youth to pay attention to their mortality instead of hopelessly following life’s desires. Eliot describes the tale of a young man named Phlebas the Phoenician sailor who died at sea (312-321). When Phlebas died, he entered a whirlpool where “He passed the stages of his age and youth” (317). This sentence suggests that the whirlpool represents the constant motion of life. Even though Phlebas drowned and departed life, his desires continue to drag him around, so he cannot find satisfaction in death. Phlebas’ death results from water, but the water also symbolizes Phlebas’ life. Similar to Western civilization’s muddled view of April rains, the water in this section represents both life and death since Phlebas foolishly regarded life as insignificant, essentially treating life like death. Eliot ends “Death by Water” with the lines, “O you who turn the wheel and look to windward, / Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you” (320-321). The section concludes with a challenge to the youth of the world. Everyone holds the wheel to his or her own life, free to turn it in any direction. Although, as Eliot emphasizes, youth and life do not last forever, so living a meaningful life beats chasing worthless pleasures.

            The most noticeable instance of water prevails in Eliot’s frenzied reiterance of the contradictory nature of life and death in Western civilization. The theme develops in the lines, “He who was living is now dead / We who were living are now dying” (228-229). In both lines, life results in death, providing a bleak outlook on existence. The hopeless perspective repeats itself in the sentences, “Here is no water but only rock / Rock and no water and the sandy road” (331-332). Eliot portrays the lack of water as negative, a sort of destruction that creates a desolate, dead land. Nevertheless, water’s absence does not persist; water finally makes an appearance: “In a flash of lightning. Then a damp gust / Bringing rain” (393-394). Despite water’s representation of death, water comes like a saving grace to the dry land. Even though the people of Western civilization considered life worthless, they seemed to cling to life. Eliot uses the repetition of “Shantih” in the last line of the poem to imply that no matter how much people seek death and destruction, water and life truly do bring beauty and meaning. In other words, a meaningful life results in the peace that passes all understanding.

            Eliot speaks directly to 20th-century civilization, but all of his observations pertain to the current generation as well. Individuals in today’s society walk around like zombies thirsting after their own pleasures, leading to an anxious, unsteady civilization. Eliot frowns upon a Nietzschean perspective that highlights and emphasizes life’s lack of value. Life does not have to equal death. By creating a foundation on Christ, one can base existence on a solid structure and fill life’s void, being born again through water in Christ and experiencing eternal life in Heaven. Philippians 4:7 sums up Eliot’s point: “And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (King James Version).