In T.S. Eliot’s “The Hollow Men,” Eliot details and laments about the meaninglessness pitiful existence of men, whom he describes as hollow, and the overall decline of contemporary society. The characterization of the hollow men perfectly fits many of the characters who exist in the world of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Indeed, both authors explore the innate emptiness of human life and the ignorance of humanity to its emptiness throughout their literary pieces. Such ignorance causes individuals to lead pathetic lives of endless wandering, which, in turn, further expands the hollowness inside of their core that is known as the center of their being. Hollow men exist everywhere in the world. In fact, they are so prevalent that it seems
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Because the majority of the population is filled to the brim with emptiness, very few individuals are able to realize their hollowness. The world is full of hollow men, but what makes hollow men hollow? People are not born hollow; they are born with the power to act, create, see and think, but over the period of their lives they eventually end up “failing to make that choice that was once offered, failing to take action, giving in and living only as a shadow” (Aelst). They become unable to make their own life decisions or unable to back up their decisions with moral values or materialistic greed that will empower them to carry out those decisions. For example, the pilgrims who accompany Marlow on the steamship to the Central Station where Kurtz is located all think of themselves as high and mighty Europeans, naturally superior to the savage-looking Africans. However, they do not realize that because of their ineptitude, the steamboat nearly capsizes many times. They are not rational - they automatically start firing into the trees without coming up with a plan of action and nearly get themselves killed. They are …show more content…
Civilization is hailed as the savior of the human race, for it gave them agriculture and a stable way of life. However, within that civilization hid a dark relic from man’s primitive past - his savagery and primal instinct. This is how Conrad defines his civilization, the one that is analogous to the white sepulcher. In Eliot’s eyes, civilization was the collective body of hollow individuals, a collaboration to find the end of hollowness. However, those who are truly solid people do not take an active role in this collaboration, because those who are ‘civilized’ “grope together...Sightless, unless/ The eyes reappear” (Eliot 58, 61-62). Those who are solid are capable of guiding others towards seeing the truth, but solid people often are held back by the hollows and so oftentimes do not wish to work alongside them. The question of being hollow or solid does not apply much to the early humans, for they lived on a completely different plane of existence, which disallowed them from making the kinds of decisions that the humans of today often make. Their inability to be sufficiently self-aware of their self and surroundings places them in a category separate than those inhabited by the helmsman, pilgrims, Marlow and Kurtz. This, in essence, is the heart of darkness. When humanity ventures into the depths of such primitive society, it is able to realize how different
Because the majority of the population is filled to the brim with emptiness, very few individuals are able to realize their hollowness. The world is full of hollow men, but what makes hollow men hollow? People are not born hollow; they are born with the power to act, create, see and think, but over the period of their lives they eventually end up “failing to make that choice that was once offered, failing to take action, giving in and living only as a shadow” (Aelst). They become unable to make their own life decisions or unable to back up their decisions with moral values or materialistic greed that will empower them to carry out those decisions. For example, the pilgrims who accompany Marlow on the steamship to the Central Station where Kurtz is located all think of themselves as high and mighty Europeans, naturally superior to the savage-looking Africans. However, they do not realize that because of their ineptitude, the steamboat nearly capsizes many times. They are not rational - they automatically start firing into the trees without coming up with a plan of action and nearly get themselves killed. They are …show more content…
Civilization is hailed as the savior of the human race, for it gave them agriculture and a stable way of life. However, within that civilization hid a dark relic from man’s primitive past - his savagery and primal instinct. This is how Conrad defines his civilization, the one that is analogous to the white sepulcher. In Eliot’s eyes, civilization was the collective body of hollow individuals, a collaboration to find the end of hollowness. However, those who are truly solid people do not take an active role in this collaboration, because those who are ‘civilized’ “grope together...Sightless, unless/ The eyes reappear” (Eliot 58, 61-62). Those who are solid are capable of guiding others towards seeing the truth, but solid people often are held back by the hollows and so oftentimes do not wish to work alongside them. The question of being hollow or solid does not apply much to the early humans, for they lived on a completely different plane of existence, which disallowed them from making the kinds of decisions that the humans of today often make. Their inability to be sufficiently self-aware of their self and surroundings places them in a category separate than those inhabited by the helmsman, pilgrims, Marlow and Kurtz. This, in essence, is the heart of darkness. When humanity ventures into the depths of such primitive society, it is able to realize how different