The Waste Land and Ganga Versus The Magic Mountain, “Metamorphosis,” and All Quiet
Nature in Literature
T.S. Eliot ends The Waste Land with the narrator on the banks of the Ganges in order to represent a break with western views on nature. Archana Parashar argues, “T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land has contributed in… exposing man’s callousness towards nature” (159). The destruction that war wrought on nature starts with the “Towers falling / Jerusalem Athens Alexandria / Vienna London / [as] Unreal” (26. Line 374–77). The cities in themselves represent a paving over of nature. The fact these cities fall by the destruction of war indicates the further devaluation of nature by western society as it is willing to destroy even the things it creates. In other words, Eliot argues that if they are willing to destroy their own things there is no chance for nature which they perceive as a something easily used for their own means. Therefore, Eliot argues for a break with western society’s abusive relationship with nature.
The Magic Mountain, on the other hand, has a much darker ending. The main character dies in the heat of war after a relatively quiet and uneventful life. Eliot presents the land in catastrophic terms before ending on a hopeful note. Thomas Mann presents a peaceful world ruined by disease but still able to enjoy tranquility and enjoyment. Mann’s ending serves to pull the narrator back to reality which is one were war ravages the land and where the peace of the mountain is a far away magical place.
The poem personifies nature in order to achieve Eliot’s positive ending while Kafka’s “Metamorphosis” shows a pleasant ending also with nature like “filled with warm sunshine” (Kafka 131). Eliot describes, “Ganga was sunken, with limp leaves / waited for rain… [and] the jungle crouched, humped in silence” (Eliot 24. Lines 396, 97, 98). The poem describes nature as a defeated and tired person who is waiting for a change. The change has to come from a society that has been devoured by the war, selfishness, and greed. However, the coming of the rain at the end symbolizes a pause and reset. Kafka’s ending leaves the negative behind and advocates a new start. Kafka also focuses on the negatives aspects of society but ultimately choose a positive ending. While nature waits, it is not disappointed because the rain eventually comes. In this regard, Eliot and Kafka leave their works in a positive light leaving room for hope.
Eliot’s The Waste Land ends differently from Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front which ends with a positive outlook for humanity. While both works talk reference the moral, ethical, and physical destruction of society Eliot, as mentioned above, ends with a note of optimism. Eliot seems to imply that the evils of war and destruction of nature can be overcome by the turning to an eastern philosophy. Remarque, however, seems to imply that there is no hope but death. At the end of All Quiet, the narrator states, “He fell in October 1918, on a day that was so quiet and still on the whole front, that the army report confined itself to the single sentence: All quiet on the Western Front” (214). The irony of killing Paul a month before the war is over and on an especially quiet day alludes to the cyclical nature of war. It implies that the only way for humanity to escape war is the death of the individual but humanity will always revert to a war.
Works Cited
Works Cited
Elliot, T.S. “The Waste Land.” The Project Gutenburg.org. N.p., 11 July 2016. Web. 3 Oct. 2016.
Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis. Trans. David Wyllie. Project Gutenberg, 2002. 13 May 2002. Web. 22 Aug. 2016.
Parashar, Archana. “Reverberations of Environmental Crisis and its Relevance in Managing Sustainability: An Ecocritical Reading Of T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land.” Decision (0304–0941) 42.2 (2015): 159–172. Business Source Premier. Web. 19 Oct. 2016.
Remarque, Erich Maria. All Quiet on the Western Front. New York: Ballantine, 1984. Print.
