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Loss Of Identity In T. S. Eliot's The Hollow Men

Decent Essays

The Hollow Men by T.S. Eliot could not be any truer with the messages of modern society. Reading Hollow Men, the average person can find almost all of the messages applying to modern day times. Especially in a high school setting. It was obvious that Eliot was far ahead of his time when he nailed society on the head about its imperfections. Three messages that Eliot portrays in The Hollow Men are: the self-identity crisis, the loss of faith, and the incredible force of skepticism. In which line does The Hollow Men show that humans suffer from loss of identity? Well, in lines 31 and 32 he gives a dark image of how ‘fake’ people are. “Let me also wear such deliberate disguises.” (Hollow 31-21) Now, the descriptive word that Eliot used is deliberate. That means people purposely hid their true selves from the outside world. In Worland High, countless students wear these deliberate disguises in fear of the awful judgement that they may receive. However, it is not only students who are cautious. …show more content…

“Form prayers to broken stone.” (Hollow 51) People still pray, but it’s to nothing. As in nothing meaning, they do not truly believe that praying will work. Many children are raised up in a religion, and think nothing of them. There are followers and then there are religious followers. Religious followers really believe and have faith in their religion, will the others follow blindly, and could care less about their religion. Eliot informs his readers about how the majority is only followers and continue to get worse. In today’s modern society, this is very true, Atheists and Agnostic Atheists are very common. Perhaps it is because of the progression in science proving many religious events to not be possible. Then again, is this necessarily a good or a bad thing? Everyone is entitled to their one beliefs, just because someone doesn’t believe in God, does not mean they do not have

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