Tori Laughland Laughland 1
English 2 Pre-AP
Period 4
October 23, 2012
The Hollow Men
The Hollow Men, when I read that I pictured men who experienced some form of a traumatic event in their life and now longer show emotion or are “hollow”. The first section of the poem talks about how they were leaning together, portraying scarecrows, but they feel that everything they say or do has no meaning. They haven’t crossed, so people remember them as “The Hollow Men”. The second section talks about how they don’t like to look at people who made it to the “deaths dream kingdom”, I guess that means heaven or hell. The third section talks about the setting, the setting is like a desert, with cacti, and stones. Then all of a sudden the men feel this desire to kiss someone but unfortunately they are unable to. The fourth section is talks about the same stuff the second sections does, how they don’t want to be looked at or don’t want to look at people either. The fifth section talks about a shadow, and how it has paralyzed or controlled their actions, they don’t show any emotion or response. The ending of the poem talks about how the world would end, and you would think that it would end with some explosion but to them it just ends with a whisper. There’s allusion at the beginning of the poem, Mistan Kurtz (hopelessness) “We whisper together are quiet and meaningless as wind in dry grass or rats’ feet over broken glass” which is a simile. Repetition at the end of the poem, “This is the way the world ends.” It shows that the poem ends soft instead of abruptly. “Leaned together” is imagery showing that all the men are intertwined and stuck in one place of their lives.