The Waste Land, written by TS Eliot, is a poem describing the lack and/or corruption of culture in England during the period following the First World War. Eliot uses a form of symbolism, where he uses small passages from popular literary works, to convey his message. He begins by saying that culture in the post-World War I period is a “barren wasteland.” Eliot goes on to support this claim by saying that the people in England are in some sort of shock due to the violence of the First World War. Eliot believes that the lack of culture opens the door to the growth of immorality among the population. Eliot's use of symbolism can be very disorienting. It has been proposed that this discontinuous mixture actually deepens its point by representing the “ruins” of a culture. An article from Glyndŵr University states that: “Eliot wants us to experience that sense of fragmentation ourselves, and that is why the poem uses a kind of collage technique – assembling pieces of text together in what seems a random and arbitrary way – to recreate this sense of cultural rubble." Eliot purposely used fragments of well-known literary works to give the impression that the culture was in pieces. Eliot's style completed the main point of his poetry, contributing to the appearance of a culture in ruins. In the years following the First World War, culture was almost non-existent in England. People were more focused on getting back to living a normal life than on art or music. Eliot echoes several books of the Bible to describe this culture. What roots cling, what branches grow from this stony rubbish? Son of man, you cannot tell, nor guess, for you know only a heap of broken images, where the sun beats, and the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief, and the dry stone no sound of... . middle of paper ......ck of culture that people were more focused on returning to normal life than on art, music and various other forms of culture. Eliot thought that this void in culture gave way to immorality in society. However, he believed that there was still a chance for the renewal of society. Eliot thought that religion could save English society. Eliot's poem condemns post-war English culture and offers a solution to the problem. Works Cited Davis, B. (2003). http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/. Retrieved February 25, 2014, from http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~bedavis/davisjmhreview.pdfEliot, T. S., & Rainey, L. (2005). The Waste Land Annotated with Eliot's Contemporary Prose. Devon, PA: Duke & Company. Glyndwr University. "Untitled." Glyndŵr University - Home. Np, nd Web. May 2 2014. .