Week 7

"The Waste Land" E-Text (Digital Text)

by T.S. Eliot

Read one version of interpretation of the poem The Wasteland by students

Overview:
The decade of the 1920's, while filled with happy-go-lucky flappers and drugstore cowboys, also contained a deep sadness, apathy, and loss brought about by the horrors of the Great War.  It is more enjoyable to teach about the new mass media of radio and motion pictures, the dance marathons, and transatlantic flights, but students will benefit greatly from exposure and understanding of the darker side of the Roaring Twenties.

Objectives:

1. To analyze primary source material, namely the poetry of American expatriates T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound, and compose an essay to demonstrate their understanding of the post-war disillusionment of the so-called Lost Generation.
2. To integrate their knowledge of the actual war, its strategies and conditions, with an understanding of the conflict's psychological impact on the generation who participated in it.
3. To utilize the following skills: teamwork, critical evaluation, research,  as well as interpersonal, intrapersonal, artistic and linguistic intelligences.

Click here to view the full-lesson on The Wasteland

HW#11 Interpret the entire poem The Wasteland (Five parts)