The Hollow Men (1925) Summary

Section I: Eliot gives a portrait of humankind as lost souls searching for life's meaning. The opening of the poem talks of people engaged in empty talk with empty thoughts; people paralyzed by indecisiveness and lack of purpose in their lives. Eliot speaks of those who die and receive a final reward and those who receive eternal punishment.

Section II: Eliot portrays the narrator of this poem as someone not wanting to see the eyes of those who will face eternal condemnation. The speaker in the poem does not want to face death and the final meeting with his fate.

Section III: Here, the narrator talks of false gods that humankind worships in hopes of either attaining eternal life, or escaping from thoughts of mortality.

Section IV: Eliot reiterates that men who have no hope and no faith will...