In writing my research paper on Eliot’s The Waste Land, I knew that I wanted to focus primarily on the poem’s third section, which I believed to be its turning point. Eliot’s image of “the human engine” particularly stood out to me, and I knew that I wanted to incorporate it into my paper. In doing preliminary research, I stumbled upon Suárez’s article, and his thesis gave me the idea of exploring the role of technology in The Waste Land. Given the volume of published criticism of The Waste Land, I found that my biggest difficulty was in finding original lines of argument and analysis, rather than simply summarizing the existing scholarship. I was able to overcome this by returning to the primary text, quoting and interpreting it directly without the aid of secondary sources. Additionally, my revision process helped me to further unify and develop my own ideas in the paper.
PERRY SCHEIN is a member of the College of Engineering’s Class of 2012. As a mechanical engineering major, he is an active member of Boston University’s chapter of Engineers Without Borders. Perry graduated from South Side High School in 2008, where his favorite subjects were English and Physics. This essay was written for Anthony Wallace’s WR150: Walt Whitman and American Modernism.