In human history we have continually come up with myths to explain natural cycles and to explain the meaning behind rituals we perform. In the various stories posed "The Golden Bough" each culture uses their myths to pose warnings to people, such as the Babylonian-Syrian myth of Tammuz and Ishtar in which every year Ishtar's death led to Tammuz having to venture into the underworld to revive him. In Tammuz's absence, the world fell into disarray and carnage, becoming a barren land where, "the passion of love ceased to <br /> operate: men and beasts alike forgot to reproduce <br /> their kinds: all life was threatened with extinction" (Frazer, 9). This barren loveless land is an early depiction of an unproductive wasteland, and is an explanation for times in human history when humans struggled to survive. Wastelands don't have to be literal, but rather can be metaphors and explanations for struggles throughout the history, when other explanations are outside of human understanding and comprehension. Eliot's wasteland can be perceived as the physical destruction left behind by World War I, but to me it is more than a physical description. Eliot uses the title to discuss a time in human history when the world as a whole was in a confusing freefall, every country having to regroup after the terror of the war. After such destruction, it takes time for literary and artistic practices to return to their full force, and in this time there is a barrenness of art and culture, as mourning and recovery takes precedent.