War in Apocalypse Now and The Wasteland

Depictions of War in Apocalypse Now and “The Waste Land”
“The Waste Land” by T.S. Eliot and Apocalypse Now by Francis Ford Coppola focus on two different aspects of war: Apocalypse Now emphasizes the psychological effects of war upon the individual and how they contribute to personal madness, confusion, and alienation; “The Waste Land” does not describe how war affects individuals, but rather its impact on society as a collective whole. War is portrayed as the root cause of the systemic destruction of civilizations and the growing chaos and moral corruption that follows. Through the use of narration and point of view, natural images such as rivers, fog, and smoke, Coppola and Eliot present two distinct viewpoints showing the detrimental consequences of war. I will explain these opposing outlooks by examining instances where in Apocalypse Now the use of a single narrator, Captain Willard, depicts the influence of war upon the individual and how the narration and temporal shifts in “The Waste Land” underscore the chaotic affects of war on an entire society. I will also interpret how the use of fog and river imagery contributes to the overwhelming madness, confusion, and disorder prevalent in both texts. The cause of this madness can be immediately seen with the use of singular narration in Apocalypse Now. Coppola portrays Willard as disturbed, alienated, and approaching insanity so the audience can see how war deteriorates the individual, which is evident through the usage of voice-overs, confined conditions, point of view, and hallucinations. For instance, in the beginning of the film Willard is in a claustrophobic condition to illustrate how he is trapped by his surroundings. This confined condition is created by him being in a small room while staring at a blank ceiling. Healso says that the “walls moved in a little tighter” which further restricts the space he is in making him seem more imprisoned. His face is superimposed on a view of explosions and bombs because war is all he can think about because it has traumatized him. The effects of war have such great influence on him that he even associates the turbulent motion of a ceiling fan with the rotors of a helicopter during battle. At the same time Willard has become such an integral part of the growing madness of war that he is unable to distance himself from it even though it continues to haunt him. He says “When I was there all I could think of was getting back into the jungle.” He still needs the war to survive even though it is slowly making him mentally unstable..
This descent into madness that Willard undergoes is evident through the use of point of view shots. They magnify the affects of the war entirely from Willard’s perspective so the audience can see exactly what he is experiencing. Point of view shots are primarily used when Willard is scrutinizing Kurtz’s dossier. When Willard examines the dossier following the attack by the tiger he is surrounded by darkness to show how he is becoming crazy just like Kurtz. He says that the more he read about Kurtz the more he admires him because Willard has accepted some of Kurtz’s methods as he achieves his state of mind. In the scene where he is reading the letter Kurtz wrote to his son about being charged with murder, there is a close-up of Willard’s eye. As Willard continues to read the camera elevates and his eye is looking down at the river path surrounded by the jungle showing how he is slowly becoming madder as he continues his journey upriver into the unknown.
Not only does Coppola want the audience to visualize how Willard is becoming crazier, but he also portrays Willard as withdrawn and passive throughout the film so the audience is not able to establish a connection with him. On the boat when the men are surfing and listening to rock music Willard merely sits and watches and does not take an active role during the show with the playmates. He observes and comments on what others are doing which makes him a good narrator, but also dehumanizes him. One does not know anything about Willard’s past except that he agreed to divorce his wife. This lack of a connection makes Willard unsympathetic to the audience because they cannot understand the reasoning behind his actions. Coppola purposely portrays him this way so the audience will not experience all the pain that he is feeling, but so they will still have an understanding about how the war is damaging him psychologically.
In “The Waste Land” there are multiple points of views rather than a single one like in
Apocalypse Now. The first section titled “Burial of the Dead” consists of four stanzas told bydifferent narrators. Each narrator gives a monologue delivered with a certain sense of urgency showing the desperation to get his or her point across. This is similar to the desperation of society to rebuild itself and survive the war. In the first stanza the narrator is a girl named Marie who tells a story about sledding. In the middle of her story there is suddenly a new stanza occurring in a barren setting that has a male character reminiscing about a girl he once knew. After describing her the narration shifts to a woman going to Madame Sosostris so she can tell her fortunes about the fate of her husband and then it shifts to Madame Sosostris’s point of view as she describes this fate. Then the setting changes to London and another narrator. The narrator says “You who were with me in the ships at Mylae!”(Eliot 70). This is a reference to a battle scene during the Punic Wars implying the narrator is probably a soldier of some sort and not Madame Sosostris from stanza three. This constant change in narrators shows the fragmentation and chaos of society. It emphasizes how the buildings and infrastructure consists of tiny pieces, which are represented by each individual narrator.
In addition to there being multiple narrators throughout “The Waste Land” there are
temporal shifts as well. Stanza 1 begins with “April is the cruelest month”(Eliot 1) written in present tense and then in line 8 Summer surprised us”(Eliot 8) written in past tense and the rest of the stanza stays primarily in past tense. The next stanza begins “What are the roots that clutch”(Eliot 19) written in preset tense and then in line 35 with “You gave me hyacinths”(Eliot 35) goes back to past tense. The Madame Sosostris story is in the present while the next stanza moves back to the past. This constant shift in tense adds to the confusion and disorder already prevalent in the poem. It further magnifies how society is in complete disarray.
Not only is narration used to present the chaos and madness present in both works, but natural imagery such as fog and smoke is utilized as well. In Apocalypse Now the landscape being enveloped in thick fog creates a sense of alienation that Willard and his men are experiencing. The fog separates the men from society and each other leaving them stranded. Thick fog and smoke also indicates confusion as well as alienation. This is especially evident when they approach the bridge near the Vietnam and Cambodia border. The massive amounts of fog and thick black smoke add to the disorientation everybody is feeling. Nobody even knows who is in charge or what is going on, which is further evidenced when Willard repeatedly tries to find out who the commanding officer is.
In “The Wasteland” fog is used as well, but it symbolizes how society is slowly decaying instead of confusion and alienation. In the fourth stanza of the first part of the poem Eliot describes the city of London as a breeding ground for death. He writes that “Under the brown fog of a winter dawn, / A crowd flowed over London bridge, so many / I had not thought death had undone so many”(Eliot 60-62). He is talking about the dying soldiers returning to London. The brown color is the color of something that decays and rots away just like the city is rotting away after all the loss of lives and crumbling of all the buildings. Once something living dies the
only remnant is the organic matter that will slowly be decomposed. Similarly, the crumbled building and displaced people is all that is left of society after the war, but even this small remnant can decompose and wither away if people will do not continue to live peacefully and morally. Fog therefore does only portray the decaying of buildings, but can be a sign of decaying morals and values as well. Eliot puts a lot of emphasis on issues or morality and corruption and how they relate to human progress, which is evidenced through the use of river imagery.
In “The Waste Land” a river is used as a metaphor for human cleanliness and sin. A clean river represents society living peacefully and free of sin. When Eliot says that “The river bears no empty bottles, sandwich papers, /Silk handkerchiefs, cardboard boxes, cigarette ends” he is talking about humans who live a peaceful and moral existence by not indulging in any material possessions while helping each other(Eliot 177-178). The empty bottles, sandwich papers, and other items are examples of pollution symbolizing how human society can be polluted by greed and corruption. When Eliot writes that “A rat crept softly through the vegetation / Dragging its slimy belly on the bank”( Eliot 177-179), he is showing how the rat contaminating the river represents how human society can be corrupted. A river is a useful example to describe both the destruction and potential growing of human civilization because it can be a waterway that provides the infrastructure for entire cities, but at the same time a river can flood and destroy cities while displacing people.
There are further instances where the strength and weakness of a river is predominant.
When the narrator of the third part of the poem says “While I was fishing in the dull canal”(Eliot 189) the usage of the word “dull” expresses weakness. In this instance, the river has lost all its strength and vitality just like civilization after the war. After the war not only were entire cities torn to the ground, but people were left disillusioned and unable to communicate with one
another. They were unable to face what had happened and continued to live in fear. Eliot expresses this hardships people went through when he writes “The river sweats/Oil and tar/ The barges drift/ With the tide turning”(Eliot 266-269). The river is described as sweating showing that it is in pain like society after the war. This includes the difficulty of rebuilding cities after the war and the suffering of all the people that have lost their loved ones. Eliot writing that the river sweats oil and tar is significant because these things can permanently damage a river. They are far more detrimental pollutants than the empty bottles and sandwich papers, which can easily be removed. Similarly, all the death and destruction after the war is irreversible like the oil and tar polluting the river. The lost lives will never be returned, the buildings may never be rebuilt the same way, and people’s optimistic views may not return. If humans try to live a peaceful existence they can still improve their conditions and prevent further catastrophes from occurring.
This is a sign of hope for a better future and the possible rebuilding of an entire civilization.
In Apocalypse Now river imagery is also implemented, but it serves a different purpose. The river becomes a metaphor for Willard and the other men’s journey towards insanity because the setting becomes progressively darker and cloudier as Willard approaches Kurtz. On the first day that Willard is on the boat with the men the sky is clear as they can easily seen the horizon. The bright surroundings signifies that Willard’s crew are enjoying themselves because each of them has not yet experienced war yet and that they are still sane and free from the corruption of war. Later on, as each one slowly becomes insane, the scenery darkens. Before Chef gets out of the boat to search for mangos there is a scene of overhanging leaves and branches. The sky is overcast so the river’s path cannot be seen in the distance. The river’s path becomes dark and gloomy as it stops at the jungle foreshadowing Chef’s growing insanity after his imminent attack by a tiger. When they finally reach Kurtz’s outpost, the river is black surrounded by orange
flames symbolizing the river Styx of the Underworld. It is a sign that they have reached hell as they get closer to Kurtz’s hideout. The complete darkness at the end of the river’s path represents how they themselves will be transformed by evil and madness if they continue their journey.
In addition to being a sign of darkness, the river can be seen as a sign of hope and escape. Willard uses the river to escape from Kurtz’s lair, the attack of the tiger, and subsequent ambushes. Willard tells everybody to “Never get out of the boat” because it is a sign of safety protecting the men from the danger of their surroundings. Being on the boat also distracts the men from the war because they read letters, listen to music, and surf. While journeying up the river the men also get to know each other, which helps them deal with the war. The river
therefore is a sign of both hope and destruction just like in “The Wasteland.”
Even though Apocalypse Now primarily focuses on how war psychologically damages the individual, there are instances where war affects entire civilizations as well. For instance, Willard’s journey into the jungle is not just a quest into darkness and madness, but a journey away from any sort of civilization. This portrayal shows how individual madness will eventually lead to collective madness. When individuals lose touch with reality and everybody around them they can no longer live peacefully with one another. This societal madness that forms is present throughout “The Waste Land,” but so are instances of individual insanity. The usage of a river as a metaphor for corruption and salvation can be a guide to how individuals need to transform their lives for the better to help their society. The narrator in the second stanza of Burial of the Dead is reminiscing of the girl as a way of dealing with the horrors around him and Marie talks about sledding to escape from thoughts of the war. The woman going to Madam Sosostris is unable to cope with her husband being off to war and must know immediately whether he is still alive. By analyzing these two texts one can learn that the affects of war on individuals and society are often blurred together. They are related to one another and not mutually exclusive. War can crumble entire civilizations, but also affect individuals in their own way as they struggle to survive.