n T.S. Eliot's poem The Hollow Men, T.S. Eliot contrasts his straw-filled hollow men with the "lost violent souls" of Mr. Kurtz and Guy Fawkes. Mr. Kurtz is a character in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. T.S. Eliot is saying that it is better to have met death and to have strong opinions than to sit idly and remain stagnant. Both Eliot and Conrad are portraying the general society to be decaying. …showed first 75 words of 386 total…

…showed last 75 words of 386 total…and direction that the straw men lack and do not wish to see. Joseph Conrad portrays that there is evil inherent in everybody. The Manager was the epitomy of evil and yet he survived. Mr. Kurtz became savage. T.S. Eliot says that it is better to be one of these characters than to be a straw man who believes that "this is they way the world ends/Not with a bang but a whimper."