A Man of Words

     When a person does extensive research about a person they learn a lot of information about them that isn't always useful, but sometimes it's good to know. I really enjoyed this experience because it gave me a new perspective on writers. Many people put writers, and artists, and famous people in general, on a platform, and like most things on a platform, people don't always understand the background information or the depth that goes into said thing. I knew Eliot was a famous poet and that was enough for me, I thought that was all I needed to know, but in reality Eliot was so much more than just a poet. Eliot was a writer. He wrote poetry, plays, essays, and books on criticism. Going even further than that I learned that Eliot was a brother. He was the baby of the family. He was a husband. He was a widower until he remarried Valerie. He was an American, which is something I learned because I actually thought he was British, but he became a British citizen in 1927. The point I'm trying to make is that I learned T. S. Eliot was a person. He had hardships, and he got sick, and he worked, and he had things that irritated him, and he experienced death and love. I think learning how human Eliot was was the most interesting thing for me to learn because it just gives me a new perspective on life and people, especially the famous or well-known.
     Of course gaining a new perspective on people wasn't the only thing I learned. I also learned that writers really do draw from their own opinions and surroundings to write. Like Eliot, I'm a writer, although I not nearly as good as him, and I often draw from things in my life to write because I believe that's what makes writing great. That's what makes it real and gives it... substance. When I learned that Eliot used places he knew or had been to in The Quartets, I realized that some of the greatest writers use their experiences to write. And going even further than that, Eliot used his opinions to help write The Waste Land. I think knowing stuff like that is beneficial to students and writers of this century because they can learn to use what they know to make something that's good into something that's great.
     Another way creating this website helped me was it gave me the opportunity to polish off my researching skills and comprehension. Creating this site also helped me learn how to better use technology which is always good in this day and age, especially when I'll have to create an e-Portfolio for graduation. Plus, I think this assignment was a good way to better my analyzing skills which aren't always as sharp as I'd like them to be.