The characters in T.S. Eliot's poem, The Wasteland, could have used a lot of timely, friendly advice to better their lives. Even in the epigraph, those boys shouldn't have teased the Sibyl. It's not nice to be mean to old people, because they can't help being old. And the Sibyl should never have made such a careless wish as asking for eternal life without eternal youth---didn't the story of Tithonus teach her anything? If you're going to have an affair with a god, at least read up on your mythology. Then, in the "Burial of the Dead" part, the narrator should not have disturbed his dead friend to ask dumb questions about gardening. You're supposed to let dead people rest in peace, not bug them about stuff.

In the part "A Game of Chess," the woman sitting on the throne should have used less perfume. These days, a lot of people have chemical sensitivity, and it's inconsiderate to overindulge in scented beauty products. The narrator, though, should have made more of an effort to carry his side of the conversation with the woman. It's really annoying when you're at dinner or something with a man, and he doesn't talk. But the woman would have done better if she had tried a few topics of conversation to draw him out, instead of just complaining that he never talked. Because that can only lead to a bad conversation and probably an argument.

Then, that woman who was gossiping about her friend Lil shouldn't have tried so hard to impose the patriarchal oppressive regime's expectations on her friend. It's not a woman's duty to look sexy for a guy all the time, even her husband. I wish that Lil had better access to safe and effective birth control, too. It's not reasonable for Albert to expect more than five kids, especially if he's going to be in the Army and not even be home helping to take care of them. Anyhow, Lil's friend shouldn't have given her so much advice, because no one likes a friend to be telling you what to do all the time.

Another character who could totally use a subscription to Ms. or another women's empowerment magazine is that typist in the part "The Fire Sermon." That clerk guy was just interested in sex, and she should have realized that she could be happier alone than with some insensitive jerk. Women shouldn't think that they have to be in a relationship; they can be self-actualized and complete individuals on their own. Even though the clerk was a jerk, I wish he had turned on the light before walking down the stairs. Accidents are most common at home, and there's no reason to be careless and the chance that you're going to get hurt and inconvenience a lot of other people.

The narrator in "What the Thunder Said" should definitely have looked into something like a Camelbak water carrying system before setting off across a desert. If you don't bring water with you when you're going into a desert, you're going to get thirsty and it's no good just wishing it would rain. And he shouldn't have assumed that the faces peering out of the houses were unfriendly, just because the people were poor. Maybe they weren't really sneering at him. If he had bothered to learn some simple phrases in those peoples' language, then he could have said hello or even asked for a drink of water.

Finally, I think that T.S. Eliot shouldn't have put so many phrases into the poem in foreign languages. It kind of makes him sound pretentious or something, and makes it harder to know what he's talking about.