Zach Kaiser, Ethan Eschbach, Oliver Deng, Tristan Grieme
Ms. McMillan
APEL: Period 5
9 January 2020
Prufrock Assignment
1. Completed
2. a. After rereading “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” I noticed that the poem is in
fact very sexual. The beginning of the poem talks about yellow smoke and its rather
interesting behavior. The poem does reflect mental illness in a way that displays Alfred
Prufrock's sexual frustrations and struggle. Despite Prufrock’s sexual frustration, one can
relate this poem to a person in the modern day frustrated in finding true love.
b. Eliot deals with gender, class, education and intellect by detailing his character’s
various insecurities in these areas. Eliot appears to be unhappy with his characteristics in
these areas, referring to his shortcomings and the ways he is unhappy with himself. If I
had to describe Prufrock physically, I would say he is a tall, thin man who is past his
prime, but not old. As described, he is balding, and not particularly well-built, and he
most likely walks with a slouch and speaks quietly, as if afraid to disturb the one he is
talking to. As for his biggest flaws, Prufrock has no confidence, and is ill-adjusted to the
social party life he finds in the world he inhabits. He struggles to accurately express his
emotions, and he comes across as timid and awkward in regular conversation. Prufrock is
a broken man.
3. a. I believe that Eliot called this a love song because it describes the sexual life of
Prufrock and his depressing stories of his past failed relationships and the many
insecurities of his life. This poem is different from the usual love song because of the
many modernist ideas which depict his emotions as physical objects. This is much
different from traditional Shakespearean writings about love because traditional works
often straightforward and have a linear thought process.
b. This poem has been most likely described as a reflection of spiritual emptiness and
emotional paralysis, since the main character of this poem, Alfred Prufrock, is spiritually
empty and saddened by the fact that he can no longer express himself in an appealing
manner to a woman. I believe that this poem is only partially a depiction of modern life,
sure some people are in the same shoes as Alfred Prufrock, however when applying this
poem to the majority of people it only appeals to them in the parts where Prufrock is
struggling to find true love. In general, this poem was a lot more effective in the 1920s
than in the twenty first century simply because this poem describes a soldiers experiences
in modern society after the war. War today is no longer a major problem, therefore
making this poem less appealing and effective to the modern american people.
c. “The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock” reflects the many tenets of modernism, such as
the thoughts of the lost generation, which were very discombobulated, and many of his
ideas were expressed in strange ways such as the description of fog pressing up against a
window. The entire poem also displayed the idea of pessimism with Eliot describing
Prufrock in a very depressing manner while strongly indicating that he is not able to get
in to a relationship. He seemed like a very lost person and did not have faith that he
would ever find love.
4. b. Allusions are effective literary devices due to their ability to include mass amounts of
information in a single sentence through the referencing of a single text or literary work.
Being utilized by a Modernist writer, allusions are effective through their symbolic
meaning, a heavy theme in Modernist literature.
c. Through the internet, we were able to discover that Elliot’s poem was written in
Free-verse style, following no logical patterns or symmetrical aspects of poetry (other
than the couplet referencing Michaleangelo appearing twice). The poem also contains
small sections that are grouped together by other poetic devices, signifying a relationship
between those themes that appear. For example, around lines 30-40, Elliot includes
several loose rhymes meant to build on the reader’s understanding of Prufrock’s
personality. There are other rhyme groups, such as ones relating to the city or the
character’s mental issues. These groups add a faint sense of order, but random order, in a
poem meant to be erratic and hard to grasp and group.
