3rd+Individual+example

=3rd Individual Example =  ===Allusions in //The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock//      === //The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock// invites the reader into the memories for the speaker to relay his experiences. The purpose of this poem was to lead the reader to understand the struggles, complications, and sophistication in the life of a World War I veteran. The speaker, J. Alfred Prufrock, struggles with the desires of love and the isolation he feels after the period of time he spent away at war. The poem alludes to historical and biblical figures as well as classical literary works and characters. The first allusion made in this poem is to the artist Michelangelo. Michelangelo is best known for his work in the Sistine Chapel and his sculptures, such as David. Often, artistry implies sophistication as well as creativity and education. When the author writes, **“women come and go talking of Michelangelo.”** (lines 13-14) he is implying that the women, who have been staying at home during the war and increasing their education, appear to be so sophisticated to the war veterans who are now haunted and blunt with their new experiences of war. This furthers the purpose because it emphasizes the social barrier that was built because of war. There is isolation between the sexes because neither party can understand the other.

In the second and third stanzas, there is repetition in recalling the yellow gas as is creeps around the streets. This is what gives the setting and time period away as after World War I. WWI created a great amount of devistation, not only in lives, but also on the land. In the same stanzas, the author alludes to the poem //Works and Hands// by the Greek poet Hesiod. This poem is about farming and its rewards for the earth. It adds to the purpose because it would be a time to rebuild and to conform. Yet, a person had to put in the labor it took to attempt to readapt to society. The majority of the poem is a struggle within the reader on how to confront and demonstrate his love. In this section of the poem, the poet references two significant biblical characters, one being John the Baptist and the other Lazarus, whom Jesus raised from the dead. In the situation in which John the Baptist was referenced, the figure is used to bring attention to the fact of the stress felt by the speaker because he does not know how to express himself. This is similar to the detachment shown by the men coming home from World War I. J. Alfred Prufrock is afraid of what his actions will stir and the consequences for them. There is also a yearning within the speaker to tell his love that he has come home, practically from the dire straights of death. War had taken so many lives that it was a miracle that he was coming home. It was as if he had risen from the dead, just like Lazarus. This supplements the purpose because it adds to the complication of emotions and how the veteran is cut off from the rest of the world because of the terrifying memories that linger.

The final literary reference made in this poem is to Shakespeare’s character, Prince Hamlet. The speaker realizes or, at least, comes to the conclusion that he is not the hero of the story as Prince Hamlet was. Alfred Prufrock abandons the thought of his love because he has no way of expressing his love for his loved one. This character was incorporated because though Prince Hamlet was the hero of the story, he ended tragically. It adds to the purpose because Hamlet encompasses all of the internal struggles that the veteran soldier struggles against.

There were many literary and biblical allusions that were used to capture the confusion and isolation portrayed in this poem. Allusions are used to emphasize and capture the purpose of the poem. //The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock// contained an ample amount of literary allusions that encapsulate the conflicting emotions illustrated in the poem.

Works Cited Kinsella, Kate, Kevin Feldman, Edward E. Wilson, Joyce Carrol, Colleen Stump, and T.S. Elliot. __The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock__. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2002. __Psalms__. __NIV Teen Study Bible__. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1993. Roberts, Edgar V., and Henry E. Jacobs. __Literature : An Introduction to Reading and Writing__. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 1996.

M. Brown