Finals

Well these finals have been eventful. Started with a physics final that was rather difficult. Argued with my art teacher. Did my biology final. Econ was a piece of cake. Calculus smacked .e across the face. Tomorrow we eat. Winter break is next and I got a lot to do... Woot woot go senior year. NOT

Literature Analysis numero tres ("The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T.S. Eliot)

Instead of doing a literature analysis on a book I have yet to finish, I decided to use this as an opportunity to do it on a piece of literature I have read and fully enjoyed. "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T.S. Elliot has intrigued me with its intricate yet mystifying detail. So here we go..

The poem begins with an allusion to Dante's "Inferno." This excerpt is in italian and is meant to show that Prufrock just wants to tell his story without fear of being infamous. Then the poem transitions into a section that looks like Prufrock is with a woman. He says that he is like a patient etherized upon a table meaning that he is unconscious about his surroundings. Prufrock proceeds to talk about a yellow fog. This is a fog with human-like attributes and movements. After this Prufrock comments on what women think about his aging. his hair is thinning and his style becomes more mature. "I have measured out my life with coffee spoons" this line can be viewed as a sign that Prufrock knows he is old and that he is bound to die soon. Then in a seemimgly non sequitur  manner Prufrock talks about how affected by women he is. Prufrock then explains his past indulgences and how he understands that he isunderserving of a good afterlife and is going to go to hell. Prufrock then alludes to Lazurus, and basically calls himself a messenger. Hamlet also makes and appearance, Prufrock explains that he is not even close to being a Prince Hamlet. At the end of this "love song" he talks again about his age and then personifies the beach and the poem just fades off into the ocean.

This poem is interesting because the ideas presented are puzzling and very educated. Eliot understands how to really stump a reader. Instead of this poem being about a lover like a typical love song, this song is much more morbid. It eulogizes Prufrock before he has even died, and states that he is going to hell for his lifestyle. Prufrock is the medium of this framed narrative (story within a story) because he speaks of his life but then also declares that his story is meant to basically be heard and used as a learning experience. So that the reader doesn't fall into the same situation as Prufrock the reader mustn't make the same mistakes of overindulgence and wastefulness, but to live a productive and proactive life.

Throughout this piece the author is constantly moving between styles of diction and tone. Initially the poem is predominantly about a feminine figure in Prufrock's life, then transitions into his age. Then goes back into women then back to age. Elliot starts it off as a sad song of love but turns into a sad song about life. I see the main element of procrastination in this poem and how in life many people wait until their deathbed to realize that they probably lived life in a wrong way.

The author directly describes Prufrock's character through his aging self and his weakness in women. Indirectly, the author shows Prufrock to be regretful and bitter about a failed life. Prufrock is a static  characterbecause their isn't a personal change within him, he beleives he is going to hell and does nothing about it and solely accepts who he is.

"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" notes

"And the afternoon, the evening, sleeps so peacefully!

Smoothed by long fingers,

Asleep ... tired ... or it malingers,

Stretched on the floor, here beside you and me.

Should I, after tea and cakes and ices,

Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis?

But though I have wept and fasted, wept and prayed,

Though I have seen my head (grown slightly bald) brought in upon a platter,

I am no prophet — and here’s no great matter;

I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,

And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker,

And in short, I was afraid."

 

*An excerpt from "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T.S. Elliot

 

This excerpt stood out to me the most and between Henry, Michael, Taylor and I we broke down what it meant to us. "And the afternoon...cakes and ices" this portion talks about how Prufrock overindulged in himself. Sleep, women, food, you name it Prufrock did it. This excerpt proceeds to then say "Have the strength... to its crisis?" This line questions his ability to actually do something with himself, it is unclear what the crisis is exactly at this point. "But though...and prayed" means that Prufrock returns to a life of Christianity, he is born again, this is then inferred to be the crisis when the lines "Though I.. and snicker"

are presented. Prufrock is old and near his imminent death. Prufrock alludes to the Footman as he believes that he is going to end in hell. He also questions his deeds when he has seen his greatness flicker. This means that he may have done some comendable things in thepast but not enough to get him into heaven. "And in short I was afraid" he fears a hell made for him. This leads me to believe that this is a love song about his relationship with time and what he coulda shoulda woulda.

Alone by Edgar Allan Poe and Company

Link to the original poem
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/175776
This is an ironic representation of "Alone" by Edgar Allan Poe. Poe used this poem to express a dark and gloomy tone and how he feels alienated. This poems meaning connects with many of us. That is why we utilized multiple voices to symbolize that we all may feel alone but we are really together as a collective body.

My Long Overdue Literature Analysis #2

Brave New World 
by Aldous Huxley

This fiction novel starts out in a utopian society where people are conceived in birthing factory where everyone is predestined to the different social classes and jobs. The population is regulated and pregnancy is basically illegal. Sex is only used for pleasure and not reproduction and is encouraged with the use of fashionable contraceptives. Soma is a hallucinogen used in ceremonies, and so that the government can control people through conditioning. Bernard is a psychologist and is deemed different by his peers because he is shorter than average for a higher class individual. Bernard has a friend that is an outcast, Helmholtz. Helmholtz is different because he is all of the desirable traits of a perfect individual but he doesn’t like that.  Helmholtz talks to Bernard Marx extensively about his writing. Bernard then goes to a reservation and meets Linda. Linda was impregnated after being left behind on a trip and has a son, John the Savage, who is isolated by the local “Savages.” John finds joy in reading Shakespeare, and Linda finds sadness in staying at the reservation. Linda dreams of returning to London and having stoma. Bernard gets permission for John and Linda to go to London. Bernard returns to London with the group. Linda becomes addicted to Stoma and John reveals himself as Thomas’s son. John becomes famous but is bored by the dreariness of society. Bernard is once again alone and looks to Helmholtz for friendship, but he becomes John’s friend. John takes a turn for the worst. He gets violent after Lenina gets frisky and when his mother dies of a soma overdose. John goes into a heated rage and the police coma and use stoma to calm everyone down. John Henmholtz and Bernard are then basically on trial. Hemholtz and Bernard are exiled while John is forced to stay to continue the experiment. John causes mass chaos when he beats Lenina in front of a lot of people, stoma and sex return in this scene. John is then found dead, as he hung himself the following day.

This dystopian novel is used to show how a utopia of rigid class structure and condition eradicates free thought. It is extremely similar to Orwellian literature except it is on the fascist end of the political spectrum as it hails rigid class structure and capitalism. Ford is viewed as nearly holy and Freud is the stem of all of the sex drives within the plot. The title depicts the entirety of the book as John goes from reading Shakespeare and being an outcast to being the center of the capital of the world. Although both New Mexico and London are part of Earth both have huge distinctions. New Mexico is predominantly “savages” (natives) while London is only predestined artificial humans.

John is a static character until the end, he is stuck in old ways that he has conditioned himself to be. He doesn’t conform to the norms of society with all of the sex and soma. He is savage in the eyes of a commoner. He sees his mother’s soma induced behavior as grossly different. H hates it when Lenina is overly sexual. This all because he grew up differently than the preconditioned lab babies of London. At the end of the book he is the center of attention he beats Lenina and participates in the massive orgy and soma ingestions. He remembers that he participates in these events and decides to hang himself. After this John is a character that I would very much like to meet. He is similar to Frankenstein in many aspects as he is a self taught man in a world that was never design for him. His father abandoned him and he was left without a mother. John becomes the city’s center and eye. I would really enjoy hearing the first person account of a confused newcomer to a dogmatic utopia that is filled with overindulgence in sin.