For The Love Of Community: T.S. Eliot’s Alienation And The Community It Molds, by Christina Woodson, no use of this work permitted without written consent

Christina Woodson

Professor Gleason 

Poetry 

20 May 2022

For The Love Of Community: T.S. Eliot’s Alienation And The Community It Molds

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot is a poem that entices readers with the second point of view questions it swiftly presents, a forward from a book that questions human existence, and literary devices that deliver for an unsettling and isolating setting. In this poem, the author states a clear question about the effects of globalization. Some of these questions are already answered by the isolating tone conceived in this poem, which furthers and strengthens a sense of community in the newly alienated world.

While the poem is distinguished lonely and leaves audiences feeling the despair that Prufrock makes them feel in his monologue about his isolation and how it is relatable to audiences. 

Let us go then, you and I, (Eliot, Line 10).

 In Dante’s Inferno which is quoted right before this line, Dante takes the reader directly on a journey through hell to discover a form of enlightenment in heaven. With the forward coming from the epic poem, the audience can agree and discover that this is a journey of not only the author but the audience as well. In using the literary device of point of view, Eliot is highlighting a sense of alienation and community all in the same line. The audience is introduced to a holistic imagery in their head that completely immerses them. The globalization that possibly inspired this modernist poem is eerily reminiscent of the Hellenistic imagery the audience is reminded of. Globalization caused severe isolation, fastness, and removal of small pleasures as capitalism soared. Eliot is conveying this isolation and uses literary devices to prove how this was affecting all people, especially in western dominated cultures.

The imagery is rich throughout the poem. It produces a whirlwind of places, reminiscent of the turbulent imagery of Dante’s Inferno as well, but produces the same turbulence with aspects of modernism and how globalization has affected this for him.

Shall I part my hair behind?   Do I dare to eat a peach?

I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk on the beach.

I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.

I do not think that they will sing to me. (Eliot) These questions are simple questions, that one seemingly can be thought of as overthinking. But for T.S. Eliot, it is not as simple as just parting his hair or eating a peach. If he parts his hair a certain way, it can be seen as unkempt, which is a sign of poverty, which limits his networking and gives people different perceptions of him. If he eats a peach, can he afford it, will he eat it with a lover? Seemingly not since this question is so heavy on his conscious which reflects the collective ideas about simple things that turned into lamenting ideations with the turn into modernism. Shifting from the strong unity and community of the romantics, this poem is a staple of how isolation persevered in modernism and how globalization and capitalism were damaging to the collective psyche. These are also laments that are reminiscent of someone with depression or anxiety experiencing a manic state. Which, when analyzing the effects of anxiety and depression, the two are fairly different, but explained why the collective felt it when thinking of modernist issues. The idea of fastness, development of shipment, and quick consumption all caused a form of anxiety. People and societies felt that if they wanted something and could not get it right away, they were seemingly doomed. This idea of allowing yourself to be anxious over consumer ideas was present in many situations. The depression came from the nine-to-five, loss of community, and branching into nuclear families. These conditions were not and are not natural or naturally occurring, so when capitalism and the effects of modernism are damping people's consumption, but forcing them to want, this idea of anxiety and depression being present makes sense. This imagery is reminiscent to that of the feelings and daily lives of people who lived and are living during these times. 

Overall, the symbolism that this earth is Hellenistic, an inferno of constant suffering and contradictions is outright present. From beginning the poem with a forward from Dante’s Inferno to the constant back-and-forth questions that are reminiscent of confusion that is usually the byproduct of wondering about society and natural living life, this poem is nothing short of upsetting and saddening. 

S’io credesse che mia risposta fosse

A persona che mai tornasse al mondo,

Questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse.

Ma percioche giammai di questo fondo

Non torno vivo alcun, s’i’odo il vero,

Senza tema d’infamia ti rispondo…

Do I dare

Disturb the universe?

In a minute there is time

For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse. (Eliot) The symbolism that litters this poem is always meant to refer back to Dante’s Inferno. It is meant to be reminiscent of this hellish existence that is a direct result of globalization. Though globalization created a community of isolation, that community is stuck in the idea of being apart. Globalization and the immersion of capitalism beginning to drastically separate classes, were very harmful to people, and continue to be as well. Though this poem is specifically about the questioning of J. Alfred Prufrock, it is also a universal feeling to anyone affected by globalization or its schematic ways of tricking quick consumption and forced labor.

This poem, above all, uses the audience as a literary device. This poem is only written by T.S. Eliot to allow himself to express his feelings and ideas of alienation. Through this, he allows audiences and readers to not only empathize with him but to recognize their own feelings of distaste and alienation as well. In the sense that he writes this poem for own self, it goes to prove that this alienation and isolation is not a sole incident. It is a cultural and sociological one that many people of the world feel since the development of faster technology. Because he is writing this for himself to show that there is a community of people who feel like him, it goes to prove that he is truly beckoning for alienated people to join to create a community for themselves. In doing so, they would be able to revert back to a more natural idea of society and the way they navigate it. With speed and wealth becoming the uprooted importance with the development of modernism, it is a truly desolate feeling that occurred and continues to plague societies to this day. Eliot wrote this poem to call into being the idea of community and how they must mold it. They must shed these asinine questions to ensure they are continuing to live to the fullest.

Overall, T.S. Eliot’s The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock is a riveting poem that shows there is connection and empathy to be had even in the darkest and desolate of times. When modernism came to be, Eliot recognized that this was the result of globalization and expansion of the world that made it seem to go by too fast, with no one to enjoy it with. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock advocates through literary devices that as a community, audiences must put their vanities aside to reconnect and rebound to the natural Earth. Through utilizing diction to symbolize community, imagery to shed light on the Hellenistic capitalism that societies endure, the millions of contradicting questions of anxious and depressing thoughts, and by writing this poem to heal himself, T.S. Eliot makes it a point to recognize the beauty in the isolation. He recognizes that good can come from this globalization, and to do so, he and his audiences must break from this forced act of isolation. When they do so, they can run out of the Hellenistic existence, into a zen nirvana of enlightenment like the romantics who came before the modernists.

Works Cited

Eliot, T. S. “The Love Song of j. Alfred Prufrock by T. S. Eliot.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/44212/the-love-song-of-j-alfred-prufrock.