week 9
1. Reflection:
I believe that T.S Eliot named his poem “The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock” because the character never actually talks to a woman therefore it cannot be a love story. The poem is about the womanly love that eludes Prufrock it is a song that the character sings to himself that no one is around to listen to. It is presenting a moment in the life of Prufrock where he is wishing he had a wife to spend time with and do things like enjoy “ tea and cakes and ices” together.
The poem is ironic because though out the entire poem the bolding Prufrock is sharing his thoughts about how his life is dull, uneventful, and only mediocre. He lives in fear unable to seize opportunities and take risks with woman “To wonder, “Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare?” Time to turn back and descend the stair”. He thinks about making progress but then the fear of failure inhibit him from taking any action. This is his inner self prodding him to move him into action to make it better by finding a wife but is fails to motivate him to actually talk to a woman. “In the room the women come and go, Talking of Michelangelo”. This is ironic because he is suggesting that life of the woman is repetitive and dull yet he still can’t work up the courage to talk to them.
J Alfred Prufrock is a very lonely alienated mad who’s obsessions isolate him. Even though he wants a wife in the first part of the poem. He eventually realizes that he has “known them all already, known them all” referring to all the woman at the party he couldn’t enter into only look into the window at. These people are the same uninteresting people in the same uninteresting world that he lives in. Instead of going through a mid life crisis like normal men at his age would be doing he considers changing his look, “I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled. Shall I part my hair behind?”. The only thing Prufrock sees in his life is pessimism which holds him back from everything.
Part 2
Some universal themes in the story of Demeter and Persephone is that the love a mother has for her children never ends or that if a mother isn't happy no one else is. I believe the main theme is the strength of the love of a mother for her child. Demeter dropped all her work and other responsibilities and tracked the kidnapped Persephone to and through the gates of Hell and faced down the Lord of Death himself in order bring her back. She never gave up trying to search for her daughter which indicates how much love mothers have for their children. Also the myth has the theme when a mother isn’t happy no one is. This is because each year while Persephone was in the underworld with her husband, the earth suffers from Demeter's grief. This is seen as winter which is viewed as a time of death, illness, and starvation.
Persephone is the daughter of Demeter and Zeus. Demeter is the goddess of harvest and crops. Hades kidnap’s Persephone down into the underworld to become his wife because her beauty dazzled him. However, because of this Demeter grieves for the loss of her daughter she is so upset and angry that nothing on earth grows threatening the survival of mankind. Zeus talks to Hades to let Persephone go with the condition that she didn’t eat anything while she was in the underworld. However Hades tricked Persephone into eating a pomegranate seed so because of this she spends two thirds of the year up on earth and one third in the underworld with Hades. Each fall, when Persephone returns to Hades, Demeter cries, and lets all the crops die known as winter. When Persephone returns to earth her mother is rejoiced and makes sure all the flowers are in bloom to welcome her known as spring.
I believe that T.S Eliot named his poem “The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock” because the character never actually talks to a woman therefore it cannot be a love story. The poem is about the womanly love that eludes Prufrock it is a song that the character sings to himself that no one is around to listen to. It is presenting a moment in the life of Prufrock where he is wishing he had a wife to spend time with and do things like enjoy “ tea and cakes and ices” together.
The poem is ironic because though out the entire poem the bolding Prufrock is sharing his thoughts about how his life is dull, uneventful, and only mediocre. He lives in fear unable to seize opportunities and take risks with woman “To wonder, “Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare?” Time to turn back and descend the stair”. He thinks about making progress but then the fear of failure inhibit him from taking any action. This is his inner self prodding him to move him into action to make it better by finding a wife but is fails to motivate him to actually talk to a woman. “In the room the women come and go, Talking of Michelangelo”. This is ironic because he is suggesting that life of the woman is repetitive and dull yet he still can’t work up the courage to talk to them.
J Alfred Prufrock is a very lonely alienated mad who’s obsessions isolate him. Even though he wants a wife in the first part of the poem. He eventually realizes that he has “known them all already, known them all” referring to all the woman at the party he couldn’t enter into only look into the window at. These people are the same uninteresting people in the same uninteresting world that he lives in. Instead of going through a mid life crisis like normal men at his age would be doing he considers changing his look, “I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled. Shall I part my hair behind?”. The only thing Prufrock sees in his life is pessimism which holds him back from everything.
Part 2
Some universal themes in the story of Demeter and Persephone is that the love a mother has for her children never ends or that if a mother isn't happy no one else is. I believe the main theme is the strength of the love of a mother for her child. Demeter dropped all her work and other responsibilities and tracked the kidnapped Persephone to and through the gates of Hell and faced down the Lord of Death himself in order bring her back. She never gave up trying to search for her daughter which indicates how much love mothers have for their children. Also the myth has the theme when a mother isn’t happy no one is. This is because each year while Persephone was in the underworld with her husband, the earth suffers from Demeter's grief. This is seen as winter which is viewed as a time of death, illness, and starvation.
Persephone is the daughter of Demeter and Zeus. Demeter is the goddess of harvest and crops. Hades kidnap’s Persephone down into the underworld to become his wife because her beauty dazzled him. However, because of this Demeter grieves for the loss of her daughter she is so upset and angry that nothing on earth grows threatening the survival of mankind. Zeus talks to Hades to let Persephone go with the condition that she didn’t eat anything while she was in the underworld. However Hades tricked Persephone into eating a pomegranate seed so because of this she spends two thirds of the year up on earth and one third in the underworld with Hades. Each fall, when Persephone returns to Hades, Demeter cries, and lets all the crops die known as winter. When Persephone returns to earth her mother is rejoiced and makes sure all the flowers are in bloom to welcome her known as spring.