Modernism - Araby and the Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock...

Modernists aimed to reflect reality in ways more ‘real’ than conventional literature. The modernism movement was prompted by a widespread disillusionment in society that resulted from contextual events. This allowed an altered view of the world as fractured and chaotic, especially due to paralysis and alienation in modern society. This newly perceived reality is reflected through techniques of fragmentation in modernist works such as James Joyce’s short story â€Å"Araby† and T.S. Eliot’s poem â€Å"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock†. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, fundamental and far-reaching changes in society often made individuals feel wary and estranged from their surrounding world. These changes included urbanization, technological†¦show more content†¦He secretly watches and fantasizes over the girl but lacks courage to even speak with her. Images of him â€Å"[standing] by the railings looking at her† and â€Å"[lying] on the floor†¦watching her door† effectively communicate his frustration and immobility. At the end of the story, after the boy acts on his feelings and arrives at the bazaar, â€Å"the light was out† and he â€Å"[gazes] up into the darkness†. The motif of light and dark reappears, symbolizing that the grim reality forms a final impenetrable barrier that stops him reaching his idealized goal, even after overcoming his inability to act. It is the ultimate paralysis of the individual as a result of a paralyzed world. T.S. Eliot also expresses this restriction of the individual due to society. Prufrock’s incapacity to act revolves around his social and sexual anxieties, the two usually tied together. The name â€Å"Prufrock† itself is connotative of a â€Å"prude† in a â€Å"frock†, showing the idea of social constrain. To reflect Prufrock’s point of view as ‘real’ as possible, Eliot adopts the poetic form of a dramatic monologue and uses stream of consciousness to directly portray Prufrock’s deeply fragmented thought processes. The audience observes his paralysis through the looping interruptions of self-interrogation and self-consciousness in his train of thought. Prufrockian paralysis is rooted in the poem’s structure as well. Eliot deploys refrains, such as â€Å"In the room the women come