Similarities Between Prufrock And The Great Gatsby

“If the American dream is for Americans only, it will remain our dream and never be our destiny”. This quote is the essences of people who have to acknowledge that the American dream is something that is unattainable. Ignited by the tragedies during World War I, modernism is described by the emphasis on psychology and the lack of faith in the American dream. Both the novel The Great Gatsby and the poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” indicates that the Modernist tenet of a prominence in psychology. On the contrary, Eliot’s work has more of an emphasis on the mind and the danger it is to lose control of him while Fitzgerald has more of the emphasis on the mind and the danger it is to others.

Through the symbolism of the yellow fog and

Just as how Eliot uses internal conflict to create that same effect. During the funeral and Gatsby’s father came to describe who Gatsby was, Nick is able to piece together what was so special about Daisy and her importance to him. Gatsby was undoubted patient for Daisy, “He had waited five years and bought a mansion where he dispense starlight to casual moths—so he could ‘come over’ some afternoon to a stranger’s garden.” (Fitzgerald 63). The fact that he would have “waited five years” and “(buy) a mansion” where he would “‘come over’ some afternoon to a stager’s garden” proves that this “love” has extended further than love but instead an obsession that got him through the war. Fitzgerald utilizes the symbolism of Daisy as his “green light” that he reaches out for but is unable to reach. The diction used on the verbs gives a tone of desperation that sets the motif of the book that Gatsby has become too obsolete in the world he lives in. Fitzgerald later develops that tone with words like “starlight” to indicate that for as many stars they are that is how long he would wait for Daisy. This “starlight” notation shows that in Gatsby’s mind that his

Just as Fitzgerald uses an object to symbolize Gatsby’s unending obsession with Daisy, Eliot uses internal conflict to present Prufrock mental state. Prufrock describes this internal battle between if death is something that could be depicted as a good thing or not. He goes through these examples stating, “‘I am Lazarus, come from the dead, / Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all’/ if one, settling a pillow by her head, / should say: ‘That is not what I meant at all. /that is not it, at all’ “(Eliot 92-97). Prufrock goes through this sense of anxiety towards death and how he is unable to control it. Prufrock knows that his death is something that he is unable to escape but like Gatsby he is worried about “her head” indicated that Prufrock is not worried about death itself but who “she” represents which is society. By repeating that “That is