The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

I think I would have liked to meet J. Alfred Prufrock.  Although I know he is a fictional character, I think most people would be able to relate to his love song.  We all have insecurities in our lives that keep us from doing what we want to do.  They can even distract us from what really matters in life, specifically our relationship with God.  As depressing as this poem is, I think it is a great reminder that if we keep dwelling on our insecurities or even living in regrets of the past we will find that it gets us now where.  Take this poem for example, Alfred wanted to ask a girl out but my the end of the poem that wasn’t even what he was writing about anymore, he became so wrapped up in his own self-loathing that he completely forgot about the girl he was writing to in the beginning. 

T. S. Eliot wrote this poem around the time of the First World War.  I think this says a lot about what people were feeling during this time.  It must have been quite life changing to witness a war where it seemed like everyone was fighting each other.  There must have been very little hope that the world could recover from such a traumatic event.  This feeling of hopelessness is definitely present in The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and I bet many people during that time in history could relate to it.