Comparing Fitzgeralds Great Gatsby and Eliots The Love...

The Great Gatsby and Love Song of Alfred J. Prufrock nbsp; So often, it seems, life can seem like a patient etherized on the table (Eliot, 3). Be it the apparent futility of existence as a whole, or the insecurity of those single moments of doubt; life is often fleeting. I believe life is best described as a fickle beast, always elusive; always turning down some new and unexpected road. This fleeting life is what both Jay Gatsby of nbsp;The Great Gatsby and Alfred J. Prufrock of Love Song of Alfred J. Prufrock experience. These two men experiences move down remarkably similar paths as they quest for love and life. Yet each has sealed their shared fate in a different manner. As they head toward the seeming abyss of death, both†¦show more content†¦Speaking to himself, Prufrock says, Would it have been worth while, To have bitten off the matter with a smile, to have squeezed the universe into a ball, To roll it towards some overwhelming question (Eliot, 91). Prufrock sums up his desire to have done something more with his life, but as before it is too late for he is approaching fast his end. Where Prufrock looks back Gatsby looks forward. He dreams and would have had a happy life; except that he dreamt of perfection, something that could never be. In Daisy does Gatsby see his perfect dream and she comes to represent it entirely, At his lips touch she blossomed for him like a flower and the incarnation was complete (Fitzgerald, 117). She was the whole of his goal and his single purpose for living, but he could not have her. Prufrock never dreamed at all, Gatsby dreamed but never did the dream stand to succeed. Both men seem to themselves to be failures, to have wasted life. nbsp; If the life of Prufrock and Gatsby differ; their deaths are nearly identical. After their unique failures, both men stand on the edge of deaths doorstep and prepare to unhappily move in. Prufrock has decided upon the futility of all women, or at least to him they are futile. Gatsby is destroyed by a single woman for whom he built his life. Prufrock openly accepts his fate, sliding into his death. Nick suspects that Gatsby didnt believe it would come and perhaps he no longer cared (Fitzgerald, 169). Speaking ofShow MoreRelated Comparing Fitzgeralds Great Gatsby and Eliots The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock1134 Words   |  5 PagesFitzgeralds Great Gatsby and Eliots The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock   Ã‚   The Roaring Twenties bring to mind a generation of endless partying, which reflected very little of the morals of the generations preceding it. The world, for that generation, was fast-paced and thoroughly material, crowded with bizarre and colorful characters like David Belasco and Arnold Rothstein. Inspired by this eras spiritually exhausted people (Brians), F. Scott Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby and T. SRead MoreAnimation of a Statue2268 Words   |  9 PagesNothing gives one person so great advantage over another, as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances. -- Thomas Jefferson The Roaring 20’s are often viewed as an era of reverie and true American spirit. But, like the Gilded Age, the exuberance was superficial and fleeting. In revealing the progression of Jordan Baker’s character through the motif of her complex demeanor, F. Scott Fitzgerald illuminates the theme of authenticity in The Great Gatsby. Presenting Ms. Baker’s image