Prufrock and Modernist Notion of Trivial Things Completeing Themselves

The Modern humankind is caught up in a series of trivial pursuits that seem to make their lives shallower. Eliot uses “Prufrock” to show that the only cause for doing the trivial actions is to avoid the bigger issue. Which could be as simple as asking a woman out, or a complicated as facing death. Either way, J. Alfred Prufrock was avoiding everything challenging in his life.

It was his goal to avoid death, because he didn’t know how to deal with it. He avoided asking a woman out, because he was afraid of what she might say. So he found other ways to continue his life, but it lead it to become useless. He slept with many women, but none of them seemed to please him. It was as though he was incapable of being pleasured, and therefore just filled his day with random women to sleep with because it was the only thing to keep him going. Prufrock already knew that he was condemned to hell; maybe he was already living in it. Nevertheless, he didn’t stop sleeping with all these women, he continued as if it was his “guilty pleasure.” It couldn’t possibly be though because it wasn’t at all pleasurable for him, just a repetitive act that he did. Prufrock was a lonely man, with no hope of having his name carried on. He hadn’t done anything worthwhile, or that some would remember him by, there was nothing remarkable about him. Prufrock longed to be more than just a workingman, somewhat like Michelangelo. Accomplish something wonderful to be remembered by, and not just known as a sex addict.

Prufrock, however, could never achieve something great. He was too afraid; it held him back and forced him to subject himself to only the most trivial things in life. ,It was these trivial things that Eliot wanted to show. The modernist society had forced many others into a life just like Prufrock lead.

Unable to find true joy in any activity, everyone is subjected to trivial pursuits, shallow goals, and no pleasurable experiences. It was created by the notion that the things that you can’t explain or want to know should just