Pin on the Wall: J. Alfred Prufrock and the Inability to ChangeIf people are disappointed in themselves and what they have become, then there are naturally two options for remedy. The first is to do everything possible to change yourself and prepare for a better future. The second, perhaps less desirable, is to realize that change is unnecessary or almost impossible, leading either to finding peace in the situation as it is or to recognizing despair in the absence of change. the way things could be. TS Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" Reaffirms the Uselessness of Change (FINISH). This thoughtful but desperate poem is the lament of a man who, although he would like to muster the courage to become something else, is trapped by an unyielding inability to change who he is. Before we are introduced to Prufrock himself, we note that the opening scenes of this poem paint a landscape of apathy. The narrator says little about himself at first and invites us to follow him into a consequence-free world of “restless nights in cheap one-night hotels” (Eliot 6). The “streets that follow one another like a tedious discussion with insidious intentions” set the stage for Prufrock’s dilemma (ibid. 9-10). For Audrey Cahill, this scene prefigures “Prufrock's dialogue with himself, a dialogue which leads nowhere” and which plunges the reader into meaningless chaos (6). So even if these streets lead to a damning question, the journey down these streets is rather mind-numbing and pointless if the answer leads us nowhere or, worse yet, only highlights our own desolation. This is compounded by the appearance of a mysterious yellow cat-like fog that “once curled itself around the house and fell asleep” (Eliot 22). Cahill also claims this because... middle of paper ......ng transformative power (Jain 54). Soon, “human voices [will] wake” our narrator – and he will drown in (END) (Eliot 131). TS Eliot would later remark: “I fear J. Alfred Prufrock doesn't really make sense. love life” (Southam 47). This is what makes this “love song” so brutal and caustic. Because even when the change doesn't matter (END quite atypical of standard romance. a man caught in stasis when (???). ). Even in his fantasies, Prufrock is Prufrock. (LEADING TO PIN TO THE WALL) "So where do I start?" (double). The answer is that he can start however he wants, but it won't matter in the end. No matter his speech or his wardrobe, he will forever be J. Alfred Prufrock, with a little-known love song he believes the world would never want to hear.