The Love Song of J. Alfred - T.S. Eliot

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock is a posem by T.S Eliot. It shows the two most important characteristics of Eliot’s early poetry. First, it is strongly influenced by the French Symbolists. Second, the use of fragmentation and juxtaposition. 

This story happens at a unpleasant night. In the beginning, Eliot describes the scene around the street. “half-deserted” street, the yellow frog and smoke, makes it more uncomfortable and dirty. In the next half of the story, Prufrock wants to know a girl. However, he is hesitated since he does not look well. He does not know how to start the conversation. At the end, he chooses not to go, and the story ends in the sad mood. 

I think this poem expresses Eliot’s sense of isolation and loneliness, and his inability to fit into a world that he perceives as hostile. He thinks, to be a creature like a crab which is protected by a thick outer armor and better still is better for him. So that, he does not have to truly interact with anyone or care about what they think of him, or he of them.

Project 7: My Hemingway Project

I am sorry for this empty projects, I did not mean to do this. Actually, I was going to put something here on Thursday, however, as you told us the people who had AP or SAT could have more time to do work, so I just left this blog here and reviewed for the test in the next few days. I am going to do the work in today's class, and during the study hall tonight. I will try to finish the paper as soon as possible.

I think the project is going well now, and I already had the basic idea of the paper. Therefore I do not think it will be hard for me to do the paper work. By the way, thank you for the extra time to review for the APs and SAT 2 tests, I think I did pretty well in those exams.

Again, I am really sorry for the empty blog here. Additionally, I will do another blog post tonight to show the process of my project paper.

Project 6: Outline Of My Hemingway Project.

I think I almost come up with the basic structure of my project. 

I will briefly introduce Hemingway first, and bring out the idea of Hemingway’s work is related to his personal experience. I am going to talk about his previous work such as The sun also raises, Farewell arms and For whom the bell rings a little. In these works, I will state the transformation of Hemingway’s thought in different period. 

However, the main body of my project will be focused on The old man and the sea, as it is the book which most influence to the contemporaries and the best novel that Hemingway had ever written. Additionally, this book also strongly connected to Hemingway’s life. It is not only a story of a fisherman, but also represents Hemingway’s thought after he experienced the time that society greatly changed.

I think that will be my structure of my essay.

Project 5: Relevant Research About Hemingway's Work In Different Time Period

Hemingway published The Sun Also Rises and Farewell Arms in 1929. At that time, his work shows the cruelness or the war, and describes that generation of teenagers who lost the direction. The war brings the huge negative impact to human, and that is the basic mood of Hemingway’s work during that period.

In 1940, Hemingway published For Whom The Bell Tolls, a novel based on the Spanish Civil War against the Fascism. In this novel, people who suffered from the wars tried to overcome the loneliness and sorrow, and shows the elevated spirit of devote themselves into the justice and freedom. I think this is the symbol of his mid writing career.

Finally in his later writing career, The Old Man and The Sea shows a positive spirit of “A man can be destroyed but not defeated”.

Therefore, the keynote of Hemingway’s work does not obtain the same but changes as he experiences more. From the negative side to the neutral then to the positive, Hemingway shows the unconquerable nature of human.

Project 4: The Research Of Background Information

It is really easy to understand that the good literary work always comes from the real life. The more the writers experience, the profounder the work will be. Therefore, just like what I mentioned in the last blog post, The Old Man and The Sea must me strongly related to Hemingway’s personal experience. However, what happened to Hemingway’s life? What made Hemingway write this famous story? These are the main questions I was working on during the class today.

First of all, by the information I searched today, i found that Hemingway wrote this story when he was 52 years old. At that time, he was living in the coast of Cuba, and he loved sea and fishing. He knew the life of fishermen very well, and I guess that is one of the reasons the story gets so vivid. However, I think, if Hemingway only wanted to describe a regular 3-days life of a fisherman, he certainly did not have to write down such a moving and tragic story, and absolutely he would not get the Nobel Prize in Literature at 1954. Thus, I think, the Hemingway’s location and his hobbies just provided him with the knowledge of this story. However, the real essence and idea in the story is from his own experience in the past 52 years. Therefore I consider that is the most important factor to make this story famous and let him be the owner of the Nobel Prize in Literature.

In the following time, I did the research on his biography. Hemingway was born July,1899, the several years before the World War 1 happened. After graduated from the high school, Hemingway refused to continue to study in the college. Instead, he chose to work for the war in Europe. On May, 1918, he succeeded to be a worker in the American Red Cross Team, and Italy was the country he worked in. On July, the same year, he got really bad injury since he tried to save a Italian solider. For that injury, he did 13 operations, and lied in the hospital for more than 3 months. Some people might think Hemingway would give up serving for the war as his situation was so bad. But actually he did not stop, he even went to more countries to do the volunteer work.

Also, during the research, I found that Hemingway published this novel 12 years after the last one (For Whom the Bell Tolls). During this 12-years period, Hemingway did not publish any work. Some critics even affirmed that Hemingway could not create any more and was not be able to write anything new. In think, this experience is really similar to the old man in the novel. Santiago have not capture any fish for 84 days, and other fishermen just mock and make fun of him. So, Santiago goes to the sea on the 85th day, just like the author published this novel to prove him self.

I think that is what I did in the class and study hall. By the way, actually, Hemingway’s thought was keeping changing during this writing career, and the best way to reflect the changes , I think, is to find out the ideas of his work in different time period. For this reason, I am going to do some research on his previous work tomorrow.

Project 3: Analysis of The Old Man and The Sea

The old man and the sea written by Hemingway is one of his most famous novel in his career. By this novel, Hemingway establish his important position in the world literature history. Though online research during today’s class, I think I got the main idea this great novel. 

The old man and the sea tells a story of a old fisherman, whose name is Santiago, has gone 84 days without catching any fish at all. However, he gets a big marlin fish on the 85th day. He spends two days and two nights trying to catching it, and finally straps the marlin and thinks about the high price the fish will bring him at the market. Unluckily, on the way to his home, many sharks are attracted to the trail of the blood left by the marlin in the water, eat the most parts of the marlin, and leave the huge skeleton of the marlin. The old man falls asleep as he gets to the shack and has a dream, a dream for forgetting the cruel reality. 

First, from this story, I saw a brave old man who never gives up hope. He does not get anything in the first eighty-four days, and he still believes that he will have good luck in the eighty-fifth day. Thus, because he keeps trying and never abandons the hope, he finally gets the big marlin fish. 

Additionally, although Santiago is so lucky that meets such a big marlin, the process of capturing the fish is really hard to imagine. Santiago spends two days and two nights fighting with that marlin. His hands, arms and back are injured by the rough rope, and he only drinks and eats little water and food during these two days. He never gives up catching the marlin, and he eventually wins the battle after the fish gets tired in the third day. In this part of the story, the old man shows us what a real man should be. I think the detailed description of fighting against the marlin fish just reflects how brave and firm the old man is. The author Hemingway seems to believe that there are only two options: defeat or endurance until destruction; Santiago clearly chooses the latter. That is why Santiago succeeds after a two-days fight. 

In the last part, the marlin is eaten by many sharks, and Santiago gets nothing but the huge skeleton of the fish. Some people might consider Santiago is a loser here as he loses everything after a long battle. However, in my opinion, I do not agree with that. Although Santiago gets so exhausted, although he does not have a completed marlin fish, he has never been defeated. He tries and pursues for his dream at least. He is not afraid to challenge, and he never surrenders to the sharks. Just like what Beethoven said, “ I can be destroyed, but can not be conquered”. I think the old man just did what Beethoven said, and he is definitely a winner in idealism. No matter if he gains or loses, he should be respected by everyone. 

I think Hemingway uses the different things in the novel to represent the different things in the real world. Apparently, the marlin fish is the dream to the person, the shark is the destiny that people have to undergo, the sea represents the human society, and the process of capturing the fish reflects the fights between people and adversities. Also, I think this story is related to Hemingway’s personal experience at that time period. As we know, Hemingway joined the World War 1, World War 2 and Spanish War, and people were still in the great fear. Therefore, the chaos and confusion of the society hurt Hemingway deeply, and I guess that is one of the reason why Santiago is so old, but still has hope in his blue eyes. Santiago may represent Hemingway himself. 

I will find out more information in the next following days.

Project 2: Guiding Questions and Locating the Source

Today I mainly search the background information of Ernest Hemingway. As my guiding question is to find out the influence on Hemingway’s works by his personal experience, I consider the background information is really important to know. However, I have to say, this guiding question is just the elementary direction of my project, I might find something more interesting and change the idea in the following research. 

Through today’s research, apparently, Hemingway’s personal experience is strongly related to his work. I also found something interesting which is that most of Hemingway’s work is based on the wars or revolutions during the period from mid-1920s to mid-1950s and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. Additionally, he has a really distinctive writing style which is characterized by economy and understatement. 

For his works, I am going to choose two or three as the examples to analyze. For now I am only sure The Old Man and The Sea is one out of three, and I still have not chosen the rest yet. 

Today after school, I almost finished reading The Old Man and The Sea. However I do not think I get the idea of this novel. Thus, I will do some background research and try to understand it during the tomorrow’s class. 

Everything is going well.