Compare/contrast

In both T.S Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” and Jay McInerney’s “It’s Six A.M. Do You Know Where You Are?,” the narrators are dissatisfied with their love life. They are lonely and in need of companionship with a woman. Their loneliness makes both characters search for women in places that are out of their comfort zone. Prufrock in “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” attempts to go to a high-society party while the narrator in “It’s Six A.M. Do You Know Where You Are?” visits a nightclub. Looking for love in all the wrong places, the main characters are in a state of self-delusion when searching for their ideal woman because they fail to look for a type of woman they need rather than what they desire.

In “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” the narrator, Prufrock, is in a state of loneliness and has been throughout his entire life. The poem is about a middle aged man who is scared of growing old because he has never been in love before. It’s not because he is incapable of love, but it’s his fear of love. Prufrock’s fear is shown in lines 84-86, “ I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker/ And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker/ And in short, I was afraid.” Prufrock is scared because the lack of confidence and fear of rejection prevent him from pursuing a love interest. Prufrock’s lack of confidence makes him incapable of expressing his feelings toward people, especially to women.

Throughout the poem, he second guesses his actions toward approaching a woman because he is scared of getting rejected. For example, lines 37-39 reads “And indeed there will be time/ To wonder, “Do I dare?” and “Do I dare?”/ Time to turn back and descend the stair.” Prufrock’s fear of love is the reason be...

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... York Times with. He’s interested in a woman that is opposite from the ones who visit nightclubs.

With their differences in the type of women they are looking for, both of the narrators in “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” and “It’s Six A.M. Do You Know Where You Are?” seem to be together in their loneliness. Neither of the narrators are lucky in their quest for love because both of them go home or die alone. In Prufrock’s case, he dies alone dreaming of mermaids which symbolizes the women he can’t have. As for the narrator in “It’s Six A.M. Do You Know Where You Are?,” he leaves the nightclub with no one and ends up near a bakery where his ex-wife and he used to visit. Both “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” and “It’s Six A.M. Do You Know Where You Are?” proves that one can find love in their natural habitat without ever having to change their lifestyles.