The Awkward Love Songs of J. Alfred Prufrock, The Catcher in the Rye, and Smells Like Teen Spirit

The Awkward Love Songs of J. Alfred Prufrock, The Catcher in the Rye, and Smells Like Teen Spirit

The word "wooing" doesn't get used very much anymore. Not just because the word itself sounds outdated, but because the relationship scene has changed a tad over the last hundred plus years. Newfound social flexibility has taken a lot of the ritual out of love, which is great if you don't want to be exchanged to the neighboring villager for a goat but less great when you're trying to figure out how long to wait before you call someone back. Or what to say when you do call. Or whether there's anything to call about in the first place. OR, dare we speculate, if the call might somehow result in marriage, children, and a fixed 10/30 mortgage. Suffice it to say that the relationship between modernity and love is "complicated." If you struggle with today's mating rituals, raise a toast to these awkward wooers across the twentieth-century: J. Alfred Prufrock, Holden Caulfield, and Kurt Cobain. In addition to being tongue-twisted, evasive male lovers, all three figures arise during particularly fat and happy times in American history - which certainly doesn't help if you already feel like a loser. J. Alfred is the original guy awkwardly crushing on the girl at the party. His entire 132-line "love song" is a speculation about whether or not to approach his love interest, whose identity he doesn't even have the guts to divulge. There are several alternate interpretations of The shmoop love-song-alfred-prufrockLove Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, including the following:

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---