"The Love Story of J. Alfred Prufrock" and Winesburg, Ohio

Both Winesburg, Ohio and "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" share many common themes and allusions that help to parallel both of these literary texts. After my first read of the poem, I immediately noticed a connection between "Hands" and the last section of the poem. In Sherwood Anderson's short story "Hands", Wing Biddlebaum is accused of pedophilia in a school in Pennsylvania because he abnormally expresses himself with his hands. He is constantly touching the children and putting his hands through their hair. In fact, Henry Bradford begins to "beat him up with his fists" in response to Wing's accused pedophilia.  I believe that Wing is actually just trying to spread the concept of pursuing one's dreams; however, the fear and paranoia of expressing this desire causes his conflicted nature. In the very beginning of the story we see that Wing wants to see the berry pickers through the "tall yellow mustard weeds"; however, he immediately feels "fear overcoming him" and runs back to his own house. The berry pickers represent Wing's temptation to spread his dream; however, he cannot out of fear of his past experiences. This is further exemplified through the connotation of the color yellow, which indicates warning and hazard. This relates to Wing's conflicted nature, and how he has a nostalgia for his pursuit to encourage children to achieve their dreams. This nostalgia is also seen through T.S. Eliot's poem. For example, the speaker describes himself as lower than "Prince Hamlet", "an attendant lord", and even sometimes a "Fool". Prince Hamlet was a character in one of Shakespeare's plays in which he struggles with whether and how to avenge the murder of his father. This prolonged struggle eventually leads to the death of everyone else. The speaker claims that he is not Prince Hamlet, so not an indecisive individual that prolongs everything, but rather an attendant lord that does whatever he is told to do. This allusion is indicative of how indecision itself is too much for the speaker to handle, so he has to be even less than that. Throughout the last section of the poem, the speaker also claims, "I grow old... I grow old...". This shows the nostalgia and longing for his youth contrasted with the knowledge that you cannot return to that youth. The speaker has already wasted most of his time, and has thus used up his youth. In this way, he longs for his youth even though he still has not realized that he has waisted almost all of his time. We see this nostalgia for youth again through the mermaids. For example, the speaker claims, "Combing the white hair of the waves blown back/When the wind blows the water white and black". The white hair is representative of old age, while the connotation of the "black" water indicates some sort of death. This relates to the idea that the speaker dies of old age because of his "time wasting" attitude that causes him to use up his youth.