Summary:
The theme of emptiness and superficiality of modern life in three disparate works of literature: the poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T.S. Eliot, the film "American Beauty" directed by Sam Mendes, and the song "Fake Plastic Trees" by Radiohead.
Essay Question: What have you learned about the human condition? Support this through one poem, one class text and one outside text.
By a study a variety of texts, it is evident that the concept of the human condition manifests itself in different ways throughout each of them. In particular, the notion of the inefficiency of mankind, and superficiality of the modern lifestyle is an idea common to T.S. Elliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock", Mendes' "American Beauty" and Radiohead's "Fake Plastic Trees." These three texts explore the notions of superficiality and inefficiency by considering human relationships as a defining feature, and examining the contrast between reality and illusion, in order to project a rather bleak, pessimistic viewpoint of the human condition.
T.S. Elliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" characterises the main.....
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