A Traditional Hero in 'An Irish Airman Foresees His Death' by J. Alfred Prufrock
In a traditional sense, a hero is a person who can overcome adversity in order to save or serve the world, their country, their village, etc. A traditional hero often has some sort of super-human gifts, such as incredible strength or great knowledge. They are almost always led by their nation's morals, meaning they have incredible goodness and have exemplary character. In short, a traditional hero is someone you would want your children to emulate, therefore, you tell their story. The modern world, in modernist literature, makes a traditional hero almost impossible to create. Modernists write about alienation, strange and troubling times, and deal with complex ideas. Nothing in the modern world is so cut and dry that a hero could simply defeat a monster and win the girl. No, a modern world is too strange for such a simple storyline. This world lacks the necessary lines to define what is actually good and what is evil. It rejects humans with super skills by giving these heroes incredible flaws, like not being able to take action or failing to lead.
Knowing this, we can see how the idea that the best people 'lack all conviction' and the worst are 'full of passionate intensity' is reflected in modernist poetry. For example, the speaker in 'An Irish Airman Foresees His Death' describes his action as a pilot for the war due to his desire for ' a lonely impulse of delight.' In other words, his drive to serve his country is not a reflection of great morals or a desire to serve and save his fellow countryman, but rather the result of a desire for some adventure. This directly contradicts the traditional hero, and establishes this modernist hero as 'lacking conviction.' Instead of serving, sacrificing, or flying for the survival of his loved ones, he admits that he is fighting those who ' I do not hate' and he is guarding 'Those that...I do not love.'
Our second modern hero, J. Alfred Prufrock, is even farther from the traditional hero then the Irish Airman. Instead of at least taking some action and fighting in a war, J. Alfred Prufrock describes a scene where he cannot even speak to women at a party due to his fear of rejection. ' When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall, Then how should I begin To spit out all the butt-ends of my day and ways? And how should I presume?' In this quotation, Prufrock is telling the reader how his inability to face the women makes him feel pinned to a wall, so powerless, he is unable to even think of how to proceed. This lack of conviction is demonstrated again in the 'modern hero'. He is unable to have any gumption in order to act, creating the phenomenon described in 'The Second Coming'.
