The Funnel-Cakes of J. Alfred Prufrock

When I read the midterm essay in which the student asserted that T.S. Eliot in "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" created a feeling of happiness by introducing images of funnel-cakes and fireworks, my first response was to laugh. Unless my edition is sadly lacking, funnel-cakes do not appear in Prufrock, although there are spots where they might not be terribly out of place:

Should I, after tea and cake and ices and funnel-cake,
Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis, for goodness' sake?

No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;
Am an attendant funnel-cake vendor, one that will do
To swell a belly, start a fart or two....

Even though funnel-cakes do not appear in Prufrock, I completely understand why this student placed them there, and thereby hangs a tale that will enlighten gentle readers about students' essay exam preparation practices: while there are no funnel-cakes in Prufrock, the word "funnel-cakes" did appear on the blackboard on the day when we discussed the poem in class.

Why? Before we began discussing the poem, I wanted to explain Eliot's idea of the objective correlative in terms understandable to the non-majors who make up the majority of the class. Suppose you are a poet and you want to create within your reader an experience of happiness without coming right out and saying "I am happy!" What sorts of images would you present to readers that might suggest happiness?

"Funnel-cakes," said one student, so I wrote that on the board, followed by a plus sign. "Fireworks," said the next, and soon we had a list of images designed to add up to an equation for the feeling of happiness. That's the objective correlative: a set of objects that serve as the formula for a particular emotion.

"Now let's see how this works in the poem," I said, and we began working our way, line by line, through "Prufrock," examining Eliot's assemblage of discrete images that add up to a particular emotion--not happiness, though, thanks to the overwhelming absence of funnel-cakes and fireworks.

It's easy to see how the funnel-cakes moved from the blackboard to the student's notes and from thence into the midterm essay exam. The only essential element missing from this equation is the poem itself. If the student had been listening closely in class or if he had bothered to study the poem instead of simply memorizing his notes, he might have noticed Eliot's avoidance of funnel-cakes, fireworks, and happiness. But that would be too much work.

I suppose I should be flattered that the student found my words more memorable than Eliot's, but that won't improve his grade any. I don't know what sort of emotion the grade will cause the student to experience, but I doubt happiness will have anything to do with it--unless he has easy access to a healthy supply of funnel-cakes.