The Lost Generation Analysis

The end of World War I was, in actuality, just a predecessor for World War II. With brief peace, the feeling of uneasiness loomed. In Lost Generation in the 1920s: 1919-1927, Carlisle states, “Thus in Europe, World War I clearly gave birth to a set of discontents that would coalesce into World War II,”(Carlisle). This feeling resided in the minds of the people. Fitzgerald expressed this in the last words of the novel, narrated by Nick Carraway, “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past,”(180). The “current” is the inevitability of the past recurring. Fitzgerald ends the novel this way to exhibit that all the events of the war are bound to repeat, and to cement the idea that humanity will never morally advance. This belief of hopelessness is the last element in the multi-faceted predicament of the American people’s disillusionment.

Ernest Hemingway, one of the most notable writers of the Lost Generation, encountered heinous acts of war which were seared into his mind, this assertion is evident with every page

Every person feels lost at least once in his or her lifetime, whether it is physically lost in a crowd or psychologically lost in an abyss of unanswered questions about life. To be able to fit in properly is difficult in this dysfunctional society where conflict and ignorance linger in people’s lives. From the past, World War I emerged from one of these many conflicts and disrupted the lives of many men as they were lured to abandon their lives and fight. This group of men who have difficulty fitting back into the society after war is known as the “lost generation”. Similarly, Eric Maria Remarque’s novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, tells the story of the generation of young men who feel alienated and lost in society after participating in the war. As they begin thinking about their post-war life, the soldiers realize how war transforms their generation into a group of individuals who have no stable life to readjust to when they return; the horrors of war disrupt their lives psychologically and ruin their innocent youth, making it impossible to return to their past lives or build upon their dream life.

We are defined by the generation we were born into. Us and those born around the same time are characterized by the events and traits that shaped our formative years. Baby Boomers, for example, are defined by the high birth rate that made their generation possible. But there are some generations that are less of a success story. The Lost Generation, defined mostly by the involvement of their young men in World War I, is best described through the story of German soldier Paul in All Quiet on the Western Front. The loss of innocence and doubting of authority that is common in members of the Lost Generation is displayed throughout the book as we follow Paul and his fellow soldiers.

Theme in literary works is used to show the reader an underlying message and moral. William Shakespeare uses theme in an impactful way. Julius Caesar written by William shakespeare has three dominant themes of manipulation, bloodshed brings about bloodshed, and power corrupts.

All authors of the different forms of literature try to ensure they bring forth originality in their respectable works but also deliver a valuable message that all readers can relate to. These valuable messages occasionally relate to family, adversity, love, or struggle. Common themes are constantly found across the different forms of literature, how these themes are created, however, can range in diction, figurative language, and overall presentation. In poetry, the poet uses rhyme scheme, and figurative language to deliver the theme. In a novel, on the other hand, the author uses plot, characterization, and symbolism to create their theme.

Theme is an essential part in any story and can help contribute to a better understanding of what the person is reading. Many books consist of more than one theme. Theme tends to capture the central idea of what the story is about. Usually a theme or a theme statement is condensed into a word or sentence. "The Inheritor”," The Possibility of Evil", and "Harrison Bergeron" all have a central idea or theme within them.

The people of the lost generation during the world era they were expected to go to the war and fight with no fear. The public pressured the young men to go to the war and defend their country because that was supposed to be their must duty. If a young man did not go to war, the public would call him a coward and look down on him because he did not fight for his country and he did not do what he is suppose to do. We can see the crowd in chapter eighteen as the public (the people back home) and we can see that Belmonte represents the members of the lost generation. The crowd expected from Belmonte to give a legendary bull fight just like his old days, but Belmonte asked for weaker bulls than he used to fight when he was younger. Belmonte wasn’t

Hemingway’s novel The Sun Also Rises has his male characters struggling with what it means to be a man in the post-war world. With this struggle one the major themes in the novel emits, masculine identity. Many of these “Lost Generation” men returned from that war in dissatisfaction with their life, the main characters of Hemingway’s novel are found among them. His main characters find themselves drifting, roaming around France and Spain, at a loss for something meaningful in their lives. The characters relate to each other in completely shallow ways, often ambiguously saying one thing, while meaning another. The Sun Also Rises first person narration offers few clues to the real meaning of his characters’ interactions with each other. The

Disillusionment does not merely occur in only novels; every single individual to walk the Earth will experience mental displeasure at some point within their lives. Nevertheless, many choose to let unfortunate events circle within their souls and become encrypted into their memory. Once this happens, the role of aimlessness takes its course, adverse fate reigns, and the feeling of disenchantment dwells in the mind. Hemingway’s novel, The Sun Also Rises, grasps this very subject in a subliminal way; one must accurately analyze Hemingway’s somber tone and sparse writing style in order to find the hidden symbolism and themes captured within this literary work. His protagonist, Jake Barnes, has certainly experienced prodigious pain, but

The Sun also Rises is about hopeless young people who are psychologically and morally lost. The protagonist, Jake Barnes, is a young journalist, who, as a result of fighting for the cause in World War I, becomes impotent. On the surface, this book focuses on the love story of Barnes, but in reality the book is an allusion to the “Lost Generation” (the generation that came of age during World War

It has been called one of Hemingway’s greatest literary works as it is the “quintessential novel of the Lost Generation.” Its strong language and subject matter portray a powerful image of the state of disenchantment felt in the 1920’s after the war. The interactions between the characters in this novel display a society living without convictions, affirming Gertrude Stein’s quotation at the beginning of the novel, “You are all a lost generation.” To paint this vivid picture of discontentment and disillusionment Hemingway tears away traditional ideas and values by stifling the appearance of God and religion. Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises is a poignant take on how the consequences of war can limit or diminish the presence of God and religious faith amongst those living in a post war society.

In The Sun Also Rises, the events of World War I shape most of the character’s behaviors. The war slowly erased the traditions of justice, morality, and faith. The characters have at least one loss of these traditions or all. These loss of traditions is what makes them The Lost Generation and creates the traits they portray in the novel. Most war veterans when returning home feel morally and mentally lost, and this leads to many escapisms, some used throughout The Sun Also Rises.

Ernest Hemingway’s novel A Farewell to Arms covers a romance that takes place during World War I. The novel itself came out shortly after the war, and was the first of Hemingway’s books to become a best-seller. Essentially, the novel contrasts the horrors of war with the romance of Henry and Catherine. Throughout the plot, Hemingway, a World War I veteran himself, uses the events of the book to make a statement about his thoughts on war. The core message of Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms is that war damages the soldiers who fight in it both physically and emotionally, which is primarily illustrated by the number of deaths caused directly and indirectly by the war, the actions Henry is forced to take over the course of the book, and Henry’s growing cynicism towards war.

In A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway uses damaged characters to show the unglamorous and futile nature of war and the effects it has on people. Hemingway wants readers to know that war is not what people make it out to be; it is unspectacular and not heroic. Hemingway also feels that war is futile by nature and that most goals in war have almost no point. He also shows readers that military conflict often causes people to have shallow values and to hide their pain for their own protection.