The Lost Generation

Document B perhaps shows an example of this change in idea, with a bridge, supposed to signify the path taken to change motives from past ideals, to new and more important ideals. Older generations often considered younger generations spoiled brats who wasted the technological marvels bestowed upon them. This tension between careful and free consumption gave rise to the "Lost Generation" of authors. Document A portrays one of these writers in particular, Lewis Sinclair. Sinclair criticized this excessive materialism as "at first the signs, then the substitutes, for joy and passion and wisdom.” Such criticisms indicate the belief that such mindless consumption blinded Americans to intangible glories of the past. And yet, the conflict between old and new was not insurmountable. Document F describes one of the few people that could connect to both the old and young generations in Charles Lindberg. The Document goes on to say that his likeability, present in both New and Old America was perhaps the biggest thing that he had done.

The “Lost Generation” is essentially a term that is used to describe the young adults of the 1920’s who were changing with the times and rebelling against what America had become after the war. They populated areas like Paris and London where they expected to find literary freedom and a cosmopolitan way of life. The “Lost Generation" of American writers and poets left America, seeking refuge from the broken culture and devastation that had come from the war, and ended up in Paris, a city that had a thriving art culture where they could write freely and lavish in the Bohemian lifestyle without rules. They drank, traveled, had love affairs, and wrote. They were influenced by the paintings of artists like Dada and Picasso and collected their works, as well as socialized with them. They critiqued each other’s writing and often met in bookstores, cafés, and bars to talk about their works and life in general. They had mostly upper-middle-class upbringings and were sustained in hard times by their parents' fortunes. They chose to come to Paris to seek artistic fulfillment and ended up writing what is possibly considered some of the best fiction of the 20th century. It was the time when writers, painters, musicians, and composers went to Paris to work and

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.

The soldiers in the novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, can be labeled as the “Lost Generation” due to the fact that they are eighteen and nineteen year olds barely struggling to stay alive during a gruesome war. The violence and hostility of the war is what has truly made these soldiers so lost. The “Lost Generation” can also represent the young men who died during the war and will never get the opportunity to live life to the fullest. The soldiers who have returned safely from the war can be labeled as lost as well. There is a moment in the novel in which Paul is mesmerized by a little brunette which relates to how he is lost.

An example of anguish and suffering due to ‘white’ policy laws, was the attempted genocide era also known as ‘the stolen generation’ which lasted for decades (Krieken 2009).The stolen generation era was a “systematic annihilation for Aboriginal cultural identity” (Krieken 2009, p. 297) because children were forcibly taken from their families to institutional facilities that were either run by charitable or religious organizations with the intention of ‘civilizing’ them so they can integrate into white Australian society (Krieken 2009). The Australian government commissioners believed that ‘breeding mixed blood’ Aborigines with white settles will eventually lead to the “colour being bred out of them” (McCarthy 2000, para. 3) whilst those who

Have you ever read a passage and wondered how authors can make war seem so horrific instead of persuading the younger generations to volunteer? These four authors are especially good at protesting war by writing: Stephen Crane, who was not actually a participant in war, but encountered a lot of the war tragedies first hand and reported them to the public for the Spanish-American War. Wilfred Owens, a twenty-five year old who died only one week before WWI ended, he would write down his experiences and what he saw, but his works were not published until his belongings were sent back to his family. Tim O’Brien, participant of the Vietnam War who is still alive today and currently works as a professor. Lastly, Kevin Powers, the youngest of them

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.

Lost generation is the idea of an unfulfilled generation coming to maturity during a period of instability (New Oxford American Dictionary). The idea of lost generation first started with writers such as Ernest Hemmingway after having served time in the war felt a disconnection to his prewar self. In the book, All Quiet on the Western Front, the author Erich Maria Remarque wrote about war and included details that were often kept as a secret. A very prevalent theme in Remarque’s novel is the loss of innocence, which ultimately leads a generation of soldiers to become known as the lost generation. World War One caused a sense of instability and uncertainty in its young men, ultimately leading the soldiers to lose their innocence and questions their sense of self.

The Lost Generation; a generation of men who went into the war, but could never really come back. Paul Baumer, the main character in Remarque’s book, was a part of this “Lost Generation”.

The stolen generations were a range of brutal removals of aboriginal children from their families between the late 1800s to the mid 1900s. The core goal in these removals was known as assimilation. Assimilation was based on the belief that aboriginals were to be treated unequally compared to the white people, and that the whites had the right to comprise Australia without aboriginals. The main beliefs behind these operations were that aborigines were inadequate as people and did not meet the borderline standards of civil human beings.

The birth of the modernist movement in American literature was the result of the post-World War I social breakdown. Writers adopted a disjointed fragmented style of writing that rebelled against traditional literature. One such writer is William Faulkner, whose individual style is characterized by his use of “stream of consciousness” and writing from multiple points of view.

The 1920s were times of loss for the United States. After seeing countless deaths of soldiers in a war many didn’t believe in, the years after World War I were times when people lost hope in classic principles such as bravery and courage. The “Lost Generation” were people who saw the horrors of the war throughout their life. Ernest Hemingway shows major themes of the “Lost Generation” through his stories after the war; he shows the pursuit of decadence in “Hills of White Elephants,” impotence through “Soldier’s Home,” and idealism through both stories (O’Connor).

Both Fitzgerald and Hemingway were part of what is called the Lost Generation. The Lost Generation was a group of American writes who moved to Europe because they believed that America had lost all hope and could never be fixed. In the “Lost Generation” by Kate O’ Connor, she says that, “The accusation, ‘You are all a lost generation,’ referred to the lack of purpose or drive resulting from the horrific disillusionment felt by those who grew up and lived through the war, and were then in their twenties and thirties. Having seen pointless death on such a huge scale, many lost faith in traditional values like courage, patriotism, and masculinity.” The aftermath caused these ex-pats to write about common themes such as, “Decadence, Gender roles and Impotence, and Idealized past” (O’Connor). As audiences read stories written during the twentieth century, they will be able to see these themes.

The topic of war is predominately associated with the history of the world. However, in English literature, the theme of war is chronicled in various ways that explain past occurrences and retells stories that occurred in history. One vital genre within English literature is Modernism; formed in the period of war to convey messages that focus on the psychological aftermaths of the conflicts. Modernism is literarily defined as the intentional philosophical divergence of the literature and arts of the olden times, which occurred in the 20th century, with a shift towards an avant-garde style and movements (Dictionary.com). One famous literary work to come out of this thought change was The Big Two-Hearted River by Ernest Hemmingway. Hemmingway belonged to the pioneer writing members of the modernist genre known as the Lost Generation. This cohort believed in literature that focused internally

The term 'lost generation' embraces Hemingway, F.Scott Fitzgerald, John Dos Passos, Archibald MacLeish, Hart Crane, and may other writers who made Paris the