The Sun Also Rises By Gertrude Stein Act

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.

In the memoir, Night, by Elie Wiesel displays all the tragic experiences that his family along with himself had to endure during the Holocaust. The Holocaust was a mass genocide of Jews; however it was not only a genocide because for those that survived it also was the most demoralizing and dehumanizing experience for the Jewish community to undergo. Elie’s memoir captures how Jews beliefs changed from asking questions to God to questioning their belief in God and he also demonstrated the Nazis inhumane treatment towards the Jewish people.

In the pages prior to Book I of The Sun Also Rises, Hemingway quoted Gertrude Stein: “You are all a lost generation”,

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.

In the decades since World War II, there have been many attempts to glorify this generation through the media. Myth and the Greatest Generation: A Social History of Americans in World War II by Kenneth D. Rose, attempts to pare back the delusions of grandeur that often characterize histories of the World War II generation to show society as it was rather than how we have come to perceive it. Rose claims that often times when commentators focus on wars, they choose stories that are meant to make the population feel good as opposed to showing the realities. As a result, in retrospect wars seem to generate heightened patriotism and national unity (1). In this book, Rose hopes to give true honor to the Americans of this generation, not by glorifying their contributions, but by presenting a picture more in line with the historical record, hoping that in doing so his work will deliver a more accurate portrayal of “Americans at war” (3). Rose chooses not to rely heavily on secondary source material, but rather to highlight the first-hand accounts of individuals who experienced the war. He does so in order to give them proper credit but also to show that the so-called Greatest Generation was not without flaws, and was indeed an ordinary generation that lived through traumatic events that tested their character (7).

World War 1, as seen in “All Quite on the Western Front” was fueled by patriotism and nationalism that swept Europe years leading up to the war. Remarque, through the character of Paul Baumer, demonstrates how the glorified idea of fighting for ones country overshadowed the true horrors of war, and ultimately inflicting a whole generation by dehumanizing their youth. Since Paul, and the other young men serving their country no longer retain a place in normal civilization, they are incapable of relating with former generations. That being the reason they are so often called the “lost generation” in history.

The Shadow Between Idea and Reality World War One was full of young men desperate for glory. Erich Maria Remarque, in his novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, Wilfred Owen’s Dulce et Decorum Est, as well as T.S. Elliot, in his poem, The Hollow Men, exemplify the horrifying realities of the lost generation; an impending sense of doom, uncovering the old lie, and losing their innocence.

The beginning of the 20th century saw the most devastating war in human history. World War 1 cost ‘nine million lives and in the end no ground was gained’(O’Connor). Those who fought and lived through the war became known as the Lost Generation. They were cynical with society and “lost faith in traditional values like courage, patriotism, and masculinity’(O’Connor). The Short Story ‘Soldier’s Home’ is an example of a Lost Generation story.

After the conclusion of World War One, many artists experienced a sense of psychological dislocation from the traditional values of the romantic period of literature. Formerly anchored points of meaning (country, status, etc.) by which people had defined their lives were lost or rendered meaningless in the aftermath of the war. However, this lack of meaning was not merely a side effect of World War One; rather its roots lay with the rampant industrialisation of the world and the subsequent belief among many westerners that there was nothing left to discover. Attempts by the next generation of artists and writers, desperate to carve out meaning from the chaos of the new geopolitical landscape, were characterised under the banner of modernism,

Remarque’s use of characterization and imagery show how fighting a war can change an individual as well as an entire generation who are on the brink of coming of age. Remarque’s personal experiences fighting World War I led him to bring this “Lost Generation’s” plight to light. This message is not limited to the first World War. It applies to each subsequent war mankind has fought, as well as any future events yet to be fought. “All Quiet on the Western Front” should be viewed as a universal

All quiet on the Western Front is not just a book about the horrors of war, but the voice of a nation destroyed by its own ideals. Young men, bearily confrunted with life's difficulties, ended up meeting death face to face. Initiated by the educational system to know about the most prolific human discoveries, meditations and writings on the human soul, those men plunged straight into the abyss of despair and hopelessness. And if that hadn't been enough, the end of war brought not the hope they longed for, but the countinuity of disillusions and a persistent feeling of alienation.

     In Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, Jake Barnes is a lost man who wastes his life on drinking. Towards the beginning of the book Robert Cohn asks Jake, “Don’t you ever get the feeling that all your life is going by and you’re not taking advantage of it? Do you realize that you’ve lived nearly half the time you have to live already?” Jake weakly answers, “Yes, every once in a while.” The book focuses on the dissolution of the post-war generation and how they cannot find their place in life. Jake is an example of a person who had the freedom to choose his place but chose poorly.

The Modernist writers were all about finding their own identity. There are those who were struggling to find their own because they were close to the modernists that expressed it. Through experimentation they were able to find an identity that they were comfortable with. Gertrude Stein found a voice when she wrote about her life from the point of view of her partner Alice B. Toklas. When it comes to writers talking about themselves they couldn’t help but use the words and actions of their own characters, to create an idea of experimenting that they are unable to reveal about themselves or others that hey might have known. They are shadows of who they once were, but create a new identity under those experiments. The idea of being a shadow of someone else’s identity helps shapes their own but, also the identity of the people that take on as they experiment with finding themselves .

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.

World War I, along with World War II and the rise of Marxist-Leninist states in Russia and China, is one of the defining moments of the 20th century. Parts of Europe lay in devastation and the United States found itself in an increasingly prominent place on the world stage. The United States’ decision to intervene in World War I meant that American soldiers would be fighting in foreign lands under brutal conditions. All aspects of society were rapidly changing as developments in technology and changing economic conditions redefined every part of everyday life. These developments along with World War I allow for the birth of Modernism. Modernism represents the uncertainty drudgery of contemporary life and the desire to achieve a new social order capable of overcoming the failures of the past. Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald present readers with two different accounts of modern life rooted in the same context of “American life.”