-
About the
“
Lost Generation
”
What does it
Mean?
It defines a sense of moral loss
or aimlessness.
The WWI destroyed the
innocent ideas, many
good young men
went to the war and died, or
returned
damaged,
both
physically
and
mentally;
their
moral
faith
were
no
longer
valid---
they
were
“
Lost.
”
Where does it come
from?
From
Gertrude
Stein,
an
American
woman
writer,
and
a
French
garage
owner;
“
une
generation
perdue.
”
What causes its appearance?
WWI;
economic
boom;
modern
philosophy
and psychology.
To whom does it refer?
Narrow sense: a group of
American writers,
including
Hemingway,
rald,
Passos,
gs,
sh,
Sherwood Anderson, and Hart Crane, etc.
1
Broad Sense: the entire post -WWI
American
young generation.
What are the main characteristics?
Suffering
from
the
war,
losing
beliefs,
being
cut off from the past, disillusioned,
unable or
unwilling
to
settle
back
into
the
routines
of
peacetime
life,
indulged
in
drinking
and
partying.
What
are the main subject matters:
The
lostness, nada and wound (Hemingway),
the
breaking
up
of
the
American
dream
(Fitzgerald),
the
sociological
zero
(Dos
Passos), and nothing again nothing
(Eliot)
Hemingway
as
the
spokesman
of
the
“
Lost
Generation
”
:
1.
G
.
Stein
’
s remark to
Hemingway:
“
you
are
all a lost
generation.
”
2.
H
emingway used the sentence
“
you are all
a
lost generation
”
as an
epigraph for his first
novel,
The Sun Also Rises,
which depicts a
2
“
lost
generation
”
of
postwar
American
drifters in France
and Spain.
3.
A
lmost all of
Hemingway
’
s works deal with
the disillusionment of
“
the lost
generation
”
,
almost
all
his
heroes
are
members
of
“
the
lost
generation.
”
4.
H
emingway
is
the
leader
of
“
the
lost
generation
”
in
the adaptation of naturalistic
technique
and
many
modernistic
methods.
His
novels
dramatized
the
social
history of
“
the
lost generation.
”
5.
I
ntimate
connection
between
Hemingway
and
his
heroes:
he
describes
himself
when
he
tells
us
the
story
of
his
heroes;
Hemingway,
“
the
lost
generation,
”
and
Hemingway
’
s
heroes
share
common
features.
3
6.
H
emingway
speaks
for
“
the
lost
generation
”
through
his
choice
of
themes
and writing style; his
themes focus on
“
the
lost
generation
”
, his style
fits for
“
the lost
generation.
”
4