I am very drawn to The Lost Generation literary moment. One reason is my father was born in 1931. I remember growing up hearing the stories my family would tell about what life was like then. I also loved looking at old family photographs from that time period. Some of my favorite stories were of the prohibition, and my grandfather boot legging during that time in the northern woods of Wisconsin.
The Lost Generation was from the time period of the 1920’s and 30’s. These were American writers who were living and writing in Paris immediately after World War I (American Novel). The term “The Lost Generation” came from Gertrude Stein. A garage mechanic was reported to have said to Ms Stein , "You are all a lost generation." Later on Ms Stein was having a conversation with Ernest Hemingway where she repeated this phase to him. Hemingway then used it as an epigraph for his first novel, The Sun Also Rises (Lost Generation). This phrase came to represent a disillusioned postwar generation who were losing their values. They also had lost belief in the idea of human progress (American Novel). The term usually refers to the American writers associated that wrote in the 1920’s in Paris. The main writers associated with this movement are Hemingway and Fitzgerald, some other writers of the time included. T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound (American Novel). The authors that produced some of the greatest dramatists in the United States where, Branch Cabell, Henry Miller, and Eugene O'Neill. Other authors that wrote about comedy and social reform plays, and historical tragedies were Maxwell Anderson, Philip Barry, Elmer Rice, S. N. Behrman, Marc Connelly, Lillian Hellman, Clifford Odets, and Thornton Wilder. Arthur Miller, William Inge, and Tennessee ...
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The 1920's - Roaring Twenties - The Nineteen Twenties in History. Robert Scott, 2005. Web. 17 Mar. 2010. .
"American Cultural History - Decade 1920-1929." Lone Star College-Kingwood Library Home Page. Peggy Whitley, 1999. Web. 17 Mar. 2010. .
"The American Novel . Literary Timeline |." PBS. Educational Broadcasting Corporation, 2007. Web. 17 Mar. 2010. .
Infoplease: Encyclopedia, Almanac, Atlas, Biographies, Dictionary, Thesaurus. Free Online Reference, Research & Homework Help. Infoplease.com. Columbia University Press, 2007. Web. 17 Mar. 2010. .
"The Lost Generation." Montgomery College. Web. 17 Mar. 2010. .
Wukovits, John F., ed. America's Decades: The 1920's. San Diego: Greehaven Press Inc., 2000. Print.
The 1920's had many influential writers in literature. While reaching this time period it is almost certain that the names William Faulkner, Earnest Hemingway, and F. Scott Fitzgerald will be found. Each of the writers has their own personal style of writing and each one of the lives has influenced what they write about to even the way they each portray their literature.
Did you know that the 1920s has many different names for it such as the Ballyhoo Years, the Roaring Twenties, and the Jazz Age? In the twenties people were listening to the swinging music known as jazz that made the 1920s appear to have a happy, wonderful aura, but not everything was what it seemed to be. Around this time new things were occurring and changes were being made for the better of Americans, but a few of these new occurrences had their downfalls which led to a depressing period as time went on. In spite of this, in the twenties there was jazz music that made the decade brighter during the harder times, for example; Prohibition, the stock market crash, and the beginning the Great Depression.
To begin, it is important to connect the fashion of the 1920s to events that were occurring in the late 19th Century to fu...
The 1920s in American history had been a decade of drastic changes. It was the time when the traditional culture translated into the more modern practices.United States experienced super changes after the Great War had ended. During this decade, more people are moving to big cities and away from the suburbs to work in industrialized factories. Cars such as Ford were mass produced. Advertisement was first created in the age of consumerism. The 1920s, often known in America as the “Roaring Twenties”, is considered as the first modern era in which many advancements and improvements have been made.
“The decade of the 1920s is often characterized as a period of American prosperity and optimism” (Scott, 2007). The twenties was also a time of mass consumerism as the American Dream turned from honor and hard work to the dream of acquiring material things for hard work. The decade was a time of people making homemade alcohol, passing the prohibition, and the beginning of the automobile age (Scott, 2007). Women began to dress more relaxed and revealing. Also, college students were gaining attention by performing outlandish pranks. The 1920s saw the real start of the moving picture, as well as the very first flight across the Atlantic Ocean (Trueman, 2000). The twenties is often seen as a period of great advances as the nation became urban and commercial. However, at the same time the 1920s was also a time when racial tensions began to build and the nation became biased towards different ethnic people. The Klu Klux Klan emerged again during the 1920s. Author, Gregory Brown, illustrates in The Black Holocaust S...
Tom Brokaw called the people who lived through World War II (WWII) “The Greatest Generation”, where he shares many heroic war stories in The Greatest Generation. The classic character displayed in the book was a decorated war veteran who returned to the United States (US) and developed a prosperous lifestyle. The WWII veterans came to symbolize strength, honor, unity, justice, success, and noble sacrifice. This image was portrayed through literature and film. Books and movies created an image of the WWII veterans which the US would idolize. Popular culture gave the war a romantic appeal. People fell in love with the idea that the US was liberating Europe from the Nazi Hun and the evil Japanese Empire. After the war, men came back to marry their sweethearts and had several children who were called the Baby Boomers. This romanticism continued through television shows like Leave it to Beaver and literary titles similar to Dick and Jane, which dominated popular culture. Though popular culture defined the perfect life, the lifestyle was not typical for the average American.
The 1920s era is known for different names such as the Roaring Twenties, the Jazz Age, the Age of Intolerance, and the Age of Wonderful Nonsense. Moreover, the era claimed the beginning of Modernism in America, which led authors to stray away from traditional writing styles. A commonality seen in Modernists’ works is the desire for characters to fit into societies that they believe to be more substantial or well off than their own. In the novels The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Passing by Nella Larsen, the characters Jay Gatsby and Clare Kendry use social environments and interactions with others in attempt to reject their pasts and gain acceptance. Jay Gatsby longs to forget his past and focus on the present and future in hopes
Gatsby represents the many reasons the Lost Generation gave up on America’s past of hope and dreams and began to find self-fulfillment in the present. Unlike Gatsby, they tried to avoid the consequences of pursing a single dream. They were unable to hope for a better future and realized the actual corruption and isolation when the Great Depression occurred. By not living a life of illusions for some future or past, it diminishes optimism but at the same time, improves the lives of the present-of reality.
Carlisle, Rodney P. Handbook To Life In America. Volume VI, The Roaring Twenties, 1920 To 1929. Facts on File, 2009. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 30 May 2012
The 1920’s was a decade that changes American life. Frederick Lewis Allen describes the twenties as a “revolution in manners and morals.” The twenties has been named all types of nicknames, such as: “The Roaring Twenties”, “The Era of Wonderful Nonsense”, “The Decade of the Dollar”, “The Period of the Psyche”, “ Dry Decade” and the age of “Alcohol and Al Capone” (Gales Research, 1998). During the twenties, the way Americans lived had changed. The 1920’s was a time in history that has been remembered for its great prosperity but also for its great loss. The Great Depression is what ended the Roaring Twenties.
"American Cultural History - The Twentieth Century." Lone Star College-Kingwood Library Home Page. Web. 20 Apr. 2010. .
Whitley, Peggy. "American Cultural History - The Twentieth Century: 1910 - 1919."American Cultural History. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Jan. 2014. .
With the end of the first World War in the year 1918, many soldiers, young and old, came home to their families dark and cynical. Many famous authors of this time, like F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, wrote short stories not of their times at war, but of how material the world truly is. These were considered the “Lost Generation,” due to their lack of belief in humans in general and their dreary outlook of life in general. F. Scott Fitzgerald is famous for his book, The Great Gatsby which showed how he as an author viewed the Roaring Twenties, as one of the main themes is the idea that the American Dream is dead and humans are fickle and obsessed with material things, like money. On the opposite end of the spectrum, though, was the bright young generation, which “came into power” shortly after the Lost Generation. These young people were full of bright ideas and with the American Economy is a good place, everyone seemed to be happy. Art and fashion changed drastically, w...
The post World War II period had an enormous impact on American society and literature. Many important events occurred and affected directly to the movement of American literature. During this period, American Literature reflected the movement of disillusionment, and portrayed the lost generation. Many WWII writers adapted new approaches and philosophies in writing their novels. They portrayed the lost generation, anti-war perspective and explored the true meaning of “war hero”. Among them, the pioneers are Bernard Malamud, Ken Kesey and Joseph Heller, who wrote the Natural, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and Catch-22.