The Lost Generation: A Literary Response to the American Dream

Posted on Oct 2, 2024 in Language

Introduction

The United States’ late entry into World War I (1914-1918) on the side of the Allies brought significant benefits. It increased market awareness and strengthened the nation, leading to a period of prosperity that established the US as a leading global economic power. This achievement coincided with a political and cultural surge known as the “Roaring Twenties,” which ended with the 1929 stock market crash. It was during this era that the Lost Generation found its voice and reached its peak.

1. The Lost Generation

The Lost Generation represents a pivotal moment in American literature. This group of young intellectuals, disillusioned by their experiences as witnesses to World War I, introduced a new aesthetic to American narrative.

  • Scarred by the war and unable to reintegrate into society, they felt confused, lost, and hopeless. They criticized the war, the dishonesty of politicians, traditional values, and the excesses of American wealth.
  • Their works maintained objectivity. The narrator became a mere observer, pretending to know as little as the reader about the characters. This created a sense of distance between the narrator and the characters.
  • Multiple perspectives on reality were presented through the use of different viewpoints and fragmentation in portraying characters and situations.

1.1. Ernest Hemingway

  • Hemingway emphasized the vital loss experienced by his characters, who grapple with the fear of death through adventure, violence, physical love, or alcohol.
  • His characters are emotionally distant, rarely discussing their feelings. Dialogue dominates the narrative. Hemingway incorporated autobiographical elements and employed short, concise sentences characteristic of a style that sought economy of expression.
  • Notable works include:
    • A Farewell to Arms, which explores disillusionment with love and war.
    • For Whom the Bell Tolls, set during the Spanish Civil War, is a testament to sacrifice and solidarity.
    • The Old Man and the Sea, the story of an aging fisherman’s solitary struggle at sea.
    • A Moveable Feast, a memoir of his years as a journalist in Paris and his interactions with other Lost Generation writers.
    • The Sun Also Rises, which takes place in Pamplona during the San Fermín festival.

1.2. John Dos Passos

  • Dos Passos depicted lower-class characters in a constant struggle for survival. His literature was one of protest, born from outrage at social inequalities.
  • He employed a cinematic technique, assembling fragments of stories, conversations, newspaper clippings, and various other materials. He also utilized a collective protagonist and presented simultaneous actions that unfold progressively. Spanish author Camilo José Cela would later adopt these elements in his work The Hive.
  • Notable works include: the Manhattan Transfer trilogy and U.S.A., where the city itself becomes a collective protagonist. In these novels, he reveals the dark side of America, corroded by frivolity and moral decay.

1.3. F. Scott Fitzgerald

  • Fitzgerald presented a world where individuals desperately seeking an ideal ultimately fail. His works reflected the disorientation and unease of the time.
  • He wrote The Great Gatsby, narrated by a witness (Daisy’s cousin) who is not directly involved in the main events but is affected by them. Fitzgerald portrays a generation devoid of moral values, captivated by success and wealth.
  • Gatsby, a young man who throws lavish parties at his mansion, invites Daisy, a married woman, to attend. He does everything to win her over. She is flattered and seems to reciprocate his affections, but ultimately remains with her husband, who is also having an affair. Daisy accidentally runs over her husband’s mistress but blames Gatsby, who is killed by the mistress’s husband. At his funeral, no one appears except the narrator.

1.4. William Faulkner

  • Faulkner set his stories in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, which symbolizes the rural South’s struggle with the legacy of slavery, intolerance, and primal instincts. He paints a chaotic, macabre, and grotesque world.
  • Formally, he used multiple points of view, interior monologue, the fusion of past and present, and a slow, deliberate style with complex sentence structures. His works are puzzles that the reader must piece together.
  • Notable works include:
    • The Sound and the Fury, Absalom, Absalom!, and As I Lay Dying, which narrate the decline of various families from multiple perspectives.
    • Sanctuary, a novel Faulkner described as an attempt to write the most horrific story imaginable. It tells the story of a young woman raped by a gangster and held captive in a brothel.

1.5. John Steinbeck

  • Steinbeck’s novels often focused on social protest, and his stories were presented in a straightforward manner.
  • Notable works include:
    • The Grapes of Wrath, which follows a family’s migration to California in search of work during the Great Depression. They face social rejection and exploitation. The son fights to defend workers’ rights.
    • The Pearl, which explores the exploitation of an indigenous village by white landowners.
    • East of Eden, in which a father, abandoned by his wife, struggles to raise his two sons. One is obedient and hardworking, while the other is rebellious and cannot cope with his mother’s absence.
    • Of Mice and Men, which exposes the harsh living conditions in rural California.