The lost generation defines a sense of moralloss or aimlessness apparent in literary figures during the 1920s. World War I seemed tho have destroyed the idea that if you acted viturously, good things would happen. Many good young men went to war anddied,or returned home eitehr physcially or metally wounded and thier faith i the moral guideposes that had eitehr given them hope, were no longer valid. they were "lost".
During the 1920's a group of writers known as "The Lost Generation" gained popularity. The term "the lost generation" was coined by Gertrude Stein who is rumored to have heard her auto-mechanic while in France to have said that his young workers were, "une generation perdue". This refered to the young workers' poor auto-mechanic repair skills. Gertrude Stein would take this phrase and use it to describe the people of the 1920's who rejected American post World War I values. The three best known writers among The Lost Generation are F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and John Dos Passos. Others among the list are: Sherwood Anderson, Kay Boyle, Hart Crane, Ford Maddox Ford and Zelda Fitzgerald. Ernest Hemingway, perhaps the leading literary figure of the decade, would take Stein's phrase, and use it as an epigraph for his first novel,The Sun Also Rises. Because of this novel's popularity, the term, "The Lost Generation" is the enduring term that has stayed associated with writers of the 1920's.
In our textbook, we are introduced the background of such generations. The US had not been disturbed by war for a long time. To many people, esp the young generation, their impressoin of war is vague. Popular media had created a lot of fantasis about war about "francas" with Spain in manila. With the outbreak of World War I, Roosevelt's propaganda of jingoism further intensified young people's aspiration for heroism. Before and after the US was formally engaged in WWi, many young people had taken part in it. They went to battlefield with much unrealistic fantasies only to find that teh reality is far from their expectation. when the war was over and they went back to the US, they became even more disillusioned. this si the social and historical background where the "lost generation" was born.
