The Lost Generation

In some ways, Hemingway’s generation was a lost generation in comparison to their predecessors. They did not seem to be especially “looser” than the generation before them. With this being said, some attributes that ‘lost ones’ possessed that made their elders classify them as lost were ones that they shared. For example, in one conversation Gertrude Stein accuses Hemingway and all of his contemporaries of being a lost generation. In this instance, the reason for this statement is a young man who does unsatisfactory work on her car and she says the reason is because their generation is lost and “drinking themselves to death.” There are two problems with with these statements. The first is that she confines an entire generation to a generalization that they do not all fit neatly in to. The second problem is that as the conversation between Stein and Hemingway continues, we find that the boy who worked on her car was sober the entire time he interacted with her. Contrary to her argument, the two of them agree that the boy’s patron was patron probably been drunk since 11’o clock that morning. Despite this mutual realization, Stein refuses to concede to his generation being lost, using her superiority card, telling him that “there is no use in fighting” her about it. It is clear that the two age groups are actually similar, she chooses to see them the way she wants to and separates them from herself. Her stubbornness proceeds when Hemingway points out that she has never seen him drunk and she says, “no, but your friends are always drunk,” something she almost surely does not know for a fact

I believe attitudes like Stein’s heavily contributed to the adoption of the title of Lost Generation. The older ones who had forgotten childhood and youth. In Hemingway’s case it was an unwelcome label, thrust upon him. It ended up sticking for all of them because they were the result of a huge decrease in births. Compared to the era before them, they were in the minority. With more people referring to as such, than themselves, they may have found the title inescapable. It is not unusual for each generation to become more liberal, increasingly provocative than the last. “All generations had been lost by something and always had been and always would be.” Every other age group that is not seen as lost, forgets the time when they were rebels. Nothing changes. Every consequent generation is carrying out a pattern. Even with this being true, it causes one to wonder if society is spiralling downward, or if we are simply circling, everything remaining constant with the different versions of modern providing an illusion of change.

Being a part of a generation that is seen as lost can hold an appeal. Rebellion can be attractive to some personalities. The parties and break from the normality of what they may consider an uptight lifestyle, due to parents who either pull the reigns too tightly because they remember what can result from being young and allowed to be too “loose”. Of course the opposite and equally as detrimental approach is to offer guidance. Youth that have led a Lord of the Flies type of existence are especially susceptible to being lost generation material. For this lifestyle is a community of people experiencing the same feelings of being misunderstood and wanting to do what their parents would not approve of. The disapproval of older people coupled with their need to be young and do exhilarating things. In spite of this, a lost generation is never an absolute failure. The world does not end after a generation of lost youth because all that they do is not destructive. For some, the extent of the evil of their actions is simply that they oppose social norms, which intimidates the close minded of the previous generation. When a large group is collectively generalized, there are some that do qualify for the label, and there is always a subcategory that conflicts it.