The Lost Generation
An Introduction to the Movement
Medford High School English Department
For use by all teachers
May 2012
The Lost Generation
• “That is what you are. That’s what you all
are…all of you young people who served in the
war. You are a lost generation.”
- Gertrude Stein
• “Who is calling who a lost generation?”
- Ernest Hemingway
Pictured: Gertrude Stein with Ernest Hemingway’s son, Jack
Essential Questions for the Unit
• How do writers employ tone, symbolism, and
other literary techniques to convey a theme in
American literature of the early 1900s?
• How does this literature reflect the American
experience after World War I?
The Lost Generation
• Term used to describe the generation of writers
active immediately after World War I (post 1920s)
• Gertrude Stein became famous for the using the
phrase, borrowed from a car mechanic’s criticism of
twenty-year-old slackers
• The phrase signifies a disillusioned postwar
generation characterized by…
▫ Lost values
▫ Lost belief in the idea of human progress
▫ A mood of futility and despair leading to hedonism
What else makes something a “Lost
Generation” story?
• Economy of Language
• Presence of War (overt or implied)
• “Iceberg Theory”
▫ You have to make inferences
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Symbolism – colors, nature, etc.
Alcohol
Jazz
Influence of European culture, art, etc.
Rejection of Victorian era style
Famous Writers of the Movement
• The Lost Generation mostly includes expatriate
writers who left the United States for Europe after
WWI:
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Ernest Hemingway
F. Scott Fitzgerald
T.S. Eliot
Ezra Pound
• You could also include writers who were heavily
influenced by these writers and/or WWI:
▫ William Carlos Williams
▫ Wilfred Owen
In a Station of the Metro
What does this imagery suggest?
Landscape with the Fall of Icarus
How prominent is Icarus in this painting? What is the message that is conveyed?
Generations
• What defines our generation?
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Music genres
The quintessential writers
Life-altering events
Developments in technology
Human rights
Tonight’s Homework
• Do a little internet research on the Lost
Generation.
• Write a side-by-side bullet point comparison of
the Lost Generation and our generation.
• Shoot for at least ten points, and try to have each
column correspond with the other.
• Cite your sources.
Sources
• Information from www.pbs.org and
www.poetsorg was used in the creation of this
website.
Added information for Ms.
Sanford’s English classes…
Edna St. Vincent Millay
• 1892-1950
• Nickname “Vincent”
• Grew up in Maine; spent time in NYC
(Greenwich Village); travelled to France
• First female to receive Pulitzer Prize (poetry)
• Playwright, poet, & actor
• Experimental and independent
• Multiple relationships:
married Eugen Boissevain (self-proclaimed feminist)
“What Lips my Lips have Kissed”
What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and
why,
I have forgotten, and what arms have lain
Under my head till morning; but the rain
Is full of ghosts tonight, that tap and sigh
Upon the glass and listen for reply,
And in my heart there stirs a quiet pain
For unremembered lads that not again
Will turn to me at midnight with a cry.
Thus in winter stands the lonely tree,
Nor knows what birds have vanished one by
one,
Yet knows its boughs more silent than before:
I cannot say what loves have come and gone,
I only know that summer sang in me
A little while, that in me sings no more.
By: Ernest Hemingway
“Good books are alike in that they are truer than if they had
really happened and after you are finished reading one you
will feel that all that happened to you and afterwards it all
belongs to you.... If you can get so that you can give that to
people, then you are a writer.”
-Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway
• No college degree; journalism apprenticeship
• Personal life influenced literature
• Ambulance driver WWI
• Liked (watching) bullfighting and hunting
• Exaggerated own life (relationships, skills, etc.).
• Takes his life (shotgun infliction)
WHAT WORDS COME TO MIND ABOUT THIS IMAGE?
Beginning The Sun Also Rises…
• Read the first three paragraphs of the novel.
• Jot down a list of details that stand out from
your reading and questions you have.
As you read, try to look for connections and
important details.
Class Review: What do we notice about the writing style? How does
it relate to the novel’s topic?
Ernest Hemingway Interview in the
Paris Review
• What do you notice about Hemingway’s writing
space? What stands out about the description?
• What are your reactions to Hemingway’s
comments about characters?
• In what ways do you see Hemingway’s responses
relate to writing in The Sun Also Rises?
The Great Gatsby Introduction…
Write down all the words that come to mind
about the following objects that are
associated with The Great Gatsby and/or
the 1920s.
East Egg: inherited richness
(Tom Buchanan)
vs.
West Egg: “new money”
(Jay Gatsby)
F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Born 1896; Died in 1940
• Named after creator (and
relative) of “The Star Spangled
Banner”
• Lieutenant in WWI
(end of war)
• Married Zelda
(she was interested in money &
power; refused to marry
Fitzgerald unless he had these
qualities)
The Great Gatsby Overview
• Published in 1925
• Nick Carraway; Jay Gatsby
• Only sold 20,000 copies in first year
-many female readers
-more well known during WWII
(150,000 copies sent to the American army)
• Fitzgerald inspired to write about old vs. new
money after moving with family in 1922 to Great
Neck, NY (Long Island)
http://mentalfloss.com/article/50822/24-great-gatsby-facts
Jay Gatsby’s mansion was based off of real ones such as this Oheka
Castle (New York).