Paul Baumer represents the soldiers as the “Lost Generation” (Remarque 105). World War I turned a generation of young men, ready to attack life with full force into a generation of war-torn, and greatly aged, men. The war has aged them, both physically and especially mentally. The soldiers constantly discuss how they are no longer “youth” anymore, but actually old men of nineteen.
The lost generation has become a theme of World War I as a whole. In All Quiet on the Western Front Remarque portrays this with ease. Paul reflects on his life and how “all [his] generation is experiencing these thing with him” (Remarque 263). Paul’s entire generation
Going to war is one of those decisions that can change one’s life forever. It is a dreadful decision and has some long-lasting negative effects on a soldier’s life. The soldiers in the novel are only nineteen-to-twenty years young, and they leave everything behind to fight for their country, not knowing that they will never be able to live a normal life again. They are broken and can never relate to anyone their age, except for soldiers like them who go through the same hardship as them. Just as stated in a critical overview of All Quiet on the Western Front, the soldiers “have been cut off from their roots by the traumatic experiences of war, and have been stripped of their youth… the war has cut them off from the values of a cultured civilization, reducing them to animals with nothing to exist for but the present moment, and no philosophy save that of pure chance, which determines from one moment to the next whether or not they survive” (Last, para.
Many people of World War 1 experienced many different things that impacted the remainder of their lives such as the senseless loss of loved ones and the loss of purpose and money. They all handled this differently as Helen Thomas stated, “she turned to writing to deal with her grief” (Pendergast 157). Some American writers could not embrace the changes that were occurring so they sought refuge in Europe, specifically Paris, where they could escape the changing religious and moral behavior of young Americans. Ernest Hemingway was one of the most famous writers during the Lost Generation (Godin). The lost generation was a new age in history that was a group of American writers of men and
“Older men declare war. But it is the youth that must fight and die.” - Herbert Hoover. Both the “Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” by Randall Jarrell, and All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque are both focused around the effect war has on young men. These two texts represent the theme of the lack life experiences for the young men who join the army.
. Five Quotations “I can’t stand it to think my life is going so fast and I’m not really living it. Nobody ever lives their life all the way up except bull-fighters.” (Hemingway 18) “You see, Mr. Barnes, it is because I have lived very much that I now can enjoy everything so well” (Hemingway 67). “In the Basque country the land all looks very rich and green and the houses and villages look well-off clean...every way you looked there were other [gorgeous] mountains” (Hemingway 97-99).
Hope Hope is the only thing that keeps you dry in a storm. Hope is when you are given something provide off of during a disappointing moment. It is something that is given to help, not to hurt. In Copper Sun by Sharon M. Draper which the main character Amari has been transported from Africa to the Americas to become a slave for Mr.Derby. The plot story of Copper Sun is similar to “Hope is the thing with feathers” by Emily Dickinson because they both show the power of hope.
The Lost Generation and Their Hunger for Innocence When learning about World Wars, many people may think of war as an honorable experience, with triumphant soldiers returning home full of nationalistic pride fondly looking back on the time they spent fighting for their country. On the contrary, war is an experience that leaves behind trauma-ridden young men. In Paul and his comrade's case, the war has permanently changed their lives, for the worse. All Quiet on the Western Front, a novel written by Erich Remarque has large biographical influences, considering that Remarque himself served in the German army during World I. One of the largely explored themes in this novel is the group of young teenagers who fought in World War I, referred to
The book All Quiet on the Western Front, written by Erich Maria Remarque, has many apparent themes throughout it. One of the main themes is the Lost Generation. It is defined as, by dictionary.com, as “the generation reaching maturity during and just after World War I, a high proportion of whose men were killed during those years”. The novel is set during World War I, focusing on young men fighting for Germany. All Quiet on the Western Front emphasizes the Lost Generation because of how it focuses on how the soldiers were affected mentally and physically at such a young age.
No generations will suffer like them. The older generation will just go back to old occupation. The future generation will simply disregard them as a whole.[7] The choices left for the suffering generation of this great war is, as they grow older, “few will adapt themselves, some others will merely submit, and most will be bewildered; - the years will pass by and in the end we (they) shall fall into ruin’’[8]The significance of that message, given by the main character, was the warning the author tried to proclaim. The German generation of young men of late teens and early twenties, will grow up with only knowing war.
But the important one is the lost generation and after, because it was the years immediately after World War I, it brought a highly vocal fighting against authority against established social, sexual, and beauty-related conventions and a forceful attempt to establish new values. Young artists went to Chicago and San Francisco, decided to protest and focused on making a new art. While others went to Europe, living mostly in Paris as (send away from a country)ees. They willingly accepted the name given them by Gertrude Stein: the lost generation. Out of their depress and rejection, the writers built a new books, impressive in the shining and twinkling (like jewelry) 1920s and the years that followed.
The Lost Generation is a very prevalent theme in the novel, All Quiet On the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque. The Lost Generation are soldiers who fought in World War One, as a result of the war, they become clueless of the rest of society. Most of the soldiers are around 18 years old, and the rate they mature is almost horrifying. They go from being 18-year-olds who may or may not have finished high school, to men who fought in a war that will forever change them. The lost generation is a generation who will never be the same, throughout the book All Quiet On the Western Front, many of the characters will face moments where they realize the war has ruined them, ultimately, becoming the lost generation themselves.
In The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway, the main character, Jake Barnes, is experiencing life post World War I. In a war that denounced faith and integrity, Jake becomes troubled by the concept of being part of a world without purpose. As a result, he starts drinking heavily along with his friends, who are also experiencing the same problems. However, no matter how much these characters drink, they cannot escape their sadness. To add to this purposeless life, Jake also struggles with male insecurity which all the veteran males struggled with after the war.
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway takes place in the 1920s in Paris. The novel starts out focusing on Robert Cohn, while the rest of it is narrated by Jake. He is an expatriate, is madly in love with Brett, and has a war injury. Jake Barnes was raised Catholic and has had an on-again-off-again fling with Brett. He talks about Brett and his religion differently than how he thinks about them.
In the play A Raisin in the Sun, the man in the house; Walter makes a quick decision to give insurance money to the character Willy Harris so he could buy a liquor store. As a result, his decision causes Willy Harris to take the money which causes an apathetic mood in the story and creates a loss of hope in the family. This shows Walter to be spontaneous and quick to trust. Walter has always had dreams of owning a liquor store because he thought he would make profit. He’s very passionate about his fantasy, “...You see, this little liquor store we got in mind cost seventy-five thousand and we figured the initial investment on the place be ‘bout thirty thousand, see.”(79)
