55 THE LOST GENERATION

1. INTRODUCTION.

The literary contributions of the Lost Generation were produced between 1920s and 1960s, that is, during the inter-war years (1918-1939) and post-war period. Therefore, they are associated with the literary trends of late realism, modernism and post-modernism. During this time, they addressed the profound social and economic changes brought about by significant historical events, such as World War I and the Great Depression of the 1930s. Through their writing, they denounced the effects of these crises.

After a brief introduction, I will discuss the main points which are: the historical and literary background of the Lost Generation and its most representative writers, namely, Scot Fitzgerald, John Steinbeck, Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner.

2. BACKGROUND.

19th century America was profoundly shaped by the Civil War (1861–1865) and its aftermath (1865–1901), a period characterized by a strong spirit of reform alongside significant socioeconomic and cultural transformations. The period between the two World Wars in the United States was often regarded as its traumatic coming of age. During this time, many American writers relocated to Europe, where they confronted the disillusionment of a post-war society. These expatriate writers, deeply affected by their experiences, often portrayed a profound sense of alienation. In fact, these Americans returned to their homelands but could never regain their innocence and optimism.

The Roaring Twenties (1920s) was a decade of unbalanced prosperity in the United States. While prices and wages fell, new industries, such as automobiles, radios, and consumer goods, flourished, creating an era of economic expansion for some. Culturally, this period saw the rise of jazz music, this is period is also known as the Jazz Age. Women also experienced significant social liberation, embracing modernity through changes in fashion, lifestyle, and attitudes.

However, the prosperity of the 1920s came to a devastating halt with the Stock Market Crash of 1929, which ushered in the Great Depression. During the 1930s, all social classes in America were profoundly affected as the economy was paralyzed, and poverty spread across the nation under President Herbert Hoover's administration (1929–1933). The election of Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933–1945) brought hope with his New Deal program (1933–1939), a series of economic reforms and recovery measures that ultimately proved successful in revitalizing the economy and restoring public confidence.

3. THE LOST GENERATION.

The Lost Generation refers to a group of American writers who expressed disillusionment with the social, political, and cultural developments in the United States during the early 20th century. The phrase originates from a comment made by Gertrude Stein to Ernest Hemingway, stating, "You are all a lost generation." Stein, an avant-garde American writer, hosted a literary salon in Paris for the most prominent writers of the interwar period. This group included figures such as Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Dos Passos, Ezra Pound, and T.S. Eliot, among others. These writers often critiqued the materialism, lack of direction, and disillusionment that characterized the post-World War I era, exploring themes of alienation, the loss of traditional values, and the search for meaning in a rapidly changing world.

At the start of the 20th century, America had become a great place for business opportunities. However, the Lost Generation viewed America’s success with skepticism, believing it lacked a cosmopolitan culture. As a result, many of these writers travelled to Europe, seeking literary freedom and a more sophisticated cultural environment. This migration marked a significant turning point for American literature in the post-WWI era.

Previously, American writers were supposed to follow the rigid Victorian styles of the 19th century, but the Lost Generation introduced a modernist approach to literature. Their works embodied innovative forms and themes, moving away from traditional narratives to explore fragmentation, disillusionment, and the complexities of the human experience.

Over time, their prolonged exposure to European culture deepened their critique of American society. They became increasingly detached from the American way of life, seeing it as overly materialistic. The term Lost Generation has much to do with the social mood of these writers. They grew up in an era characterized by widespread substance abuse, rapid immigration, rising prosperity, and a simultaneous crisis of confidence marked by crime and violence. In short, it was an era of disillusioned artists who rejected the values of Post-World War I America.

The main features present in the Lost Generation are:

• Rejection of materialistic society.

• Exaltation of the primitive.

• The futility of past and future.

• Experimentation with forms.

• Cry for liberty and lack of oppression.

• Loneliness, anger and disappointment.

4. THE MOS REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.

Let's now look at the most representative writers of the Lost Generation.

4.1. SCOT FITZGERALD (1896-1940): JAZZ AGE SPIRIT.

4.1.1. LIFE.

Scot Fitzgerald was born in 1896 in Minnesota into a wealthy family. Unlikely to graduate from college, he joined the army but never saw active service abroad. Then, he wrote his first novel This Side of Paradise (1920) which made him famous and married Zelda Sayre a year later. They embarked on an extravagant life as young celebrities.

Although Fitzgerald aspired to build a strong literary reputation, his playboy image and life of excess often overshadowed his work. Seeking tranquillity for writing, the Fitzgeralds moved to France. There, he wrote The Great Gatsby which marked a striking advance in his technique by using a complex structure and a controlled narrative point of view.

During their time in Paris, Fitzgerald formed a friendship with Ernest Hemingway, admiring Hemingway's strong personality. However, this period was marked by personal struggles, particularly Zelda’s first mental breakdown, which led to her treatment in a Swiss hospital. The couple returned to America in 1931, but Zelda suffered another relapse the following year and was admitted to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, where she remained for the rest of her life.

The years 1936–1937, known as Fitzgerald’s “crack-up,” were particularly difficult. He struggled with illness, alcoholism, financial troubles, and an inability to write, living in hotels in North Carolina. Later, he moved to Hollywood to work as a freelance scriptwriter and began writing a Hollywood novel, The Love of the Last Tycoon (1939), but he died before completing it. Although Fitzgerald died in 1940 believing himself a failure, his literary legacy was revived by the 1960s, earning him a lasting place among America’s greatest writers.

4.1.2. STYLE.

Fitzgerald is best known for his novels and short stories which chronicle the excesses of America's Jazz Age during the 1920s. His works explore themes of aspiration and idealism, which he considered central to the American character, as well as themes of disillusionment and loss. Fitzgerald’s writing reflects his deep engagement with the social dynamics and cultural shifts of the Roaring Twenties.

4.1.3. WORKS.

His best-known works are:

• This Side of Paradise (1920): concerns the world of youth and the parties and love affairs of the rich. It tells the story of a young man who, much like Fitzgerald himself, experiences the highs and lows of a privileged society. Fitzgerald delves into themes of self-discovery, egotism, and the disillusionment that comes with the pursuit of wealth and status. Scott put in his fiction the romantic yearnings and the yearnings of the Jazz Age.

• The Great Gatsby (1925) is F. Scott Fitzgerald’s masterpiece, widely regarded as one of the greatest American novels. Through the perspective of Nick Carraway, the novel captures the excesses and moral decay of the 1920s, epitomized by Jay Gatsby, a self-made millionaire who throws extravagant parties in the hope of recovering his lost love, Daisy Buchanan. Gatsby represents the American Dream in its most idealistic form: the belief that wealth and success can erase the past and create a perfect future. However, his obsession with Daisy and his attempt to recreate a past that can never be recaptured ultimately leads to his downfall. The main theme is the clash between idealism and reality. Fitzgerald's style in The Great Gatsby is clear, elegant, and symbolic. He uses vivid descriptions, colorful imagery, and sharp dialogue, and employs techniques like flashbacks and time shifts to deepen the narrative. The novel combines symbolism with psychological realism and is considered a symbolist tragedy in which the hero fails to change the world of hard materialism into the world of his fantasy.

• And Tender is the Night (1934) is his last novel in which he uses his experiences with his wife's mental illness. The characters are tragic because they fail to confront or accept reality, and their flaws.

4.2. JOHN STEINBECK (1902-1968): REGIONALIST.

4.2.1. LIFE.

John Steinbeck was born in Salinas (California) in 1902 to a family of German and Irish ancestry. After high school, he briefly attended Stanford University while taking on various jobs. However, he left Stanford to pursue his writing career in New York but he was unsuccessful and returned to Carolina. His first novel Cup of Gold (1929) attracted little attention. Nevertheless, Tortilla Flat (1935) marked the turning point in his career and received the California Commonwealth Club's Medal for the best novel. After that, he continued writing relying on his personal observation of the human condition. His best-known novel is The Grapes of Wrath (1939) which received the Pulitzer Prize. Steinbeck also worked as a war correspondent during World War II and won the Nobel Prize in 1962 for his realistic and imaginative writings.

4.2.2. STYLE.

Steinbeck’s style can be summed up in three words: naturalistic, poetic, and of great quality. His ability to blend realism with symbolic and poetic elements elevates his works to universal significance, offering profound insights into human resilience and frailty.

His novels can all be classified as social novels dealing with rural California conditions and a set of characters who are driven by forces they cannot control (fear, sex, hunger, capitalism). Besides, he is best known for being a regionalist who drew inspiration mainly from the Bible and the Arthurian Legend. In novels like Of Mice and Men or The Long Valley, he combines a naturalistic way of looking at things with sympathy for people and the human condition.

4.2.3. WORKS.

In The Grapes of Wrath (1939), his masterpiece, the characters are larger than life. He is not simply describing the experiences of a single family of individuals. He is really telling the story of a great national tragedy through the experiences of that one family, a westering saga that parallels The Book of Exodus. The Joads, a family of farmers, must leave Oklahoma because of the great Dust Bowl disaster and the Great Depression in the 1930s. They go to California and work as fruit pickers. There, they suffer the hatred and violence of big California landowners.

Mythical elements also play a significant role in East of Eden (1952). It tells the story of a family from the Civil War to World War I. Inspired by the Biblical story of Cain and Abel, the novel uses Steinbeck's signature naturalistic style to explore themes of good, evil, and human choice within a modern context.

4.3. ERNEST HEMINGWAY (1899-1961): NATURALISTIC.

4.3.1. LIFE.

Ernest Hemingway was born in Oak Park Illinois in 1899. As a boy, his father taught him how to hunt and fish in nature. In fact, nature would become the touchstone of his works. Although he often found himself living in chaotic cities like Chicago, Toronto and Paris, once he became successful he chose isolated places to live.

From 1925-1929, he produced some of the most important works of 20th-century fiction: The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms. Moreover, in short years, he went from being an unknown writer to being the most important writer of his generation. He also traveled to Spain to cover the Spanish Civil War for an American newspaper and after this, he moved to Cuba where he wrote For Whom the Bell Tolls. In 1952, The Old Man and the Sea appeared and was a huge success. He finally left Cuba and took residence in Idaho, where he fought against his depression and paranoia. He finally committed suicide in 1961.

4.3.2. STYLE.

Ernest Hemingway’s writing style is remarkable for its simplicity and emotional depth. His sentences are short, his vocabulary straightforward, yet his words resonate with powerful emotions. He is a master of the pause, allowing the action of his stories to unfold during moments of silence, imbuing them with profound meaning. Hemingway deliberately avoided ornate literary devices, believing that the most impactful writing came from an economy of language and a focus on essentials, creating a style that was both minimalist and deeply evocative.

4.3.3. WORKS.

His best-known works are:

• The Sun Also Rises (1926) introduces the world to the Lost Generation. Set in Paris and Spain, the book is a story of frustrated love against a backdrop of bars and bullfighting. He captures the sounds and smells of Bohemian Paris and Spanish culture with the running of bulls.

• A Farewell to Arms (1929) is often regarded as an anti-war masterpiece. Set against the backdrop of World War I, it follows the love story of Frederic and Catherine Barkley. Their love offers them a brief escape from the horrors of war, creating a world of solace amidst the chaos. Throughout the novel, Hemingway uses nature symbolically. The natural world is often juxtaposed with the brutality of war, representing peace, beauty, and an idealized escape from the destruction surrounding the characters. However, the novel’s ending is tragic. They escape to Switzerland but their happiness is destroyed when Catherine dies in childbirth.

• For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940) is one of Hemingway's most profound works, deepening his exploration of moral and existential themes. Set during the Spanish Civil War, the novel follows Robert Jordan, an American dynamiter who is resisting the fascist forces. As Jordan navigates the brutality of war, his personal journey becomes one of self-discovery, grappling with the nature of duty, sacrifice, and the meaning of life in the face of violence.

• In The Old Man and the Sea (1952), heroism, stoicism and ceremony are the main themes. This short, simple novel is a beautiful allegory of human life. An old Cuban fisherman caught a big fish after a long patient fight. But sharks come and eat it down to the bones. When tourists laugh at him, he does not complain. The reader sees this as a sign of heroism. The old man showed courage in the fight and stoicism in defeat. This novel received the Pulitzer Prize in 1952 and two years later Hemingway received the Novel Prize for Literature (1954).

4.4. WILLIAM FAULKNER (1897-1862): MODERNIST.

4.4.1. LIFE.

William Faulkner, born in New Albany, Mississippi, in 1897, was a highly creative individual from a young age, excelling in drawing and poetry. However, his education was irregular—he left school around the 6th grade and did not complete high school. Faulkner briefly trained as a cadet in the Royal Air Force and tried to join the U.S. Army Air Force, but he was rejected due to his height. After returning to Oxford, Mississippi, he attended the University of Mississippi for only three semesters before leaving to pursue various jobs and begin his writing career.

In the mid-1920s, Faulkner moved to New Orleans, where he became immersed in the literary community and developed his distinctive style. He also travelled to Europe, where his writing further evolved. Faulkner’s literary career reached new heights when he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1949.

4.4.2. STYLE.

William Faulkner’s literature is deeply rooted in the American South, a region that played a pivotal role in the nation’s history. In the 19th century, the South was a land of immense wealth due to the profitable commerce of tobacco and cotton. This economic prosperity gave rise to a class of individuals who, while not aristocrats, enjoyed a significant amount of wealth and influence—what Faulkner often depicted as the Southern gentry. However, alongside the wealthy, there was a large population of impoverished individuals, and the region was also home to the Ku Klux Klan during the 1920s, which engaged in violence, including burning homes and murdering people.

Faulkner’s work captures the South's complex realities, portraying its beauty and darkness. His writing is rooted in realism, addressing the social issues of the region—such as racial inequality, poverty, and the consequences of historical traumas—but he also creates a "Mystical South," blending the past and present. His novels are filled with layers of voices, histories, and memories that weave together a rich and haunting depiction of the South’s culture and legacy.

Moreover, Faulkner's works often reflect the violence that underpins the nation’s founding. His fiction suggests that the United States, particularly the South, has been shaped by a history of brutality and oppression, from slavery to the racial violence of the post-Reconstruction era. Through his complex, often tragic narratives, Faulkner calls attention to the enduring effects of this violent past on the present.

His literary style was influenced by the works of Shakespeare, Fielding, Conrad and Dickens. Faulkner shared with the Lost Generation its strong dislike for the post-war world and its belief in the value of art. He was defined as a southern regionalist writer during the Great Depression in the 1930s. Faulkner is also considered one of the most experimental modernist writers of his time. He broke with traditional narrative structures, employing techniques such as subjectivism, narrative fragmentation, and flashbacks to explore the complexities of consciousness and memory.

Time plays a central and unique role in much of William Faulkner’s work. He often uses a narrative technique that blends past, present, and future, creating a continuous, fluid sense of time rather than adhering to a linear structure. This technique, influenced in part by writers like Gertrude Stein, allows Faulkner to present events and memories in a more fragmented, subjective way, reflecting the way human consciousness works. In his stories, time becomes malleable. As a result, Faulkner’s novels can sometimes be challenging to read, as the reader must navigate the shifting timelines and unravel the connections between them.

In addition to his unconventional treatment of time, Faulkner’s exploration of human goodness and evil is equally powerful. His works do not merely focus on the darkness of human nature; he also portrays moments of compassion, loyalty, and sacrifice. These contrasts give his world a moral complexity that reflects both the best and the worst of humanity. Faulkner’s South is a place of immense suffering, but it is also one where characters seek redemption, love, and justice, however elusive those ideals may be. At the heart of Faulkner's world are moral truths.

4.4.3. WORKS.

His major works are:

• Soldier's Pay (1926) explores the deep psychological and social effects of war on individuals and society. The story centres around a young, wounded soldier who returns home from World War I physically and emotionally scarred. He finds himself unable to reconnect with the world he once knew, as the disillusionment and decay of post-war society confront him.

• Sartoris (1929). This work shows a big change in his thinking. His mythical Yoknapatawpha Country became one of the most famous mini-worlds in 20th-century literature. Sartoris is set in the South after World War I. Bayard Sartoris returned home and his dissatisfaction with life makes him want to destroy himself. He is unsure of his manhood. The story contrasts modern people with characters from the past.

• The Sound and the Fury (1929) is widely regarded as one of Faulkner's most important and experimental works, often considered a cornerstone of modernist literature. The novel tells the tragic story of the Compson family, once a proud Southern aristocratic family that has fallen into decline. Faulkner tells this story through four distinct and fragmented perspectives, each offering a unique and subjective view of reality. The four narrators are:

  • Benjy, the mentally disabled brother, whose perception of the world is non-linear and chaotic, capturing moments from the past and present without any clear sense of time.

  • Quentin, the emotionally troubled brother, whose narrative is filled with obsession, confusion, and despair, ultimately culminating in his suicide at Harvard.

  • Jason, the bitter and self-centred brother, driven by greed and resentment, especially toward his sister, Caddy, and his family.

  • Dilsey, the loyal African American servant, who provides the novel’s most stable and moral perspective. She sees the family's suffering and tries to hold them together, despite their dysfunction.

  The novel is marked by its experimental narrative techniques, particularly the use of a limited point of view for each character. Each narrator lives in their own isolated reality, disconnected from the others, offering their own fragmented truths. Faulkner uses these perspectives to convey the deeply personal struggles and internal conflicts of each character. The story is not presented linearly, and the reader must actively piece together the fragmented facts and events, making the narrative a complex puzzle.

  By using stream-of-consciousness, non-linear storytelling, and multiple viewpoints, Faulkner challenges the reader to engage with the novel on a deeper level

5. TEACHING IMPLICATIONS.

Before finishing, I would like to comment on the teaching implications this topic might offer. 

To begin with, I would like to justify the topic in the English curriculum. According to our current legislation based on LOMLOE from 2020 the teaching of a foreign language must be based on the communicative approach and communication must be the essential part of a language learning process. In addition to this, the law also highlights the importance for students to know not only how to use the language but also about the language, for this reason, it is very important to learn the historical literature and cultural aspects of the language learned. In this context, this topic has a relevant role in the English curriculum as it can be a tool to transmit our students’ linguistic and cultural competences.

On top of that, the current law and the Council of Europe prioritize the development of the communicative competence and establish many methodological principles of great use for this topic. These principles and the communicative competence are also reflected in the Royal Decree of 29th of March and in the Order of 2nd of August of 2022.

Therefore, historical events and literature, so crucial to understanding the origins of English and its role as an international language, must be explained to our students in a very communicative way. The EFRL provides a key for that. It states that our role as teachers is that of facilitators. Then, our role would be to make this topic and the language as close as possible to our students' reality and to provide them with knowledge and resources for its understanding. In other words, to work from the known to the unknown. For instance, there are books and film adaptations of the medieval period which can be incredibly useful in our lessons to practice the different competences established by the curriculum.

Moreover, a whole cultural environment is created in the classroom by working on topics like this. Students can carry out different communicative tasks with specific communicative purposes. For instance, how to produce a play, read a play by Shaw or Wilde or act out a scene of their plays.

6. CONCLUSION.

To conclude, the variety of styles and themes of the 4 writers reflects their different origins and personal interests as well as the complexity of the modern United States. Fitzgerald is remembered as the portrayer of the spirit of the Jazz Age; Steinbeck as the portrayer of the spirit of rural California; Ernest Hemingway as the leader in the adaptation of the naturalistic technique in the novel; and Faulkner because he experimented brilliantly with modernist elements in his fictional world.

7. BIBLIOGRAPHY.

To write this topic, several references have been used, among which I would like to highlight:

• Alexander, M. (2000). A History of English Literature.

• Arnold, C. (2015). The Companion to British History.

• Daiches, D. (1980). A Critical History of English Literature.

• Sanders, A. (1996). The Short Oxford History of English Literature.

Besides, legal sources have also been used to justify the topic:

• LOMLOE Organic Law 3/2020, of 29th of December to improve the educational quality.

• Council of Europe (2001). Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching and Assessment. Strasbourg.

• Royal Decree 217/2022, of 29th of March, which establishes the basic curriculum of secondary compulsory education and bachillerato.

• Order ECD 1172/2022, of 2nd of August, which passes the curriculum of secondary education and allows its application in the schools of Aragon.