TALKING ‘BOUT MY GENERATION 1. What is a generation? 2. What are some of the major events that have impacted your generation (political, cultural, economical, etc.) 3. Who are some major people who have impacted your generation (politicians, celebrities, inventors, etc.) 4. What are some of the major material objects that have impacted your generation? 5. What is most important to your generation? 6. How is your generation different than others? 7. What are the major worries or anxieties of your generation? 8. What do you think is the unifying factor of your generation?

WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MY GENERATION AND YOURS ?

Gertrude Stein: “All you people who served in the war, you are all a lost generation.” Originally this term referred to all the young men who died in WWI, but Stein used it to refer to the writers and artists who lived in Paris after the war. They were “lost” in that they avoided traditional lives.

WHAT IS HAPPENING IN AMERICA DURING THAT WOULD DEFINE A GENERATION?

THE LOST GENERATION

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE MAJOR EVENTS THAT HAVE IMPACTED THIS GENERATION? Prohibition Censorship Institutionalized Racism Troubled Economy Isolationism – Backed out of League of Nations

WHO ARE SOME MAJOR PEOPLE WHO HAVE IMPACTED YOUR GENERATION Ernest Hemmingway F. Scott Fitzgerald Gertrude Stein Ezra Pound T. S. Eliot

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE MAJOR MATERIAL OBJECTS THAT HAVE IMPACTED THIS GENERATION? The generation was trying to escape the American ideals of materialism. Full of youthful idealism, these individuals sought the meaning of life, drank excessively, had love affairs and created some of the finest American literature to date.

WHAT IS MOST IMPORTANT TO THIS GENERATION? The Lost Generation is a term used to describe a group of American writers who were rebelling against what America had become by the 1900’s. Seeking the bohemian lifestyle and rejecting the values of American materialism, a number of intellectuals, poets, artists and writers fled to France in the post World War I years. Paris was the center of it all.

HOW IS THIS GENERATION DIFFERENT FROM OTHERS? Perhaps the first to rebel against the ideals of American materialism and movements.

WHAT ARE THE MAJOR WORRIES OR ANXIETIES OF YOUR GENERATION? The Lost Generation was worried about not living live to its fullest. Sounds familiar right? YOLO!

UNIFYING FACTORS? WWI Prohibition

WHY “LOST?” Imagine that you dream to serve….. …to fight for your country and come home a hero…

…AND THE REALITY OF WAR IS NOT EXACTLY WHAT YOU EXPECTED.

Picture waving goodbye to your mom and dad in 1915, and they look like this: By the time you get back in 1919, they look like this.

Seriously. Is a guy who grew up expecting the dating scene to look like this… …supposed to know how to deal with women like this?

In 1924, “The Surrealist Manifesto” claimed that automatic responses may hold more truth than statements filtered through layers of reason and revision. A culture, or the collective unconscious, might be revealed, so they thought, through “automatic responses”.

STYLE – FITZGERALD VS. HEMINGWAY The Great Gatsby When I came home to West Egg that night I was afraid for a moment that my house was on fire. Two o’clock and the whole corner of the peninsula was blazing with light, which fell unreal on the shrubbery and made thin elongating glints upon the roadside wires. Turning a corner, I saw that it was Gatsby’s house, lit from tower to cellar. At first I thought it was another party, a wild rout that had resolved itself into “hide-and-go-seek” or “sardines-in- the-box” with all the house thrown open to the game. But there wasn’t a sound. Only wind in the trees, which blew the wires and made the lights go off and on again as if the house had winked into the darkness. The Sun Also Rises In the morning, I walked down the Boulevard to the Rue Soufflot for coffee and brioche. It was a fine morning. The horse-chestnut trees in the Luxembourg gardens were in bloom. There was the pleasant early- morning feeling of a hot day. I read the papers with the coffee and then smoked a cigarette. The flower- women were coming up from the market and arranging their daily stock. The first six sentences of Chapter 5 in each novel

HEMINGWAY’S STYLE: Direct, simple statements. Irony Sarcasm Understatement Characters reflect what is known as the “Hemingway Code”

THE “HEMINGWAY CODE” HERO LIVES BY THE FOLLOWING CRITERIA: Live passionately-Eat well, drink much and often, have many romantic encounters Do not be controlled by anyone (especially women) Maintaining self control and discipline Honesty Take risks, have courage Persistence No self pity—endure life and accept fate without being overly sentimental or emotional. Accept death / disappointment on one’s own terms and with dignity.