1. Introduction
The Lost Generation was coined by the writer-critic Gertrude Stein, who said to Ernest Hemingway that:“You are all a lost generation”.And then, Hemingway used it as an epigraph for his first novel The Sun Also Rises. This novel received an immediate success because it reflects the disillusionment of the lost generation. So the “Lost Generation” became the enduring term that had stayed associated with writers of the 1920s in the US.
With the outbreak of World WarⅠ, many Americans held the romantic view of the war as a symbol of courage, heroism, and glory. Popular media had created a lot of fantasies about war. The young people were fascinated by the dream of heroism, so they went to the battlefield. But when they got there, they only found that the reality was far from their expectation. The war was so cruel and brutal, so they were disillusioned. They suffered lots of miseries and knew the Anti-war sentiment. The trauma of war led them to seek the meaning of life, drank excessively, had love affairs and created some of the finest American literature to date(Yin and Liu 2007: 189). There are many literary artists involved in the groups known as the Lost Generation. Hemingway was the most representative author.
In the previous researches, the experts researched the “Iceberg Theory” and “the consciousness of tragedy” of Hemingway and devoted the outstanding contribution, showing the reader a different Hemingway. This paper mainly concentrated on the theme of “The Lost Generation” in order to reveal a more vivid and active image of “The Lost Generation”. In this paper, we will discuss the main characters of the lost generation from the view of The Sun Also Rises. The paper is divided into five parts: the first part is introduction; the second part is a brief information related with The Lost Generation, the third part analyses the Lost Generation reflected in the novel, including brief introduction of the author and his book as well as the main characteristics of the Lost Generation; the fourth part is the connection among The
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Lost Generation, Hemingway and The Sun Also Rises, the last part conclude the paper.
2. The Lost Generation
The Sun Also Rises told a story, which reflected some clues of the life of Hemingway, who, as a member of the lost generation, lived an extravagant life after World WarⅠ.His life could be seen as a representative of the lost generation.
2.1 Background
The Lost Generation generally referred to the generation after the First World War and especially for those American writers who were born around 1900s and went on literary world after the First World War. When the World WarⅠbroke out, the American youth who was influenced by the slogan of patriotism and the spirit of adventure rushed into the battle. However after the experienced cruel fight and the torment of death and injuries, they found that this kind of war was just a meaningless massacre and recognized the preposterous and brutal of the reality. War destroyed the human civilization, destroying the morals and values based on the humanitarianism. They wanted to fulfill their own values, but they failed. The worst thing was that they lost their previous dreams and conviction. Depression spread quickly like plague（徐 葆耕1990: 56）. They lost confident about future, missing the direction of life and was filled with the sense of loss and nihility. And their emotions full of hatred, so they tried hard to evade the reality and devoted themselves to the stimulus activities. They challenge to the morals and was immersed in the pessimistic and desperation. They became an unprecedented Lost Generation in American Society.
2.2 The influence of The Lost Generation and the conflict between the traditional cultures
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2.2.1 The influence to the social life
Many good, young men went to war and died, or returned home either physically or mentally wounded, and their faith in the moral guideposts that had earlier give them hope were no longer valid and they were “lost”. The Lost Generation seeking the bohemian lifestyle and rejecting the values of American materialism, they fled to France in the post World War Ⅰyears. 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. During the 1920s, a group of writers known as “The Lost Generation” gained popularity. These young writers put off their military uniform, rushing into the literary world and created some wonderful works. The three best known writers among the Lost Generation are F.scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and John Dospassos. 2.2.2 The significant to American culture
The Lost Generation is actually a group of American writers who were rebelling against what America had become by the 1900s. At this point in time, American had become a great place to “go into some area of business”. However, the Lost Generation writers felt that America was not such a success story because the country was devoid of a cosmopolitan culture, such as Paris and London. Here they expected to find literary freedom and a cosmopolitan way of life.
A cosmopolitan culture is one which includes and values a variety of backgrounds and culture. In the 1920’s the White Anglo Saxon Protestant work ethic was the only culture that was considered valued by the majority of Americans. It was because of ethnics such as this which made the cosmopolitan culture of Paris so alluring. American Literature went through a profound change in the post WWⅠera. Up until this point American writers were still experienced to use the rigid Victorian style of the 19th century. The Lost Generation writers were above, or apart from, American society, not only in geographic terms, but also in their style of writing and subjects they chose to write about. Although they were unhappy with American culture, the writers were instrumental in changing their temporary emigration of American talent into cosmopolitan cities such as Paris, is significant to American
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culture in the following two parts: One, because it aided in the desire for a cosmopolitan culture to be established and to exist in American. Two because when American culture became more defined, European and other countries began to recognize a distinction Democratic American Culture.
3. The reflection of The Lost Generation in The Sun Also Rises
3.1 A brief introduction to the author
Hemingway is one of the best known American authors in the 20th century. His talent in novel writing was widely admired at his time and now his works, especially his short stories are very popular among readers. Hemingway, one of the six children in the family, was born on July 12, 1899, Illinois. In the 1914, the First World War broke out, after working briefly as reporter, he volunteered for Red Cross ambulance service and went overseas. He then transferred to duty at the Italian front; it was just there that he was serious wounded in the explosion of a mortar shell. It was in 1918, after over ten times of operation, the doctor has taken 237 pieces of shrapnel just from his left leg (苏成全 2003: 69).After the First World War, Hemingway was suffered tortured by the nightmares about the war and he got insomnia frequently. Besides, Hemingway was injured many times in the Second World War, and after the war he encountered some misfortunes. For several years Hemingway suffered from physical ailments and emotional breakdown, which is widely believed to be the cause of his final suicide.
Reviewing the whole life of Hemingway, his war experience brought him great torment in his physical and mental aspect. He created his works with his experience to reflect the torment that American people had in that age:
In his fiction the nihilistic vision of sterility, failure, and death is modified by his affirmative assertion of the possibility of living with style and courage. Therefore, he often dealt with war and its effect on people, with contests such as hunting and bullfighting that demand stamina and courage, and with the
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question how to live with pain.（汪冷 2003: 269）
3.2 A brief introduction to the The Sun Also Rises
In this novel, a young American man Jack Barnes was injured during the World WarⅠ,which led him not to live with his dearest woman Brett Ashley in a normal life. The most importing thing was that his lover had a nature of romantic, longing for freedom and enjoyed the life. Jack was deeply in love with Brett. They knew each other for a long time but the reality not allowed them to live together. Jack, Brett and other friends went to Pamplona in Spain to join the Bullfighting Festival in order to pursue the mental stimulation. Brett refused Robert Cohn’ admire instead of falling love with a nineteen-year-old torero. However, after getting along with each other for a long times, the amour relationship was ended because of the gap of age. Brett came back to Jack at last though both of them knew that they could not get together forever. But both of them found a good entrance for themselves.
3.3 The main character’s features in this novel
Jack— lost but not be defeated
The novel was narrated in the first person by Jack Barnes who obviously was a shadow of Hemingway. They all experienced the First World War, suffering the physically and mentally wounded and lost in the social life after the war. Jack was on behalf the Lost Generation in real life. In the novel, Jack was on the “iceberg” with emptiness and lost, benumbing himself with alcohol to escape the realism. However, Jack is different with the other “Lost Generation” in this novel, instead, he did not escaped blindly. In some extent, he was seeking the prewar’ manliness and he was not completeness given up his philosophy and values. This point is similar with Hemingway. Jack could be defeated but not be overthrew. Jack’ life was resembled with his contemporary, and they were all casualties of the war. But the difference was that Jack did not let his confusion and maze in emption eroded in the extent of that contemporary. He was swayed in whether assimilate with others or preserve himself with serious hurts. Comparing with the corrupt people, in Jack’ inner heart he still wanted to grasp something and he was struggling. He wanted to reserve the
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self-restraint of life:
Perhaps, as you went along you did learn something. I did not care what it was all about. All I wanted to know was how to live in it. Maybe if you found out hoe to live in it you learned from what it was all about. (Howard 1985: 65)
Hemingway portrayed Jack as an extremely tragedy hero. The dissipated outside world and impuissant body and soul caused by war beat Jack again and again, but he never failed to struggle and strive. Jack’ tolerance, honesty, patience and intellectuality proved that he took the same status with others as a hero. Cohn— strong on the surface but recreance inside
Another character Robert Cohn had never experienced the war and he still stuck the prewar’ traditional values, which was excluded by jack and others. He was on behalf the traditional Romanticism. In the novel, he had a strong physique and was a boxing champion in collage. Besides, he had an easy manner which was traditionally regarded as real men. However, he was recreance inside and always was controlled by women. His traditional values excluded himself from the social life and lost direction, which was a behinder. After human suffered from a horrible war, the men mettles was a spiritual strength for Hemingway to resist the absurd world. It was satirized that Jack’s strong physique and gentle were an opposite of Hemingway’ men. The pursuing love, dream and self-dignity of Cohn was not relevant with Hemingway’s. His words, relief and values were divorced from reality and could not catch up with the step of the age. Cohn was portrayed as inexperienced and decadents, chivalry, representing large quantities of American youth who were not mature in mental. Cohn didn’t understand that there was no romantic love on the ruins of the western civilization. The previous morals, ethics, loves and life pursuing were destroyed by the cruel war. He thought the faithful amour could counter everything, but at last he just gained the weeping tears and company’ contemptuous. Modern woman Brett— a combination of paradox
The female character Brett had double personalities. Her unconventional and unrestrained life was a new image of women after war. At the same time, she still
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remained some traditional values. This point could be proved from her refusing
Romero, because she didn’t want to ruin the young torero. When Brett first appeared, she gave people an impression of fashion. The sexy clothes and her hair was combed backward was almost the features of modern women. The new women in this period were not satisfied with the traditional rule — virtuous wife and kind mother. Instead, they tried to get away the range of activities, and rushed into a range of men’s activities to catch their attention. Brett was one of those women. She eschewed the tradition rule, rushing into men’s activities, having excessive drinking and flirted with men; she also joined the Basque’s revelry and went to Pamplona in Spain to join the Bullfighting Festival. In sexual love, she chose friends freely and changed one man to another, but she never promised her whole life to one man. Hemingway seems to tell us that as she is with Jake and Jake’s male friends, World War I seems to have played an essential part in the formation of Brett Ashley’s character (Chen 2005: 52). However, just as the other modern women who were in transition, she could not completely free herself from the ties and influence which she gained from the tradition feudal ethnical code. Therefore, the impelling of the modern tendency as well as the yoke of traditional values made Brett sank into a dilemma. Brett had double personalities and was a combination of paradox. Sometime her behavior and thought were a compromise of tradition and revolution. Not being repented but still tied by tradition made her more and more lost, restless and pain. Romero— The Lost Generation’s dream
Another character Romero was a young torero. He was different with the other three characters. In the novel, Romero was not “lost” but dignity and confident. He had a fulfilled life and goal. Different with Cohn, he symbolized complete and undestroyed traditional values. Hemingway portrayed Romero as pure, graceful and complete. Romero was unique in this novel because he represented the system of ideal value that had never been destroyed by the war. Firstly, he was different with Jack and his friends. His job bullfight entrust him a meaningful life. On the contrary, Jack didn’t get the satisfaction from his journalist career and Cohn didn’t find the goal of life from writing. It was the difference among Romero, Jack and Cohn. In this novel,
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bullfighting was a part of Romero’s life and made his life more meaningful, which was the Lost Generation lost. Jack had said:” No one’s life was colorful as well as torero.” Romero’s bullfighting skills were more quick, efficient and easiness. Hemingway implied the undestroyed traditional values from the description of Romero’s bullfighting skills. Romero’s symbolization could not be replaced just because of his existed that made Jack, Cohn and Brett’s emptiness and lost more clearly. What’s more, it led reader know what they had lost, and in that time the reader could comprehend the root of their “lost”. Maybe Romero was considered as the only character that symbolized the hope and strength by Hemingway. Therefore Romero represented the pursuing of life and hope.
4. The relationship among The Lost Generation, Hemingway and The Sun Also Rises
4.1 The Lost Generation and Hemingway
“The Lost Generation” literature was closely connected with Hemingway. It was a literature genre that appeared between Traditional Realism and Modern Realism. This kind of genre had no common principle and unified system, but these” Lost Generation” writers had same experiences and emotions, that was, they all experienced the war and had physically and mentally wounded. They witnessed the hypocritical and corrupt of the western civilization, puzzled by the dream, losing the direction and had no confidence to face the future. They pondered the meaning of life, the value of life but finally they could not be harmony with the society and found that life and reality were unreal and lost. In their works, they concentrated on people’ misery experience, mental scar and depressed inside, which full of the emotion of pessimistic and distressed. In their literary techniques, they made every effort to breach the tradition, pursuing creativity and excessively used symbolic, ideology and other technique of Modern Realism. Ernest Hemingway was one of the most famous “The Lost Generation” writers.
A large part of Hemingway’ success was due to the influence of world famous contemporary writers who befriended and advised him to write, such as Sherwood
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Anderson, William Bird. What’s more, Hemingway’s war experience was also greatly influenced his work, providing background material, settings, and themes for his writing. Most of Hemingway heroes were seriously wounded physically and psychologically in World Way One. They were injured in the back, in the knee, or even in the sexual organs. Their physical wounds result in their spiritual wounds. Having been damaged by the war, these characters were “Lost Generation”. A Farewell to Arms was based on some of his experience in World War One to show that the war was the root of the characters tragedy and the root of the whole “Lost Generation”. The Sun Also Rises described American youth’s lost and depressed after war to show the struggle of the characters and the struggle of the whole” Lost Generation”. Therefore, Hemingway used his works to reveal the wounds that the war brought them, showing reader more specific of The Lost Generation.
4.2Hemingway and The Sun Also Rises
The Sun Also Rises was regarded as Hemingway’s most wholly satisfying book by most critics, for its narrative tone and his famous understated ironic prose style, Hemingway excelled in using short and precise dialogue to tell his story and made the people live and act, using it to enrich and develop characters from without, and using it strengthen the theme. Hemingway’s dialogue had four major functions:
Firstly, Hemingway’ dialogue is direct speech which is more lively and straight. Secondly, Hemingway employs dialogue to showing the story instead of telling the story which makes the narrator stands aside and gives the floor to other characters, Thirdly, Hemingway’s dialogue can accelerate the narrative speed of the novel and make his story move with intensity. At last, Hemingway uses plenty of colloquial words in his dialogue, through which obscures the distance between the narrator’s language style and the other character’s. (张薇 2002: 57-61)
Having discussed the narrative style in The Sun Also Rises, this paper may pay much attention on the role of the novel and Hemingway himself. In this novel, the background and experience of the main characters were similar with Hemingway.
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According to Hemingway’s families, they recalled that when Hemingway returned from the war, he was really different. He didn’t want to work, didn’t want to go to college, he didn’t want to do anything and became a person without goal (刘剑锋 2001: 80).In some point, Jack was an autobiography of Hemingway, and Brett was an English woman who had American temperament. Besides, the other characters in the novel were related with Hemingway. As we all know, Hemingway had experienced the First World War and behaved bravely, but he was physically wounded. Jack’s injury of sexual organ and journalist identity were true-to-life portrayal of Hemingway’s experiences. And similar with Jack, Hemingway’s love was frustrated by an American nurse who was fall in love with Hemingway but finally married with another person. It was obviously to see the depression of Hemingway. So he traveled to Europe, seeing the bullfighting, skiing, boxing, going fishing, drinking and writing. In that time Hemingway didn’t find the existence of value, direction and goal. He still insomnia the adventure of the war. Although the war brought them unrecovered wound, the war was one of their life experience and they could not forget it. War destroyed them but at the same time war built up them. During the war, they experienced the text of courage, friendship and locality. But in peaceful time, all of these were disappeared. So they felt life was boring and vacant. Hemingway’s experience was the foundation of Jack.
As for Brett, her life and cloth were full of American style. Although she was wrote as an English, her desire for happiness, careless about sex and the struggle of unwilling to be degenerated had the basis of American reality and related with Hemingway’s experiences. The character of Brett was described based on a girlfriend of Hemingway who was beauty and sexy. She was popular among men and Hemingway was also addicted to her just like Brett to Jack, but finally they didn’t get together. The love stories in The Sun Also Rises are like a symphony of the Lost Generation. They show us the sourness, sweetness, bitterness, hotness of love, joys and sorrows of life and they also show us the love’s multiplicity and perplexity of the Lost Generation. Some of the plot of the novel was the author’s experience. So it led the novel more real and vivid.
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4.3 The Lost Generation and The Sun Also Rises
The Sun Also Rises reflected the traditional value and belief influenced by the war. They found that human was tiny, life was insignificant and the death was at the corner, so they lost, depressed and pessimistic. It was no doubt that the physically and mentally wounded was the reason that made the youth lost and pessimistic, but it just was objective reason and background. This novel didn’t emphasis the point, instead, the author pay much attention on the psychology after war. It was a process of pursuing and exploring. It was a soul’s soliloquy struggled in reality.
The youth in that age suffered a lot, and Jack was a model. His life was full of conflict and contradistinction. The war was over and injuries had been caused, but how to face the reality was the main theme of the novel. In the novel, Jack and his friends chose to evade the contrast of the ideal, the vanishment of dream and the cruelty of reality. But were they really “lost”? No, they wanted to accuse of the hypocritical of the war; they had to tolerate the wounds but still fighting; they knew they had chance to pursue the ideal but they gave up. ”Lost” was an image. These characters actually knew what they wanted and what they pursued, just because the turbid world made them lost direction. But after they experienced the tortures, they found the entrance of the soul. Jack last said: “It’s OK to think like that”. He knew that time never stopped for their hurts, no one care about their sufferings and no one recall the past, so did history. Only they could rescue themselves. Hemingway had said that if you hadn’t experienced one thing, you couldn’t understand its real meaning. When Jack and his friends experienced these sufferings, they could find the direction. And found an entrance to the spirit and emotion.
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Ⅴ. Conclusion
As representative of The Lost Generation, Hemingway’s work reflected the influence of traditional values and belief after war. They had suffered physically and mentally wounded. So when they returned from the war, they felt the life was short and fragile and then they began to enjoy the life. All of these were a true-to-life portrayal of Hemingway’s pessimistic and lost in his thought, but Hemingway was not exactly nihilism and pessimism. He had his own belief and hope, wanting to show the truth to the reader and helped people to build up new belief and gained new hope.
The Sun Also Rises revealed us a real life of The Lost Generation after war. The novel represented Hemingway and the whole Lost Generation’s conflict and contradiction. On the one hand, Hemingway lost his belief, losing the hope of life and addicted into the comforts, on the other hand, Hemingway desired to fight, challenging and never be defeated. Just as the characters in the novel, they were built up by the age and they also influenced the age. They found the spirit and emption entrance through their special life experience, standing up through the injuries that the history brought them and finally entered the new life and hope. It was regarded as the real meaning of “The Lost Generation”.
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