Lost Generation; Lost Purpose

In the wake of World War One, authors struggled to make sense of the meaning behind the world. It became undeniably more difficult as the world sought for comfort in senseless living throughout the Roaring Twenties. Perhaps it was inevitable that writers, those steeped in worlds of thematic purpose and meaning, would be among the most identifiably impacted artists of the Lost Generation. We are all well aware and well versed in their stories. I’d like to unpack them, however, specifically with this quest for purpose in mind.

Let’s start with Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls. The work follows Robert Jordan, an American in the Spanish Civil War. Like Chekhov’s gun, the fate of each character seems inevitable within the first couple chapters- Jordan will die blowing up a bridge; he will fall in love with the gypsy girl; his comrade will put their simple mission in grave jeopardy. It becomes clear that Hemingway’s world sought a simple purpose over a happy ending. Life could be satisfactory so long as a purpose was achievable. This is reflected as well in The Old Man and the Sea, where a man begins a long, life-threatening battle with a fish. “A man can be destroyed but not defeated,” the narrator quietly suggests. For so long as there is a purpose, the world is understandable.

The Great Gatsby deals with a similar theme. Gatsby, too, is involved in a silly quest that seems to have more on the line than first suggested. Daisy is horribly shallow, yet he pursues her as though she can give his life meaning. I think he misplaced his hope- steeped in corruption, he sought her as one memory in his life of an innocent joy, when they were both young. He made her his purpose, when in reality he sought something he along with all of society had lost with the war. 

Innocence.

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