The Great Gatsby Speaks for a Lost Generation

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The Great Gatsby Speaks for a Lost Generation Imagine trying to return to a normal existence after a devastating war filled with unimaginable horrors. These experiences could certainly alter anyone’s perception of what is important in life. For a group of young Americans known as the Lost Generation, World War I and its aftereffects caused them to reexamine their entire value system and question all they ever believed to be true about the world they knew. Author Gertrude Stein said of them, “All you young people who served in the war are a lost generation. You have no respect for anything. You drink yourselves to death.” This quote typifies the Lost Generation. These writers, artists, and performers living in Europe as expatriates, had lost their way in the world. Their belief in their fellow man and the existence of God, or any other guiding force, was shaken. The devastating experiences of World War I and the death of so many of their generation’s best and brightest young men caused disillusionment with the American way of life. The Great Gatsby (1925), written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is considered by many to be the literary work which best represents the Lost Generation. Jay Gatsby’s story, told by first person narrator Nick Carraway, depicts the tragic, yet ultimately hopeful tale of a young man who wishes nothing more than to recreate and relive a magical moment in time before the war; a time when love was fresh and life full of expectations and dreams. The Jazz Age setting, and that era’s extreme lifestyle changes, perfectly reflects the moral struggles at the heart of the novel. The underlying yet ever present backdrop for The Great Gatsby relies upon the representation of the Lost Generation through setting, symbols, and characters such as Daisy Buchanan, Jay Gatsby, and Nick Carraway. The character of Daisy Buchanan exemplifies a loss of a moral
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