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The Lost Generation In Jonathan Goldman's The Sun Also Rises

1399 Words6 Pages

The lost generation of the 1920s was a social class that at the same time was not socially accepted. It was mainly composed of younger people, born in or near the 20th century, who didn’t have a career and they were moving forward with the way men and women lived, how newer things in life were coming into play. Life wasn’t being lived in the traditional Victorian way. Women’s rights were advancing, and styles were changing such as women’s hair was being cut shorter, men were coming from war changed, seeming as rebels. Young people wanted to dance when jazz was becoming more and more popular, and they wanted to rebel in a way, but mainly young people wanted to find themselves and who they are. Needless to say the lost generation was thought of as outcasts to the normal way of life in the 1920s.
In the story of The Sun Also Rises the main theme is the lost generation. Each character possesses qualities that place them in this …show more content…

Jonathan Goldman is an associate professor at the New York Institute of Technology can agree with this statement. Goldman says that the book has a many main focuses, one of them being drinking. They go from several bars and cafes, having beer what seems to be almost every day. The lost generation also found a sort of comfort in drinking. Prohibition started in 1920 which could have possibly influenced the moving to Europe. Alcohol could have been a way to deal with certain issues or to fill an emptiness in the lost generation. The characters bring out some true colors when they are drunk, when in about ¾ of the book, Mike who is Brett’s fiancé asks Cohn why he keeps trying to get with Brett when he knows she’s engaged and doesn’t want him. “I can’t blame them. Can you blame them? Why do you follow Brett around? Haven’t you any manners? How do you think it makes me feel?” (pg. 147) Cohn is embarrassed and storms off. It shows that alcohol brings out a bad side in people in the

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