World War I Literature Packet The Lost Generation Many Americans were shocked by the horrors of World War I. They thought that something must be very wrong with traditional values if those values caused World War I. Nothing could excuse the death and destruction that young men and women experienced during the war. American writers traveled to Europe in search of inspiration. They hoped to create something new in a land where the old world had been destroyed. These Americans were expatriates, or people who choose to live in a foreign country. American writer Gertrude Stein spent most of her life in France. She described these wandering Americans as the Lost Generation. These writers included F. Scott Fitzgerald, Sinclair Lewis, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, and Stein herself. They were lost because they felt strongly that something was wrong but did not know what to do about it. They wrote stories and poetry that criticized consumer society. The novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife, Zelda, spent many years traveling in Europe. They mostly traveled throughout France. In his book Tender is the Night, Fitzgerald wrote about how his generation was damaged emotionally by World War I. According to Fitzgerald, they were dedicated to the fear of poverty and the worship of success. This description reflects the commercialism in the United States. Fitzgerald s most famous novel is The Great Gatsby. The main characters are obsessed with money and how to spend it. They go to lavish parties and are always looking for entertainment. Their relationships are based on lies. Fitzgerald was speaking out about his problem with people who care more about social position and money than personal relationships. Ernest Hemingway was another famous novelist who spent many years living in Europe. The characters in his books The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms are members of the Lost Generation. William Faulkner s story The Bear tells the story of a boy coming to terms with the adult world by learning to hunt. The story celebrates pride, humility, and courage. Faulkner feared that these qualities were being lost as Americans left the country for the city. He thought that people needed to be connected to nature. Industrialization took that away. Sinclair Lewis wrote about small-town life in his novel Babbitt. He showed how consumerism and conformity in American values created boredom and destroyed happiness. During the 1920s, many American writers and thinkers studied the effects of a changing American society on those men and women who grew up during World War I. Their works reveal the problems of the Jazz Age. 1. How did life change the way the famous artists mentioned above created their art and literature? 2. How did literature respond to the cultural changes of the 1920s? 4-6 Sentences
Document 1: A Farewell to Arms By: Ernest Hemmingway The wounded were coming into the post, some were carried on stretchers, some walking, and some were brought on the backs of men that came across the field. They were wet to the skin and all were scared. We filled two cars with stretcher cases as they came up from the cellar of the post and I shut the door of the second car and fastened it. I felt the rain on my face turn to snow. The flakes were coming heavy and fast in the rain. 1. How does Hemmingway portray war in this section? When daylight came the storm was still blowing, but the snow had stopped. It had melted as it fell on the wet ground and now it was raining again. There was another attack just after daylight but it was unsuccessful. We expected an attack all day, but it did not come until the sun was going down. The bombardment started to the south below the long wooded ridge where the Austrian guns were concentrated. We expected a bombardment, but it did not come. It was getting dark. Guns were firing from the field behind the village and the shells, going away, had a comfortable sound. 2. How is the day to day life of a solider described in this passage? 3. If this was how it was during World War I, how would this mentally impact soldiers? We heard that the attack to the south had been unsuccessful. They did not attack that night, but we heard that they had broken through to the north. In the night word came that we were to prepare to retreat. The captain at the post told me this. He had it from the Brigade. A little while later, he came from the telephone and said it was a lie. The Brigade had received orders that the line of the Bainsizza should be held no matter what happened. I asked about the breakthrough and he said he had heard at the Brigade that the Austrians had broken though the twenty-seventh arms corps up toward Caporetto. There had been a great battle in the north all day. 4. If you were a solider, how would this day to day grind impact you? How would you feel about war after a month of this? 5. Would you be a part of the Lost Generation after this? 6. What larger statement do you think Hemmingway is trying to make about the nature of warfare in the 20 th century? *4-6 Sentences, cite examples from the text. Document 2: Here Dead We Lie, by A. E. Housman Here dead we lie Because we did not choose To live and shame the land From which we sprung. Life, to be sure, Is nothing much to lose, But young men think it is, And we were young. 7. What is the author s purpose of the last line in the poem? 8. Death is the focus of this poem. How did the author portray death? 9. A potential theme of this poem could be Why must the good die young? Why would this be accurate?
Document 3: Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front, 1929 I am young, I am twenty years old; yet I know nothing of life but despair, death, fear, and fatuous superficiality cast over an abyss of sorrow. I see how peoples are set against one another, and in silence, unknowingly, foolishly, obediently, innocently slay one another. I see that the keenest brains of the world invent weapons and words to make it yet more refined and enduring. And all men of my age, here and over there, throughout the whole world see these things; all my generation is experiencing these things with me. What would our fathers do if we suddenly stood up and came before them and proffered our account? What do they expect of us if a time ever comes when the war is over? Through the years our business has been killing; -- it was our first calling in life. Our knowledge of life is limited to death. What will happen afterwards? And what shall come out of us? 10. What is the mood, tone, and perspective of this document? 11. What would you say the person speaking is feeling based on the reading? 12. What bigger message is the author trying to get at? Document 4: Excerpt from The Waste Land By: T.S. Elliott After the torchlight red on sweaty faces After the frosty silence in the gardens After the agony in stony places The shouting and the crying Prison and palace and reverberation Of thunder of spring over distant mountains He who was living is now dead We who were living are now dying With a little patience 13. What war event is this poem describing? What evidence from the text tells us this? 14. What is the purpose of the last line? What does that tell us about the mindset of the soldiers? 15. Describe what you see in the painting. 16. Describe the mood of this painting. 17. Is there any symbolism in the painting about people? Why or why not?
Document 5: The Cenotaph, by Charlotte Mew Not yet will those measureless fields be green again Where only yesterday the wild sweet blood of wonderful youth was shed; There is a grave whose earth must hold too long, too deep a stain, Though forever over it we may speak as proudly as we may tread. But here, where the watchers by lonely hearths from the thrust of an inward sword have more slowly bled, We shall build the Cenotaph: Victory, winged, with Peace, winged too, at the column's head. And over the stairway, at the foot - oh! here, leave desolate, passionate hands to spread Violets, roses, and laurel with the small sweet twinkling country things Speaking so wistfully of other Springs From the little gardens of little places where son or sweetheart was born and bred. In splendid sleep, with a thousand brothers To lovers - to mothers Here, too, lies he: Under the purple, the green, the red, It is all young life: it must break some women's hearts to see Such a brave, gay coverlet to such a bed! Only, when all is done and said, God is not mocked and neither are the dead. For this will stand in our Market-place - Who'll sell, who'll buy Will you or I Lie each to each with the better grace)? While looking into every busy whore's and huckster's face As they drive their bargains, is the Face Of God: and some young, piteous, murdered face. 18. What is the poem discussing? What clues from the text demonstrate this? 19. An underlying theme of this poem is loss. What has been lost? Use the text to support your answer. 20. Where do you think the setting of this poem is? What clues in the text tell you this?
Document 6: "Belleau Wood" By: Garth Brooks Oh, the snowflakes fell in silence Over Belleau Wood that night For a Christmas truce had been declared By both sides of the fight As we lay there in our trenches The silence broke in two By a German soldier singing A song that we all knew Though I did not know the language The song was "Silent Night" Then I heard my buddy whisper, "All is calm and all is bright" Then the fear and doubt surrounded me 'Cause I'd die if I was wrong But I stood up in my trench And I began to sing along Then across the frozen battlefield Another's voice joined in Until one by one each man became A singer of the hymn Then I thought that I was dreaming For right there in my sight Stood the German soldier 'Neath the falling flakes of white And he raised his hand and smiled at me As if he seemed to say Here's hoping we both live To see us find a better way Then the devil's clock struck midnight And the skies lit up again And the battlefield where heaven stood Was blown to hell again But for just one fleeting moment The answer seemed so clear Heaven's not beyond the clouds It's just beyond the fear No, heaven's not beyond the clouds It's for us to find it here 21. Explain what happened during the song. 22. What time of year is this song placed in? Document 7: You Are Creating One Directions: Write a poem about World War I that is a minimum of twelve lines.