Summary of The Sad Young Men(4页).doc

-Summary of The Sad Young MenThis article is jointly written by Rod W. Horton and Herbert W. Edwards, which addresses the e disillusionment of the post-World War I younger generation, who, the authors argue, was never really “lost” and still managed to produce numerous valuable works. Revolt of the Younger Generation has been the most controversial and dramatized aspect of the life in the 1920s. Young people at that time appeared wild, irresponsible and immoral in social behavior. In fact, this was the necessary result of the then circumstance. The entire Western World, not only the United States, experienced the rebellion. The reason why young people started to rebel against the Victorian gentility was the development of the American industry. Additionally, the war had accelerated the breakdown of the Victorian social structure. The world changing, the youth was faced with the task of updating the mores. However, many escaped their responsibilities and indulged themselves in the Bohemian immorality. The revelers did not face up to their problem until the money ran out and the economic structure crashed. During the War World I, such rebellion started. Ignorant of modern warfare and inspired by orators like Theodore Roosevelt, young men rushed to enlist and regarded army service as romantic and of great personal value. Inevitably, their fever towards the war dissolved once they had truly got involved in it. When they returned home, they were not admired by their fellow men and were even denied job opportunities. Moreover, they realized that the war was actually for the benefit of certain interest groups instead of democracy. They felt unfit for the old world and that the Victorian gentility was outdated, leading to their complete overthrow of such morality.Then they went to Greenwich Village, the traditional intellectual center, where they directed their works against the war and the old world while advocating love, art and sensation. Soon, their Bohemian living with its unconventionality became popular around the country in the form of material indulgence. However, the true intellectuals were not satisfied in the slightest. They wanted people to be sensitive to art instead of material gains, but they were ignored. They felt lost and emigrated to the Europe, where they accomplished numerous masterpieces attacking the atmosphere in the American society.Actually the "lost generation" was never really lost. The money-oriented society made them appear critical, cynic, antisocial, misdirected and wild, but not lost. They still loved their country and provided it with the most stimulating literary works in the word. 第 4 页-