The Lost Generation

After World War 1, the landscape of Europe was forever changed. This can also be taken in a literal sense. Whole areas in Eastern France and Belgium had been turned into a wasteland. The men that exited that wasteland after the war ended were forever changed. Today, I talk about the men who didn't exit the hellish trenches of the battlefields of WW1. Europe was in shambles after the war, with the victors squabbling over peace. The world's view on war had been forever altered. Poetry, stories, and art of soldiers who experienced the war tarnished the view that war was necessarily and honorable. Soldiers left the battlefields of Europe to return home to struggle with their injuries. Some had been crippled and could not walk, while others were scarred by poison gas. All of the soldiers carried emotional burdens that only the terrors of warfare can bring. Many soldiers had trouble coming back to society, and many never successfully reintegrated, still stuck in the trenches. These thoughts were captured in a deluge of writing and art that shows the raw emotions these soldiers went through. Ernest Hemingway, one of the most famous American writers to put pen on paper, described this group of struggling men as the ¨Lost Generation¨. This lost generation has parallels towards today's soldiers. Today, PTSD is seen as a valid neurological disorder. Help for soldiers is more easily available, In the days of the ¨Lost Generation¨, the soldiers had no help for their demons. The soldiers who came back were fragmented and struggled to find meaning, but the soldiers who never came back were irreplaceable parts of society. After the war, entire towns in Europe would be full of children, old men, and women. All the men of fighting age had been killed in a far off war. The entire generation had been crippled by a world war. The culture after the days of the war to end all wars was that of depression and definitely not of optimism. Crippling debt in Germany and other countries was the norm for many. These soldiers struggled to find jobs. The soldiers returning to the US received a hero's welcome, but as the appeal of victory faded away, so did the support of civilians. The amount of lives lost in the war was an incredible amount. Entire towns full of men never returned to their wives and children. This Lost Generation helped define the culture after the First World War, a culture of loss and breaking long held beliefs and values. A time of despair which was best shown through a generation of lost men.