University College London

Department of Literature

The Spirit of the 1920s:

Images of the

Postwar Decade in American Literature

Termpaper
by
Rohland Schuknecht

Contents

I. Introduction 3

II. The Experience of War 4

III. The Sun also Rises - Textbook of a Lost Generation 6

IV. The Great Gatsby and the Moral Waste Land of the Rich 8

V. Babbitt and the American Middle Class 12

VI. A Decade of Irresponsibility? 14

VII. Conclusion 18

Bibliography 21

I. Introduction

A broad view on some of the major works of American literature in the 1920s raises the question: How can one possibly draw any general conclusion about the social and cultural reality of the decade out of these pieces? Take for example the experimental works of American poets, the poems of Ezra Pound, Hart Crane, E.E. Cummings, William Carlos Williams or the plays of Eugene O′Neill. They were primarily concerned with an aesthetic revolution and with the artist′s place in modern society.

There are works of fiction which many critics view today as expressions of the literary spirit of the decade, the works of Francis Scott Fitzgerald, Theodore Dreiser, Ernest Hemingway, John Dos Passos and others. These authors tell stories of alienation from modern life, culture, society and moral standards. Their works appear as expressions of an escape which was not only virtual but physical, as Europe and Paris in particular became an important centre of American literary life in the 1920s.¹ Yet they remained American writers, writing about the country they had chosen to abandon in favour of artistic freedom even if they observed it from a distance, even if they might have felt as members of a `Lost Generation′.

Naturally literary criticism focuses on the formal achievements of these writers, their share in the creation of what we call today Modernism. My purpose is to present the works of some of the writers of the decade in relation to the development of American culture and society. I want to examine a few of the literary themes that might be interpreted as a new approach to and a significant record of, what Hoffman calls the `human condition′ in the post-war decade.² They imply often a notion of disillusionment and confusion rather than an explicit critique of the world they describe. Direct critique was provided by an older generation, men like Van Wyck Brooks, Sinclair Lewis, and H.L. Mencken and focused on the rising American middle class.

In dealing with literature one is moving away from historical `facts′ and enters the empire of ideas and emotions, of fictional and aesthetic re-shaping of `reality′. Is it possible to grasp the `spirit′ of the 1920s through some of its major literary works or do these works represent merely the view of a minority of artists and intellectuals?

First I will refer to the war as a major caesura in cultural terms and - for most of the writers of the 1920s - the definite dawn of the modern age. By examining three exemplary novels of the decade - Ernest Hemingway′s The Sun Also Rises, Francis Scott Fitzgerald′s The Great Gatsby and Sinclair Lewis′ Babbitt - I will attempt to portray the 1920s as a period of spiritual and cultural confusion deriving out of a fundamental re-definition of values and culture as a whole. I have chosen these works primarily for one reason. These novels are expressions of doubt or critique about the modern age and American society, though in very different ways. Some of the major literary themes of the time - disillusionment, social rebellion, resignation, hedonism, pessimism, melancholy, irony, and tragedy - are rather surprising if we consider the 1920s as a decade of economic prosperity and rising affluence. In the last chapter I will discuss some points of the sharp critique that emerged shortly after the end of the decade and accused the writers of the `Jazz Age′ of social irresponsibility, escapism, and pointless cynicism.

II. The Experience of War

There has been written much, maybe too much, about the so-called ‘Lost Generation’ and the term has become a cliché in itself, vaguely linked with Bohemian life, literary escapism and social rebellion.³ I will not attempt to portray the members of this generation as a social type or group, for I believe that they were first and foremost highly autonomous individuals which is most clearly apparent in their work. Yet, they shared the same devotion to art and the same disillusionment over the world they lived in. Were did this disillusionment come from? In which way reflected or affected it the ‘spirit’ of the decade and in which way was it misdirected?

The First World War marks a major turning point. Brought up under the crusading spirit of the progressive era, many of the future writers went to war with vague ideals about a ‘fight for civilisation’ and the battlefield as testing ground of manly virtues. Most of them enlisted before America’s entry into the war in foreign armies, particularly as ambulance and ammunition drivers.⁴

They experienced the real or virtual presence of death and destruction, the lack of any notion of heroism or glory in the daily routine of killing or being killed, the hollow phrases of propaganda, the speeches of politicians and military leaders and the mechanisation of war.

[...]

1 It is important to note that I am concerned with the branch of literature which found its way into the `official′ canon, not with highly successful but forgotten works of popular fiction. It appears as if the gap between commercial literature, as part of the emerging entertainment industry, and `highbrow′ literature became wider in the post-war decade. Yet, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and Dos Passos soon achieved popular success as well.

2 Frederick J. Hoffman, The Twenties: American Writing in the Postwar Decade, New York: Free Press, 1962 (1st published in 1949). I am largely indebted to Hoffman′s work, a brilliant study of the major literary trends of the postwar era.

3 Malcolm Cowley mentions Francis Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, E.E. Cummings, Hart Crane, Thornton Wilder, William Faulkner, Thomas Wolfe as the most important members of the Lost Generation. However Cowley admits that the term ‘lost’ is misguiding if one examines the achievements of these writers and poets. See Malcolm Cowley, The Second Flowering: Works and Days of the Lost Generation, London: Deutsch, 1973.

4 Among the American writers who served as ambulance or camion drivers during the war were John Dos Passos, Ernest Hemingway, Louis Bromfield, William Seabrook, Larry Barretto, E.E. Cummings, Harry Crosby, and Sidney Howard. See Malcolm Cowley, Exile’s Return: A Narrative of Ideas, London: Cape, 1935, 46. Cowley states that “one might almost say that the ambulance corps and the French military transport were college-extension courses for a generation of writers” (p. 46-7).