Lost Generation

Jack Kerouac and Ernest Hemingway represent their inner state and feelings at the time they lived through their novels. Ernest Hemingway corresponds to the “Lost Generation” of 1920’s and Jack Kerouac corresponds to the “Beat Generation” of 1950’s. Both of these generations were after wars. It is not coincidence, wars make people devastated and lost. People tried to overcome problems and pain through literature and music. Writers put all their emotions on the paper, musicians wrote songs, which described the hard time they had. These two generations produced the most talented writers of our days. For us it seems that there was no big deal to write such openly, but if we try to go back to the time of these authors, we will understand how brave they were to write about the truth. In these two post war eras people tried to redefine their place in society and that we see this through gender role and relationships among men and women. Generally though you find the redefinitions in “The Sun Also Rises” to be pessimistic, but while “On the Road” they tend to be optimistic. Woman is given high importance in Hemingway’s novel, whereas Kerouac introduced women with less importance. These authors have differences and similarities in their novels. Both of them wrote in a post war eras, both of them described people’ s lifestyles, both of them introduced new view on the gender roles at that time. But, Hemingway wrote with the pessimistic view on life, whereas Kerouac believed in a meaning of life, yet to be found. Hemingway wrote, “The Sun Also rises” after the First World War during the “Lost Generation”. The war changed the perception of morality and justice. The traditional values and the roles of gender changed. This book pictures true story of what happened to the society and how gender roles changed. Before the war, “true women” were characterized as religious and obedient to their men. Women looked after their families, cooked, and did not worked out in public