Lost Generation Essay Example
World War 1: The Lost Generation
On November 11th, 1918, the first Great War, World War 1, came to an end. Two
hundred thousand American soldiers lost their lives. Those who were fortunate enough to make
it back home had lost their spirits. Their generation had to suffer the brutality, hypocrisy,
disillusionment and alienation of this war. Their generation is known as the Lost Generation,
yet the painful memories of that war remained with them for no one to understand. World War 1 was predicted to last for a short period of time. At that time people lived a
monotonous life with very few sources of entertainment. When the idea of entering the war was
introduced to them, it sounded exciting and very adventurous. To them this was just a new form
of entertainment. It was right then and there when the disillusionment began. They were not
being taught what they needed to know about war. The soldiers did not understand that they had
to sacrifice a lot even their own lives. They had no idea about what they were risking. It was
when they saw their brothers and friends lying breathless on the ground, that they saw a different
sight then they had imagined. That it was nowhere near the fun and excitement that they were
expecting. On the contrary, it was a miserable and most merciless experience. The brutality was restless. Millions of dead bodies lying on the ground were being pulled
down to the trenches where all of the soldiers were hiding. They were living in those trenches for
days, weeks and even months with the decomposing bodies and rats that were gathering from all
over to feed off of them. Many days spent without food or clean water and other basic human
necessities. Those cruel conditions had brought out the selfishness in them. At that time there
was only one goal, and that was to do anything necessary in order to survive. It was disappointing for them to see that they were
On November 11th, 1918, the first Great War, World War 1, came to an end. Two
hundred thousand American soldiers lost their lives. Those who were fortunate enough to make
it back home had lost their spirits. Their generation had to suffer the brutality, hypocrisy,
disillusionment and alienation of this war. Their generation is known as the Lost Generation,
yet the painful memories of that war remained with them for no one to understand. World War 1 was predicted to last for a short period of time. At that time people lived a
monotonous life with very few sources of entertainment. When the idea of entering the war was
introduced to them, it sounded exciting and very adventurous. To them this was just a new form
of entertainment. It was right then and there when the disillusionment began. They were not
being taught what they needed to know about war. The soldiers did not understand that they had
to sacrifice a lot even their own lives. They had no idea about what they were risking. It was
when they saw their brothers and friends lying breathless on the ground, that they saw a different
sight then they had imagined. That it was nowhere near the fun and excitement that they were
expecting. On the contrary, it was a miserable and most merciless experience. The brutality was restless. Millions of dead bodies lying on the ground were being pulled
down to the trenches where all of the soldiers were hiding. They were living in those trenches for
days, weeks and even months with the decomposing bodies and rats that were gathering from all
over to feed off of them. Many days spent without food or clean water and other basic human
necessities. Those cruel conditions had brought out the selfishness in them. At that time there
was only one goal, and that was to do anything necessary in order to survive. It was disappointing for them to see that they were