Comparison of the Lost Generation and the Beat Generation----Analysis from Novels of Hemingway and Kerouac.docVIP

comparison of the lost generation and the beat generation -analysis from novels of hemingway and kerouac“迷茫的一代”与“垮掉的一代”的对比以海明威与凯鲁亚克的小说为例comparison of “the lost generation” and “the beat generation”-analysis from novels of hemingway and kerouacabstract: the lost generation and the beat generation are two different schools of literature movements, which appeared in different periods. one occurred in the first world war, the other in the second world war. these two hold different views and literal thoughts. these two schools have different representatives and use various styles to advocate for their own age. hemingway and his novel the sun also rises, spoke for the lost generation; kerouac and his book on the road, spoke for the beat generation, which vividly showed what the life was like after the wars, and how terrible the influences brought to the two generations. both of the two writers were myth in their own time and also myth in american literature. this essay compared the lost generation and the beat generation by analyzing two important works of their times，aiming at letting the readers know further about the two generations. key words: the sun also rises; on the road; lost generation; beat generation摘要： “迷茫的一代”与“垮掉的一代”是发生在不同时期的两次文学运动的不同流派。“迷茫的一代”出现于第一次世界大战，而“垮掉的一代”则出现在第二次世界大战。这两个文学运动的代表作家持有不同的观点，不同的文学思潮。它们各自有各自的代表，并且他们的代表作家使用不同的写作风格来代言他们自己的时代。海明威与他的小说太阳照常升起为“迷茫的一代”代言；而凯鲁亚克与他在路上则成为了“垮掉的一代”的代言。这两位作家的作品生动逼真地展现了战后的生活，以及战争带给两代人那些可怕糟糕的影响。这两位作家都是他们时代的神话，同时也是美国文学史上的神话。本论文通过分析两时期的两部作品，对迷茫的一代以及垮掉的一代进行比较，旨在让读者近一步地了解迷茫的一代和垮掉的一代。关键词： 太阳照常升起；在路上；迷茫的一代；垮掉的一代contentsi. introduction.1ii. introduction to the author and works. 1a. ernest hemingway and the sun also rises.11. ernest hemingway.1 2. the sun also rises.2b. jack kerouac and on the road.31. jack kerouac.42. on the road.4iii. introduction to the lost generation and the beat generation.5a. the lost generation.5b. the beat generation.6iv. embodiments of the “two generations” in the novels.6a. the embodiment of the lost generation in the sun also rises.6b. the embodiment of the beat generation in on the road.7v. the comparison of the lost generation and beat generation.8 a. the similarities.8b. the differences.9 1. the time and backgrounds.92. the views.103. the influences and significances.10viconclusion.11works citedi. introduction as is known to all, time saw two world wars break out inevitably, which brings all walks of life endless damages and sorrows in various aspects, such as in social life, economy, culture, etc. these influences also play important roles in literature. in american literature, these two great wars appear as a powerful witchcraft, who had waved his stick and the whole world changed. to those who are familiar with american literature, hemingway and kerouac are not strange. they were all outstanding writers of their age. hemingway appears during the first world war and kerouac appears during the second world war. they were also the spokesmen of different schools of literature. hemingway is the spokesman of the lost generation, and kerouac is the spokesman of the beat generation. the sun also rises and on the road are masterpieces of the two authors. the lost generation and the beat generation appeared after the world war i and world war ii in the 20th century respectively, even though the two schools of literature came forth in different period of time in history, different cultural background and even the responses of the critical field of literature are different. but when we put the two schools back in their own period, compared and analyzed from the time background, realistic situation, base of thoughts and the way of development, we will find that the two have the common theme of rebellion, that is, rebellion of the main-stream of value, expression of the feelings of individual to arouse the attention of the whole society with abnormal ways. meanwhile, when we put the comparison of the lost generation and the beat generation into the development of american literature, we can easily dig out the spiritual essences which come down in one continuous line, that is, pursuit of freedom and dependence of american spirit.ii. introduction to the author and works a. ernest hemingway and the sun also rises1. ernest hemingwayernest hemingway (18991961) was born in oak park, illinois. as a boy, hemingway liked boxing and football and wrote light verse and humorous stories. after leaving high school he worked for a few months as a reporter, before leaving for the italian front to become an ambulance driver during world war i, which became the basis for his novel a farewell to arms. he was seriously wounded and returned home within the year. in 1922 hemingway married hadley richardson, the first of his four wives, and the couple moved to paris, where he worked as a foreign correspondent. during his time there he met and was influenced by modernist writers and artists of the 1920s expatriate community known as the lost generation. his first novel, the sun also rises, was written in 1924, and it was this book that established the reputation of hemingway in american literature.after divorcing hadley richardson in 1927 hemingway married pauline pfeiffer; they divorced following hemingways return from covering the spanish civil war, after which he wrote for whom the bell tolls. martha gellhorn became his third wife in 1940, but he left her for mary welsh hemingway after world war ii, during which he was present at d-day and the liberation of paris.shortly after the publication of the old man and the sea in 1952 hemingway went on safari to africa, where he was almost killed in a plane crash that left him in pain or ill-health for much of the rest of his life. hemingway had permanent residences in key west, florida, and cuba during the 1930s and 40s, but in 1959 he moved from cuba to idaho, where he committed suicide in the summer of 1961.hemingway himself was really a “tough guy”, he suffered a lot in the war, to him all he had experienced were insignificant, what he cared most was the dignity of man. he used short sentences and paragraphs, positive languages, specific details created the most powerful meaning.2. the sun also risesthe sun also rises is the first novel that hemingway indited in 1926, and established his reputation in american literature. with the publication of this book, hemingway became the spokesman for what gertrude stein had called “you are all a lost generation”. and in this novel, it tells a story about jack barnes. the protagonist, an expatriate journalist in his mid-20s who lives in paris，wounded and made sexually impotent in the war, found life a nightmare. the war made him lose all the dreams and goals of life. he loved his girlfriend, brett ashley, a remarried woman who has had several love affairs since the war，but he could give her no happiness. he lived alone in another country, tasting the bitterness. he felt the whole life was undercut and defeated, but he had no choice. he could only bear all these, and tried everything to live like a normal person. he helped his friends cheer up and build a sound life order. he realized that the only strength to live on with any dignity comes nowhere but himself. barnes gradually realized that life was cruel and despair, but one must rely on his own to face the fate. the famous american critic, edmund wilson once said that among the novels of hemingways generation, the sun also rises is no doubt the best one.the title the sun also rises, is quoted from the bible, “the sun rises and the sun goes down, and hurries to the place where it rises” (ecclesiastes 1048). it described a world where everything was empty, and all is vanity, people gained nothing from all the toil, just like the sun rises and goes down, no change or novelty.some critics said that the sun also rises vividly described the mental state of “the lost generation” after the first world war. the old values were out of date, and the new ones were not been formed, so these men were trying hard to struggle in the endless shadowiness, and they felt completely confused. their trying showed that they understood the situation and knew what direction they should go. some characters in the novel once believed that the first world war would be the last war that occurred, a war that would save democracy of the world. they were full of “supreme” dreams and passion, going to the front. but what the war brought to them were endless despair and disillusionment.the sun also rises, though not a bestseller, becomes a symbol for an age. jack barnes, robert cohn, and brett ashley are seen wandering pointlessly and restlessly, enjoying things like fishing, swimming, bullfighting and beauties of nature but aware all the while that the world is crazy and meaningless. their life is defeated. the only strength to live on with any dignity comes from nowhere but himself. god gives no help. in a world in which “all is vanity and vexation of spirit,” there is nothing one can do but to take care of ones own life and be tough with grace under pressure. jack barnes is really a fisher king in an eliotic waste land. his physical impotence is a token of modern mans spiritual impotence (chang 222-223). b. jack kerouac and on the road 1. jack kerouacjack kerouac was born to french canadian immigrants in the city of lowell, massachusetts, on march 12, 1922. there is some confusion surrounding his original name partly due to variations on the spelling of kerouac, and partly because of kerouacs own promotion of his name as jean-louis lebris de kerouac. as a youth, kerouac was not only highly intelligent, but also gifted athletically. when he was 11 years old, he finished his first “novel”. when his football career at columbia failed, kerouac dropped out of the university. he continued to live for a period on new york citys upper west side with his girlfriend, edie parker. during the second world war, he joined the navy. then he headed back to new york city where, in 1944, he met the people featured in his book on the road, the peoplenow famouswith whom he would always be associated, the subjects injected into many of his novels: the so-called beat generation, including allen ginsberg, neal cassady, john clellon holmes, herbert huncke and william s. burroughs.kerouac joined the united states merchant marine in 1942, and in 1943 joined the united states navy, but he only served eight days of active duty before arriving on the sick list. according to his medical report jack kerouac said he “asked for an aspirin for his headaches and they diagnosed me dementia praecox and sent me here.” the medical examiner reported jack kerouacs military adjustment was poor, quoting kerouac: “i just cant stand it; i like to be by myself”. two days later he was honorably discharged on psychiatric grounds. in 1944, kerouac was arrested as a material witness in the murder of david kammerer, who had been stalking kerouacs friend lucien carr since carr was a teenager in st. louis. william burroughs was himself a native of st. louis, and it was through carr that kerouac came to know both burroughs and allen ginsberg. kerouac was in debt, but he could not pay for it. then he agreed to marry edie parker if shed pay it. their marriage was annulled a year later. kerouac died on october 21, 1969 at st. anthonys hospital in st. petersburg, florida, one day after being rushed with severe abdominal pain from his st. petersburg home by ambulance. his death, at the age of 47, resulted from an internal hemorrhage caused by cirrhosis, the result of a lifetime of heavy drinking. kerouac is buried in his hometown of lowell and was honored posthumously with a doctor of letters degree from his hometowns university of massachusetts lowell on june 2, 2007.2. on the roadon the road is a simple story of two young men searching for good times and inner calmness. they were confused with future life, driving a car stolen or borrowed to go across the whole country, drinking, taking drugs, singing, playing with girls. but after all those, there were only loneliness and empty left. the theme of on the road begins with a phase that many kerouac critics suggest sets up a pattern of “collapse and rebirth”: “i first met dean not long after my wife and i split up.” the narrative, which begins with an image of collapse, spirals out to rebirth and then collapse and then continues to follow these long circular patterns throughout. the book is heavy with symbolism. change in the life of characters is marked by the changes of seasons.rexroth, who would later do his best to undermine kerouacs work, also had wild praise for on the road, writing, “it is by a new author, the best prose representative of san francisco renaissance which has created so much hullabaloo lately. on the road has the kind of drive that blasts through to a large public. finally, and this is what makes the novel really important, what gives it that drive is a genuine, new, engaging, and exciting prose style. the subject may be catchy, the publication may be timely, but what keeps the book going is the power and beauty of the writing. ” (dittman 39 )other publications werent so kind. david dempsey wrote in the new york times book review that, “one reads on the road in the same mood that he might visit a sideshow-the freaks are fascinating although they are hardly part of our lives.” as time passed, the reviews only got more brutal. the herald tribune called it, “infantile perversely negative”; the hudson review said that reading it was like talking to “a series of neanderthal grunts” ( dittman 39 ).iii. introduction to the lost generation and the beat generationa. the lost generation the lost generation refers to the period after the first world war. a group of young american men lost in the war and quitted the old values and could not put up with the new age when civilization had gone mad. they realized that the world is crazy, meaningless and futile, a world of violence, disorder and death. the world is essentially chaotic and meaningless, in which man fights a solitary struggle against a force he does not even understand.the world, the lost generation experienced, was a world after the first world war, which was quite different from before. all the old certainties were gone, and everything was new. the disillusionment with the war, the new inventions, especially the automobile which changed the lives of the people drastically, and the mobility that this brought about and with it the lack of supervision, and all this happening at the same time as the rise of the gangsters, the enforcement of the prohibition and the loss of respect for the law-under these circumstances, social life was going through very odd changes. there was affluence and excitement on the one hand, and on the other, disturbing indications that the old world was simply dying, the world was basically rootless (chang 228).b. the beat generation in the 1950s there was a widespread discontentment among the postwar generation, whose voice was one of protests against all the mainstream culture that america had come to represent. this has come to be known as the beat generation.critics not only enjoy reducing art to movements or generations, but they also delight in trying to affix a point of beginning to such movements. did it end at all, or merely transmogrify into the new journalists of today? john clellon holmes, in his essay “ the philosophy of the beat generation,” describes the difficulty of trying to pin the generation down: “providing a word that crystallizes the characteristics of an entire generation has always been a thankless task.but to find a word that will describe the beatsis even more difficult, because this group includes veterans of three distinct kinds of modern war: a hot war, a cold war, and a war that was stubbornly not called a war at all, but a policy action.( dittman 1 )it may help to define what critics mean by a generation. the word here refers not to writers born at the same time when artists rebel against their older more-established as a generation because its writers were looking to break free of some of the constraints of an older tradition. their shared philosophy also brings them together. to much of mainstream america, their philosophy seemed to be an irresponsible anything-for-a-kick ideal. but the writers saw themselves on a religious quest, looking for sense out of the senselessness of modern life and trying to quiet their anxiety, as the world entered the looming danger of the atomic age.iv. embodiments of the “two generations” in the novelsa. the embodiments of the lost generation in the sun also risesit wrote about a gang of young wandering about in paris. they hit the bottles, fish, watch boxing and bullfight all day. they even tried to argue with each other to catharsis the dejected life. professedly, these young led a befuddled life, living with beer, wasting time on unhappy and inane business searching. however，its just the world war i they experienced that damaged the society system. their dreams and faiths all crumbled, and they had nothing to do. inane creed and nihilism were their only choice. the happiness they showed off was the pain they suffered inside. they were all victims in the war. jack was hur