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