Lost Generation

By: Gabriela Yareliz

Gertrude was a mentor and friend to Ernest Hemingway, and he speaks of her in his memoir, A Moveable Feast, fondly yet realistically, as one can only do when you know someone and his or her intricacies very well. She is known to have coined the phrase, “a lost generation.” Many say this describes society after World War I, after so many young men lost their lives fighting.  She, however, used this to describe the young men who remained. She described the expatriates in Paris who drank a lot and had certain lifestyles, as a “lost generation.” She often criticized Hemingway’s drinking habits.

Sometimes, it seems like our generation is not too far off. Perhaps, we are even worse than they were before. We young people only care about money, self-destructive habits that seem okay because they are “socially acceptable” and getting ahead only for ourselves in the way that requires the least work sacrificing anything (value and morals) or anyone who stands in the way. We are selfish and honestly, absolute imbeciles. In a college class, what you will see are laptops open to shopping websites or Facebook. These are the future world leaders, the future of our country, the future? God help us.

We want shortcuts, fame, money, some glamorous façade of being an imitation of people we admire despite them being slaves to their own addictions and disastrous lifestyles.

Gertrude Stein would’ve probably looked at us in horror. Forget Gertrude, she’s no longer here. How does God feel when He looks upon our lost generation? We are lost, not because we were abandoned, but because we took the map and burned it.

Hemingway’s lost generation was a generation that was self-destructive, but still took time to think, feel and live life. Today, people don’t have a moment of silence to self-analyze, to feel, to live. We would rather sit in front of something that tells us how to live. We would rather do things we know are not right, to fit in. We would rather die slaves, than live free.

Choose.