Arrested Development in the

Lost Generation

Dayna GreensteinLiana Mari

Can’t settle downModern woman ahead of time

Struggling to assert herself in a world dominated

Goes to bars and is always drunk

“Give this chap a brandy…” Is friends with homosexuals

Has many affairs although she is engaged

Can’t find herself

Brett

Faced adversity in Princeton because of his religion

Reads romantic novels and takes them for truth

Becomes obsessed with women quickly (ex. Brett)

“I can't stand it to think my life is going so fast and I'm not really living it.”Wants to travel to

South America

“I think I’d rather play football again…”

Married the first woman to give him attention out of college

“Say something pitiful…Robert Cohn”

Robert

Is impotent

We learn about Jake through

other characters. He doesn’t talk about himself a

lot.

Cries in bed by himself Brings a prostitute to a bar with him

for company

Simple, straight forward narrative

“[Death] is one thing I don’t worry about”

He is in love with Brett, but they can never have a

relationship

Injured as a soldier in WWI

Jake

Brett is a strong independent women but society is suppressing her. She suffers

arrested development because she cant not conform to societal expectations for women

of her time. Robert’s inadequacy in college fostered a need to search for acceptance and experience youth

that he missed out on.

Jake’s impotence makes him feel inferior, useless and deprived of his masculinity. He is

very lonely.

The lost generation as a whole suffers from arrested development.

Sexism, anti-Semitism and the war caused them to because disillusioned with the world and hindered their abilities to connect with

their true identities.

Perhaps, this generation is lost not only because of the hardships they faced during

this time but because they cannot find themselves.