The Sad Young Men

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Lesson 10
The Sad Young Men
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Pre-Text Questions
What is the theme of this essay? In which
paragraph is it stated?
What do you know about the Lost Generation? Is
it a term of a literary movement?
What kind of writing is this one?
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What is the function of the first paragraph?
How do these writers develop this paragraph?
sensationally romanticized
treated in a passionate, idealized manner to
shock thrill and rouse the interest of people
Why a Nomorethansentence structure is used?
the so-called Revolt of the Younger Generation
has been more commented upon than all the other
aspect
bittersweet longing for things, persons, or
situations of the past
nostalgic
nostalgia
Can we replace questionings by questions?
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What literary device is used in the two phrases--
nostalgic recollection and curious questionings ?
The slightest mention of the decade brings
nostalgic recollections to the middle-aged and
curious questionings by the young
At the very mention of this ten-year, middle-aged
people begin to think about it longingly and
young people become curious and start asking all
kinds of questions
What has been talked about after the colon?
recollection
memories
further explanations
questionings
questions
deliciously illicit thrill
an improper action but very enjoyable and
exciting
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speakeasy
flask-toting sheik
drugstore cowboy
flapper
Why do they think the answers to such questions
must necessarily be both yes and no ?
business
affair or matter process
see in perspective
to view or judge things or events in a way that
show their true relations to one another
see things in the right perspective
see things in the wrong perspective
jazzmad youth
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it was reluctantly realizedthat our country was
no longer isolated in either politics or tradition
some people in the U. S. fully understood, though
unwillingly, that the U. S. could no longer
remain isolated politically or in matters of
social customs and practices. If these people
did not state their views openly, at least, they
understood it subconsciously.
we had reached an international stature
we had developed and grown into a nation
respected and esteemed by all other nations in
the world
What is your understanding of the artificial
walls of provincial morality ?
What literary device is used in this phrase?
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we have become a world power so we can no
longer, on our action, just follow the
principles of right and wrong as accepted in our
own country, nor can we remain isolated
geographically protected by the Atlantic and
Pacific oceans. In other words, the U. S. can no
longer pursue a policy of isolationism.
Victorian gentility
excessive or affected refinement and elegance
attributed to Victorian England
The rejection of Victorian gentility was, in
any case, inevitable.
In any case, America could not avoid casting
aside its middle-class respectability and
affected refinement.
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the quality or state of not involving personal
feelings or the emotions
impersonality
What features does the American industry have?
room
suitable opportunity occasion scope
There is no doubt that your design is excellent,
but we believe there is still plenty of room for
improvement.
After WWI, America became a highly industrialized
country. There were big successful factories
operating everywhere. Business became huge
corporations devoid of any human feelings and
the ruthless desire to dominate was exercised on
a large scale. In this new atmosphere, the
principles of polite, courteous and considerate
behaviour and conduct that were formed in a
quieter and less competitive age (before WWI)
could no longer exist.
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The war acted merely as a catalytic agent in
this breakdown of the Victorian social structure
What is compared to a catalytic agent?
The war only helped to speed up the breakdown of
the Victorian social structure
What does a pattern of mass murder refer to?
after the shooting was over, were turnedto
the destruction of an obsolescent
nineteenth-century society
when the war was over, the young people used
their newly released violent energies, both in
Europe and America, to destroy the 19th century
society that was getting old and becoming
unacceptable
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in America at least, the young people were
strongly inclined to shirk their
responsibilities. They pretended to be
worldly-wise, drinking and behaving naughtily.
They pretended to live like unconventional
artists or poets, breaking the moral code of the
community.
What is the relationship between this sentence
and the following ones?
What did these youth do?
much-publicized orgies
wild, riotous, licentious merrymakings which were
often and widely reported in newspapers and
magazines
Greenwich Village
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What does the crash of the world economic
structure refer to ?
the Great Depression
How many subjects are there in the
second sentence of paragraph 5?
the stalemate of 1915-1916
the increasing insolence of Germany
our official reluctance to declare our status as
a belligerent
that our government was reluctant to declare war
our young men began to enlist under foreign flags
our young men joined the armies of foreign
countries to fight in the war
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John Dos Passos
What can we learn about the youths idea of
war from this quotation?
magnolia-scented
a noisy, disorderly fight or quarrel
fracas
Furthermore, there wereidealistic and exciting.
Furthermore, many speakers at high school
meetings told the boys that hard life of the war
would help to form their character. These
speakers convinced more than enough these boys,
who were sensible in many other respects, that
fighting in the European war would be of great
value to them personally, in addition to being
idealistic and exciting.
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Fourth-of-July bombast
pompous and patriotic speeches made during the
Fourth of July celebrations
Why do the authors choose the phrase had been
guilty of ?
outgrown town and families
What literary device is used in this sentence?
could no longer adapt themselves to lives in
their home towns or their families
resume the pose of self-deceiving Victorian
innocence
to resume living and behaving simply and
innocently as the former Victorian social
structure required them to do
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Greenwich Village set the pattern.
The writers and artists living in Greenwich
Village set the example which other young
intellectuals throughout the country followed.
their minds and pens inflamed against war,
Babbittry, and Puritanical gentility,
What literary device is used in this sentence?
metonymy
it was only natural that hopeful young writers
whose minds and writings were filled with
violent anger against war, Babbittry, and
Puritanical gentility, should come in great
numbers to live in Greenwich Village, the
traditional artistic center.
What are matchsticks and conflagration compared
to respectively?
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misdeeds of the non-intellectuals
a large, destructive fire
conflagration
to intensify and spread this revolt of the young
by their own misdeeds
fast
living in a reckless, wild, dissipated way
a group of persons sharing a common interest
set
Each town was proud that it had a group of wild,
reckless people, who lived unconventional lives
Chateau-Thierry
Belleau Wood
How can we understand the word toy ?
Ford Model T 1924
Model T
the Dutch Colonial home in Floral Heights
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Rotary luncheon
smug, self-satisfied, conformist in cultural
matters
boobery
repeated, central idea theme
burden
the burden of a speech
The burden of the volume wasbeing ignored,
The main theme of all the articles in the book
was that people were not paying serious
attention to what the most gifted and
intelligent people (the young intellectuals)
were saying,
Journalism was a mere adjunct to moneymaking
Journalism is only a tool that helps businessmen
to make money
to strive to get all the material things ones
neighbors or associates have