The Lost Generation and the Expatriate Movement

Many of the expatriates began their exodus from America for a variety of reasons; World War 1 and the effects that it impacted on the writers of the time, the roaring twenties and the post war psychological effects that created the lost generation that many of the writers fell into. This post war attitude and the lost generation inspired such books as Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises.
Some of the reasoning behind the exodus was the disagreement of the leaders and actions of America at this time. Political reasoning was a forunner of this movement either it be World War 1 or other political viewpoints. The post war veterans were also a major reason for the exodus. The lost generation resulted in many disorders not recognized at the time. Many of the things that they were experiencing, Post traumatic stress disorder, was was not recognized or understood at the time.
The mass exodus that left America was not only of writers and artists but many of the wealthy elite, the intellectuals, the recent college graduates, current students and the lost generation of war veterans. This lost generation of war veterans consisted of soldiers that did not know what to do in this new post war society so they continued to move around Europe finding comfort in what they could find. We see these characters in The Sun Also Rises.
The expatriate movement was all over Europe flocking to cities all around but the main bulk of them and the artist bunch went to France and more specifically Paris. The artist community revolved heavily around Gertrude Stein. She was one of the major American figures in this movement. Writers and artists and expatriates in general tried to have an introduction to her in hopes of getting on her good side. “America is my country, and Paris is my hometown” (stein) this was the basis of the expatriate movement, although the place you were currently living in might be your home but America will always be your homeland.
The Roaring Twenties was also a post war movement. It was a time of post war optimism. People were living their lives like no one had lived before. People were living carefree and embraced ideas of hedonism. The jazz age was a big motivator. It moved people towards economical optimism. Spending what they had and making profits. All of these ideas were other causes for the exodus from America.
Post war generations always have tendencies that differ from the tendencies of the average generations before and after them. Many of the veterans have disillusionment that they do not share with the civilians. They then affect the civilians that they in counter, resulting in the oddities of society post war. These oddities are what started the Roaring Twenties and the Jazz age and inspired such writers such as Scott Fitzgerald to write novels such as the Great Gatsby. It also was the motivator of many of the expatriates that began experimenting with more modernistic views of literature and art.