My modernity class is reading All Quiet on the Western Front. It is a great novel and there are lots of lessons to learn from it. However, what they have been struck by is the level of realism in dealing with war details. They noted how pessimistic Remarque was about the war and any possibility of a normal life afterwards. We quickly set Remarque side by side with other writers who lived through the war. Similar situations came out with respect to people like Hemingway. However we looked as well at authors who contrasted the pessimism of Remarque.
J.R.R. Tolkien, who fought in the war was able to come out of it and write stories of redemption with honor and duty as thematic elements. Rudyard Kipling wrote poetry and fiction that expresses a constant belief in the Christian Ideal rather than the postmodern vortex of chaos. C.S. Lewis also fought in the war and still wrote such passionate novels as the Chronicles of Narnia, which warn, but do not despise, the developments of the 20th century.
What separates these writes? What made the Lost Generation lost? I guided my students to understand that the difference was a fully rational Christian worldview and ethic that understood that all things happen to the glory of an almighty God and that there is no room for pessimism in His universe. Tolkien, Lewis, and Kipling (among others) had this confidence in God. Hemingway and Remarque (among scores of others) did not have this confidence.
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