Ye Ji Park / 111053 / 11b3
Mr. Richard Menard
American Literature
June 6 2012
Reflective Essay: The Garden Lodge
As
the World War I came to the end, and the survived soldiers returned to their
homeland, they were no more naïve, youthful lads. “Youth…? That is long ago. We
are old folks.” In All Quiet on the
Western Front (Erich Maria Remarque, 1929), Paul, the narrator, compares
men of forty to twenty; the older men were “linked up with their previous life …
wives, children, occupations … background which is so strong that the War
cannot obliterate”, whereas younger men have only “parents, and some, perhaps a
girl, some enthusiasm, a few hobbies, and school. Beyond this … life did not
extend.”
Men
of forty, before the War, were already holders of some responsibility. They
were responsible for supporting their family, or responsible for the job they
chose to work on. If they abandoned their responsibility, there was no one who
could substitute vacant place; therefore, men of forty had a firm place that
they can, and must, return even after the War.
The
situation was, however, very different for men of twenty. They were not in
charge of anything yet; their parents were not that old to be supported by them,
their girlfriends were not their wives that they should provide for, their
hobbies were not field they had studied and worked devotedly for years. Lack of
responsibility promised no firm place to return for young soldiers, which is
why the soldiers “lost” all the responsibility-less, uncertain life they had
before the War. The experience of loss made them to be afraid of another loss.
They, thus, started to avoid challenging tasks in their future life that
promise higher possibility of loss. However, by doing so, they were already
losing chances to challenge, chances to live more fully – they were losing better
future. Paul says that “nothing remains” for men of twenty – both past and
future – which was why this generation was entitled the “Lost Generation”.
The
term Lost Generation, however, is not only applicable on the soldiers. The
tendency of losing past and future also appeared in other stratum; in The Garden Lodge (Willa Cather, 1905),
Caroline Noble, the protagonist of the story, is a representative example.
Young Caroline wished to
be a pianist, just as her father. However, as her father was crippled with
debts and her brother committed suicide, she gave up that dream and stayed away
from the piano – the loss of “past”. Instead, she married to an older man from
Wall Street, who promises confident “money, position, energy, vigor of the
robust person” to her. Depending on her husband, she does not need to worry
about uncertain future. Her dependence, however, results in lack of her free
will; that is, Caroline will not challenge herself. Her life will be safer but
much duller – she will lose “future”.
What
is different between soldiers and Caroline is that the former is “involuntary”
Lost Generation, whereas the latter is “voluntary” one. The soldiers were “forced”
by the War to hit pause to their life with parents, girls, and school, thus the
direct and unique cause of their loss was the War, irrelevant to their will.
However, for Caroline, she had opportunity not to lose. She once met this man,
Raymond d’Esquerre, a tenor singer who rekindles her passion to music during
his stay in the garden lodge. After Raymond left, her husband asks Caroline if
she would agree to tear down the garden lodge and build a new summer house
instead. He gave Caroline opportunity to disagree and continue on her
reawakened interest to music. It was Caroline, however, who deserted that
chance by answering that she agrees the lodge should go – she “voluntarily”
lets her past and future run away, choosing irresponsible but safe life
instead.
Despite
the War did not influence Caroline directly to be the Lost Generation, it
definitely worked below-the-surface. Before the War, it was the Renaissance
paradigm that ruled the world; from the Renaissance, “humans” (not God) were
the focus of concentration, and it was believed that humans could be anything
they want. The occurrence of World War, however, blew out the pre-existing
paradigm. As the War drove humans to fight and kill each other, without even
knowing the reason, humans started to depute the previous argument that humans are
born to achieve divine purpose of living. They no more respected themselves as
godlike creatures; they realized the “limit” of human. Such paradigm
contributed in Caroline’s voluntary decision to be Lost Generation, by
inculcating lack of confidence that her ability to deal with challenges (for
example, restarting to play the piano) is not enough.
Among
numbers of literatures that deal the topic of the World War, The Garden Lodge is worthy of notice in
sense that it points out indirect effect of the War (voluntary Lost
Generation). It is quite tragic that the tendency of Lost Generation clouded
the whole society, not only the soldiers but also others such as Caroline.
Losing
the past and the future may help the Lost Generation to live a safe life, just
as Caroline did under her husband’s protection, but it may block the chance to
achieve something. It is true that the Renaissance paradigm is quite
exaggerated – humans definitely cannot attain everything they wish – still, some are achievable. This is why I wish
the Lost Generation – at least “voluntary” ones that chose to be lost, and
still have a chance to cancel the voluntary choice they made – to stand against
their loss and makes attempt to find back their volition to challenge.
Writer's Comments
I am quite sorry about this piece. I have "ideas" in my mind, but I think I did not express it via this writing very well... :( Still, it was a great pleasure writing this piece (interesting concept, "voluntary" Lost Generation, isn't it?). Hope readers understand what I tried to say in this essay... :)
