Postwar context
After World War I, a group of American writers lived in Europe, especially Paris. Gertrude Stein called them the Lost Generation: the name reflects their alienation and anxiety after the war, and their loss of confidence in traditional values such as patriotism, heroism, and religion. Their work rejected Victorian optimism and was influenced by Modernism and experimentation.
Hemingway’s style
Ernest Hemingway became closely associated with this generation. The source connects his prose to Imagism, especially its emphasis on eliminating unnecessary words and presenting concrete images. His Iceberg Theory, or theory of omission, makes the written surface spare: direct actions, facts, and simple dialogue carry the story. Emotions, trauma, and psychological meaning remain unstated but can be inferred by the reader. The iceberg is a metaphor, not a claim that every story has a measurable hidden proportion.
The Hemingway Code Hero
- Hemingway’s protagonists face a violent, uncertain world through personal discipline. The Code Hero shows “grace under pressure”: facing pain, danger, and death with dignity, favouring action over empty words, and accepting defeat without complaint. Even when physically defeated, a character may achieve a moral victory by preserving honour and self-command. This ideal offers a response to instability, not a restoration of the old certainties.