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1、-二十年代社会生活的各个方面中，被人们评论得最多、渲染得最厉害的，莫过于青年一代的叛逆之行了。只要有只言片语提到那个时期，就会勾起中年人怀旧的回忆和青年人好奇的提问。中年人会回忆起第一次光顾非法酒店时的那种既高兴又不安的违法犯罪的刺激感，回忆起对清教徒式的道德规范的勇猛抨击，回忆起停在乡间小路上的小轿车里颠鸾倒凤的时髦爱情试验方式；青年人则会问起有关那时的一些纵情狂欢的爵士舞会，问起那成天背着酒葫芦、勾引得女人团团转的“美男子”，问起那些“时髦少女”和“闲荡牛仔”的奇装异服和古怪行为等等的情况。“那时的青年果真这样狂放不羁吗?”今天的青年学生们不禁好奇地向他们的师长问起这样的问题。“那时真的有
2、过青年一代的问题吗?”对这类问题的回答必然只能是既“对”又“不对”说“对，是因为人的成长过程中一贯就存在着所谓青年一代的问题；说“不对”是因为在当时的社会看来似乎是那么狂野。那么不负责任，那么不讲道德的行为，若是用今天的正确眼光去看的话，却远远没有今天的一些迷恋爵士乐的狂荡青年的堕落行为那么耸人听闻。 实际上，青年一代的叛逆行为是当时的时代条件的必然结果。首先，值得记住的是，这种叛逆行为并不局限于美国，而是作为百年之中第一次惨烈的战争的后遗症影响到整个西方世界。其次，在美国，有一些人已经很不情愿地认识到如果不是明明白白地认识到，至少是下意识地认识到无论在政治方面还是在传统方面，我们的国家已不再
3、是与世隔绝的了；我们所取得的国际地位使我们永远也不能再退缩到狭隘道德规范的人造围墙之后，或是躲在相邻的两大洋的地理保护之中了。 在当时的美国，摒弃维多利亚式的温文尔雅无论如何都已经是无可避免的了。美国工业的飞速发展及其所带来的庞大的、机器轰鸣的工厂的出现，社会化大生产的非人格性，以及争强好胜意识的空前高涨，使得在较为平静而少竞争的年代里所形成的温文尔雅的礼貌行为和谦谦忍让的道德风范完全没有半点栖身之地。不论是否发生战争，随着时代的变化要我们的年轻一代接受与他们必须在其中拼搏求胜的这个喧嚣的商业化社会格格不入的行为准则已经变得越来越难了。战争只不过起了一种催化剂的作用，加速了维多利亚式社会结构的
4、崩溃。战争把年轻一代一下子推向一种大规模的屠杀战场，从而使他们体内潜藏的压抑已久的狂暴力量得以释放出来，待到战争一结束，这些被释放出来的狂暴力量便在欧洲和美国掉转矛头，去摧毁那日渐衰朽的十九世纪的社会了。 这样一来，在一个千变万化的世界中，青年一代便面临着使我们的道德习惯与时代合拍这一挑战。而与此同时，青年人。至少美国的青年人又表现出这样一种倾向：他们试图逃避自己的责任。沉溺于一种老于世故、以酒自娱的生活作风之中，装出一副波希米亚式的放荡不羁的样子。追求时尚，为了短暂的快乐和一时的新奇而大肆挥霍，纵情地狂欢，寻求各种各样的感官刺激性行为，吸毒，酗酒以及各种各样的堕落行为这些都是他们逃避责任的表
5、现形式，是一种由社会的普遍繁荣及战后人们对于政治、经济限制和国际义务所产生的厌烦情绪所造成的逃避方式。禁酒法令使青年人有了更多的机会寻求违禁取乐的刺激。文人墨客纷纷涌人格林威治村，他们那些被大肆渲染的放纵行为和挑战性言论也为青年人的逃避主义提供了一种表现形式和一套哲学辩护辞。这种逃避主义者的纵情狂欢，像大多数逃避主义者的纵情狂欢一样，一直要持续到狂欢者囊空如洗为止。到二十年代末世界经济结构总崩溃之时，这种狂欢宴会便告停歇，那些寻欢作乐者也只得从酣醉中清醒过来，去面对新时代的各种难题了。 青年人的叛逆行为是随着第一次世界大战而开始的。19151916年间那旷日持久的僵持局面。德国对美国所表现出的
6、越来越傲慢无礼的态度，以及我国政府迟迟不愿宣布参战的作法，都使我们理想主义的公民觉得无法忍受。我们的青年，本身已怀着典型的美国式冒险精神，又多少受到西奥多罗斯福的狂热沙文主义思想的怂恿，于是便开始在外国旗帜下入伍参战。用约翰多斯帕索斯的美利坚合众国中的人物乔威廉斯的话说，他们“是想趁着战争还没结束就参加到这场游戏中去”。因为在19161917年间，入伍当兵还是一种富于浪漫色彩的职业。在1917年正处于上大学年龄的年轻人对于现代战争还一无所知。18611865年间的那场战争早已通俗地在电影和小说中成了一部散发出木兰花香的连续剧。而1898年同西班牙之间的百日战争在影剧故事中总是被描写成美军在马尼
7、拉大获全胜或是冲上圣胡安山顶的电影镜头式场面。此外，更有许多演说家们在中学生集会上大肆渲染战场上的紧张生活在培养性格方面的力量，使得那些本来还算有头脑的年轻小伙子们都信以为真，以为到欧洲战场上去服役不仅是一件令人兴奋的理想化的美事，而且具有巨大的人生价值。因此，越来越多的年轻人便开始加入各兵种，“知识分子型的人”加入救护兵团其余的人则分别加入步兵部队、商船队或到其他任何有其用武之地的单位去服役。那些不愿到外国军队里去服役的人则慷慨陈辞，表示自己随时“待命出征”；间或也有考虑参加国民自卫队的，待到我国最终决定参战时他们便踊跃地报名参军。各征兵站的报名者都是人如潮涌，弄得主管征兵事务的军曹们焦头烂
8、额，实在无法应付，以至于恳求志愿报名者“且先归家，静待征召”然而，有自尊心的人谁也不愿蒙受“被征召入伍”的耻辱，因此，青年人的参军热潮持久不衰。 一旦这些满腔热血的年轻人饱尝了二十世纪战争的滋味以后，那种纵情狂欢的兴致和要从事轰轰烈烈的军事冒险的热情自然很快就烟消云散了。他们可以永远感到光荣，因为他们在战场上表现得很出色，但是1919年从战场上回来的却是一批已经发生了很大变化的士兵。大学兵团的士兵们更是如此。他们在理想主义的感召下很早就到军中服役，可渭是屡经沙场。对他们来说，回到几乎没有受到战争的任何影响的故乡是一件痛苦的事，因为在那里，人们仍在像庆祝独立日时那样天真地大唱爱国的高调，而这是他
9、们自己两三年前也曾犯过的错误。更令他们痛苦的是，他们发现自己原来的工作已被留在家里的人夺占了。而当时又正值经济萧条时期，新的工作无法找到，现有的工作机会本就为数不多，而且人们又宁愿聘用非退伍军人，而把退伍军人看作难对付的孩子，不愿聘用。就连他们自己的家对他们来说也常常是不舒服的；他们再也不能适应家乡和家庭了，并且萌生出一种突如其来的、迷惘的厌世之感。这种感觉不论是他们自己还是他们的亲友都不能理解。战争激起了他们的劲头，打掉了他们的天真幼稚。而现在，在遍布全国的沉睡的、落后的地方，到处都要求他们抑制他们的劲头，并恢复那种自欺欺人的、维多利亚式的天真无邪的态度。但是他们现在觉得这种态度同那种说什么
10、他们的战斗已“使民主在这个世界有了保障”的论调一样，都是陈旧过时的。再者，似乎家乡的情况还不够受的，退伍军人还得面对凡尔赛和约那种愚蠢的、拿破仑式的犬儒主义、禁酒法令那种虚伪的行善主义，以及那些发了战争财的人们的洋洋自得的爱国主义。那些气鼓鼓的美国青年的不满迟早要爆发出来。在经过一段短暂的强烈的怨忿之后，它终于以一种彻底推翻温文尔雅的行为规范的形式而爆发出来了。 The Sad Young Men Rod W. Horton and Herbert W. Edwards 1 No aspect of life in the Twenties has been more commented up
11、on and sensationally romanticized than the so-called Revolt of the Younger Generation. The slightest mention of the decade brings nostalgic recollections to the middle-aged and curious questionings by the young: memories of the deliciously illicit thrill of the first visit to a speakeasy, of the bra
12、ve denunciation of Puritan morality, and of the fashionable experimentations in amour in the parked sedan on a country road; questions about the naughty, jazzy parties, the flask-toting sheik, and the moral and stylistic vagaries of the flapper and the drug-store cowboy. Were young people really so
13、wild? present-day students ask their parents and teachers. Was there really a Younger Generation problem? The answers to such inquiries must of necessity be yes and no-Yes because the business of growing up is always accompanied by a Younger Generation Problem; no because what seemed so wild, irresp
14、onsible, and immoral in social behavior at the time can now be seen in perspective as being something considerably less sensational than the degenerauon of our jazzmad youth.2 Actually, the revolt of the young people was a logical outcome of conditions in the age: First of all, it must be remembered
15、 that the rebellion was not confined to the Unit- ed States, but affected the entire Western world as a result of the aftermath of the first serious war in a century. Second, in the United States it was reluctantly realized by some- subconsciously if not openly - that our country was no longer isola
16、ted in either politics or tradition and that we had reached an international stature that would forever prevent us from retreating behind the artificial walls of a provincial morality or the geographical protection of our two bordering oceans.3 The rejection of Victorian gentility was, in any case,
17、inevitable. The booming of American industry, with its gigantic, roaring factories, its corporate impersonality, and its largescale aggressiveness, no longer left any room for the code of polite behavior and well-bred morality fashioned in a quieter and less competitive age. War or no war, as the ge
18、nerations passed, it became increasingly difficult for our young people to accept standards of behavior that bore no relationship to the bustling business medium in which they were expected to battle for success. The war acted merely as a catalytic agent in this breakdown of the Victorian social str
19、ucture, and by precipitating our young people into a pattern of mass murder it released their inhibited violent energies which, after the shooting was over, were turned in both Europe and America to the destruction of an obsolescent nineteenth-century society.4 Thus in a changing world youth was fac
20、ed with the challenge of bringing our mores up to date. But at the same time it was tempted, in America at least, to escape its responsibilities and retreat behind an air of naughty alcoholic sophistication and a pose of Bohemian immorality. The faddishness , the wild spending of money on transitory
21、 pleasures and momentary novelties , the hectic air of gaiety, the experimentation in sensation - sex, drugs, alcohol, perversions - were all part of the pattern of escape, an escape made possible by a general prosperity and a post-war fatigue with politics, economic restrictions, and international
22、responsibilities. Prohibition afforded the young the additional opportunity of making their pleasures illicit , and the much-publicized orgies and defiant manifestoes of the intellectuals crowding into Greenwich Village gave them a pattern and a philosophic defense for their escapism. And like most
23、escapist sprees, this one lasted until the money ran out, until the crash of the world economic structure at the end of the decade called the party to a halt and forced the revelers to sober up and face the problems of the new age.5 The rebellion started with World War I. The prolonged stalemate of
24、1915 - 1916, the increasing insolence of Germany toward the United States, and our official reluctance to declare our status as a belligerent were intolerable to many of our idealistic citizens, and with typical American adventurousness enhanced somewhat by the strenuous jingoism of Theodore Rooseve
25、lt, our young men began to enlist under foreign flags. In the words of Joe Williams, in John Dos Passos U. S. A., they wanted to get into the fun before the whole thing turned belly up. For military service, in 1916- 1917, was still a romantic occupation. The young men of college age in 1917 knew no
26、thing of modern warfare. The strife of 1861 -1865 had popularly become, in motion picture and story, a magnolia-scented soap opera, while the one hundred-days fracas with Spain in 1898 had dissolved into a one-sided victory at Manila and a cinematic charge up San Juan Hill. Furthermore, there were e
27、nough high school assembly orators proclaiming the character-forming force of the strenuous life to convince more than enough otherwise sensible boys that service in the European conflict would be of great personal value, in addition to being idealistic and exciting. Accordingly, they began to join
28、the various armies in increasing numbers, the intellectuals in the ambulance corps, others in the infantry, merchant marine, or wherever else they could find a place. Those who were reluctant to serve in a foreign army talked excitedly about Preparedness, occasionally considered joining the National
29、 Guard, and rushed to enlist when we finally did enter the conflict. So tremendous was the storming of recruitment centers that harassed sergeants actually pleaded with volunteers to go home and wait for the draft, but since no self-respecting person wanted to suffer the disgrace of being drafted, t
30、he enlistment craze continued unabated.6 Naturally, the spirit of carnival and the enthusiasm for high military adventure were soon dissipated once the eager young men had received a good taste of twentieth- century warfare. To their lasting glory, they fought with distinction, but it was a much alt
31、ered group of soldiers who returned from the battlefields in 1919. Especially was this true of the college contingent, whose idealism had led them to enlist early and who had generally seen a considerable amount of action. To them, it was bitter to return to a home town virtually untouched by the co
32、nflict, where citizens still talked with the naive Fourth-of-duly bombast they themselves had been guilty of two or three years earlier. It was even more bitter to find that their old jobs had been taken by the stay-at-homes, that business was suffering a recession that prevented the opening up of n
33、ew jobs, and that veterans were considered problem children and less desirable than non-veterans for whatever business opportunities that did exist. Their very homes were often uncomfortable to them; they had outgrown town and families and had developed a sudden bewildering world-weariness which nei
34、ther they nor their relatives could understand. Their energies had been whipped up and their naivete destroyed by the war and now, in sleepy Gopher Prairies all over the country, they were being asked to curb those energies and resume the pose of self-deceiving Victorian innocence that they now felt
35、 to be as outmoded as the notion that their fighting had made the world safe for democracy. And, as if home town conditions were not enough, the returning veteran also had to face the sodden, Napoleonic cynicism of Versailles, the hypocritical do-goodism of Prohibition, and the smug patriotism of th
36、e war profiteers. Something in the tension-ridden youth of America had to give and, after a short period of bitter resentment, it gave in the form of a complete overthrow of genteel standards of behavior. 7 Greenwich Village set the pattern. Since the Seven-ties a dwelling place for artists and writ
37、ers who settled there because living was cheap, the village had long enjoyed a dubious reputation for Bohemianism and eccentricity. It had also harbored enough major writers, especially in the decade before World War I, to support its claim to being the intellectual center of the nation. After the w
38、ar, it was only natural that hopeful young writers, their minds and pens inflamed against war, Babbittry, and Puritanical gentility , ,should flock to the traditional artistic center (where living was still cheap in 1919) to pour out their new-found creative strength, to tear down the old world, to
39、flout the morality of their grandfathers, and to give all to art, love, and sensation. 8 Soon they found their imitators among the non-intellectuals. As it became more and more fashionable throughout the country for young persons to defy the law and the conventions and to add their own little matchs
40、ticks to the conflagration of flaming youth, it was Greenwich Village that fanned the flames. Bohemian living became a fad. Each town had its fast set which prided itself on its unconventionality , although in reality this self-conscious unconventionality was rapidly becoming a standard feature of t
41、he country club class - and its less affluent imitators -throughout the nation. Before long the movement had be-come officially recognized by the pulpit (which denounced it), by the movies and magazines (which made it attractively naughty while pretending to denounce it), and by advertising (which o
42、bliquely encouraged it by selling everything from cigarettes to automobiles with the implied promise that their owners would be rendered sexually irresistible). Younger brothers and sisters of the war generation, who had been playing with marbles and dolls during the battles of Belleau Wood and Chat
43、eau-Thierry, and who had suffered no real disillusionment or sense of loss, now began to imitate the manners of their elders and play with the toys of vulgar rebellion. Their parents were shocked, but before long they found themselves and their friends adopting the new gaiety. By the middle of the d
44、ecade, the wild party had become as commonplace a factor in American life as the flapper, the Model T, or the Dutch Colonial home in Floral Heights.9 Meanwhile, the true intellectuals were far from flattered. What they had wanted was an America more sensitive to art and culture, less avid for materi
45、al gain, and less susceptible to standardization. Instead, their ideas had been generally ignored, while their behavior had contributed to that standardization by furnishing a pattern of Bohemianism that had become as conventionalized as a Rotary luncheon. As a result, their dissatisfaction with the
46、ir native country, already acute upon their return from the war, now became even more intolerable. Flaming diatribes poured from their pens denouncing the materialism and what they considered to be the cultural boobery of our society. An important book rather grandiosely entitled Civilization in the
47、 United States, written by thirty intellectuals under the editorship of J. Harold Stearns, was the rallying point of sensitive persons disgusted with America. The burden of the volume was that the best minds in the country were being ignored, that art was unappreciated, and that big business had cor
48、rupted everything. Journalism was a mere adjunct to moneymaking, politics were corrupt and filled with incompetents and crooks, and American family life so devoted to making money and keeping up with the Joneses that it had become joyless, patterned, hypocritical, and sexually inadequate. These defe
49、cts would disappear if only creative art were allowed to show the way to better things, but since the country was blind and deaf to everything save the glint and ring of the dollar, there was little remedy for the sensitive mind but to emigrate to Europe where they do things better. By the time Civilization in the United States was published (1921), most of its contributors had taken their own advice