【C1】 No aspect of life in the Twenties has been more commented upon and sensationally romanticized than the socalled Revolt of the Younger Generation. 【C2】 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 brave 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 wild?” present-day students ask their parents and teachers. “Was there really a Younger Generation problem?” 【C3】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, irresponsible, and immoral in social behavior at the time can now be seen in perspective as being something considerably less sensational than the degeneration of our jazzmad youth.
【C4】 Actually, the revolt of the young people was a logical outcome of conditions in the age. First of all, it must be remembered that the rebellion was not confined to the United 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【C5】 our country was no longer isolated 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.
【C1】
Among the various aspects of social life in the 1920s, what were most praised and rendered the most were the rebellious young generation.
【C2】
At the very mention of this post war period, middle-aged people begin to think about it longingly.
【C3】
We must answer either “Yes” or “No” to such questions.
【C4】
In fact, the rebellious behavior of the young generation was an inevitable result of the conditions in that time.
【C5】
Politically and traditionally, our country is no longer isolated from the rest of the world; our international status has made it impossible for us to shrink back from the artificial walls of a provincial morality or hide behind the geographic preservation of the adjacent oceans.