【C1】 Actually, the revolt of the young people was a logical outcome of conditions in the age. First of all, it must be remembered that 【C2】 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 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.
【C3】 The rejection of Victorian gentility was, in any case, inevitable. The booming of American industry, with its gigantic, roaring factories, its corporate impersonality, and its large-scale aggressiveness, no longer left any room for the code of polite behavior and well-bred morality fashioned in a quieter and less competitive age. 【C4】 War or no war, as the generations 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. 【C5】 The war acted merely as a catalytic agent in this breakdown of the Victorian social structure, and by precipitating our young people into a pattern of mass murder it released their inhibited violent energies.
【C1】
In fact, the rebellious behavior of the young generation was an inevitable result of the conditions in that time.
【C2】
As an outcome of the sequel of the first serious war in a history, this kind of revolt influenced the whole Western world instead of America alone.
【C3】
In any case, an American could not avoid casting aside its middle-class respectability and affected retirement.
【C4】
Whether there is a war or not, with the changing times, it became more and more difficult for the young generation to accept a code of conduct which is incompatible with the commercialized society in which they had to fight for success.
【C5】
The war only helped to speed up the breakdown of the Victorian social structure.