The Lost Generation

The character of Rachel in Anzia Yezierska’s story Children of Loneliness seems to be part of a “Lost Generation.” Her parents sacrificed to come over to America in order to make a better life for themselves. She was successful in her education; she was able to attend college. But she now feels that she is unable to relate to her family. She feels like an outsider. The closer she is to becoming an American, the further away from her family and her culture she moves.

So many people are part of this generation. Even today, every freshman who goes off to college comes home at Christmas break convinced that they know everything and that they have now become smarter than their family. Many of these kids think that their parents are from an entirely different world and would not understand the youth of today. These kids forget that their parents were once students, just like themselves.

In Yezierska’s story Rachel acts like that typical college freshman. The main difference between Rachel and the college freshman of today is that she is really from an entirely different world than her parents were from. They were raised in an entirely different country, with a very different belief set.