We’ll Always Have Paris… and Freedom

When Sylvia Beach moved to Paris in August of 1916, she formally left her American home and sought the life she had always dreamed of. She hoped to find solace in literature and writing—things that were deemed passé and frivolous in the states. While this was a radical move for this young expatriate, she was not alone in her search for a more liberal lifestyle. At the end of WWI, many artists, who would later call themselves the Lost Generation, moved to Paris for the same reasons as Ms. Beach; they wanted to express themselves with grandeur and sought refuge in a place where they were mentally free. To the Lost Generation, Paris meant freedom; freedom from politics, freedom of art and freedom from conformity.

Although the end of WWI marked the beginning of hard times for families living in America, the political scene was very different in Paris. The ideals were much more liberal and new than anything that had been experienced in the states, and as a result, many young Americans were willing to leave their mother country in order to discover their political identity. In Noel Riley Fitch’s biography Sylvia Beach and the Lost Generation she reveals “[t]he First World War had brought many writers to Europe and to an encounter with history and the failure of their religious and political beliefs” in order to demonstrate many of the frustrations these young writers where exhibiting (162). As a result of WWI, these writers looked at the past and saw an opportunity for change in the political atmosphere of America, and because they were unable to change these set political beliefs, the writers chose to flee. When they fled to Paris, they found a city that had an equal amount of angst, as far as politics were involved, but Paris was more open and allowed these writers to express themselves freely.

While these writers and artists left America for political disagreements, they never denounced their pride of coming from such a sturdy nation. It would be incorrect to assume that these people left because they were in some way embarrassed of America, rather “they went to Paris to exchange business and moral prejudices for their own aesthetic prejudices” (164). Instead of attempting to change the political beliefs that were set in the American stone, they decided to trade nations, but keep their national pride. Additionally, Fitch reminds her readers “[i]n spite of the loud denunciations of the United States by a few, most never shook off—or wished to shake off—their American cultural values. On the contrary, in Paris many ‘found’ America” (163). The political freedom that Paris allowed these writers and artists helped them to better understand themselves as Americans and discover a new respect for their native land.