Generations Have you ever wondered what life was like for someone from another generation? I've often wondered what life as a 20-year-old would be like if I were of my parents' generation. I think we often have a misconception that generations before us always got the better of us without really researching the details about what kind of lifestyle they lived. In Douglas Coupland's Generation I believe the idea of ​​this book is to encourage that Generation X and Baby Boomers (the post-World War II generation) should not be lumped together. This book, through the use of its characterization and colloquialisms, gave me the impression that the generation before mine has more in common with millennials than we expected and changed my overall view of their time in history. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The key aspect of this book that connects its readers to the story is the portrayal of the main characters. The book begins with three characters: Andy, Dag and Claire. The book's perspective is set in first person: Andy's point of view. These characters seem like obnoxious people upon first introduction. All three seem to have an internal anguish that they feel it is necessary to complain about. As unattractive as they may be at first, their complaints become apparent later on. The stories of these three develop in the first chapters as each person reveals their own life story that brought them together as neighbors. As each character presents their own story, they become more likable and entirely relatable. These stories were about quitting meaningless jobs, the inability to find love in a materialistic world, and many other stories that I felt I could read about with the intent of caring for the generation before mine. I began to see my elders (people my parents' age) as having lived similar lives to the people I know today who continually struggle with love, materialism, and meaningless service jobs, all the while trying to understand what life means to them. The main quality of these characters is that they are exceptionally good at telling stories. They aren't motivated by much other than the stories about their lives or the stories they make up for fun that define their generation. In this sense, I want to compare them to Louis XVI, who was more interested in his hobbies than in ruling a kingdom and disconnected from his chaotic environment because he was not yet mature enough to rule France. This analogy is appropriate because these characters are not ready to live the life that the generation before them created or have not yet understood how they want to change their society. This led me to the question, “Does people's education (or lack thereof) lead them to these positions in their lives? Is this a common theme in the story? As the story develops, the secondary characters in this work of fiction help form a solid backstory to the main roles that begins to answer my questions about them. Each main character is paired with a supporting role that provides insight into where their problems originated. Claire's boyfriend, Tobias, is a superficial guy who the other character doesn't like. They refer to him as a “yuppie,” a term actually incorporated into the bookused in the 80s. Describes a well-paid, fashionable young man. Elvissa, a love interest for Dag who is unusual and too stuck in the past. Tyler, Andy's rotten spoiled teenage brother. One of Claire's problems is her divorced parents and the idea that love is now a materialistic concept. Tobias shows her that materialism has become a...major part of her current society. Andy's younger brother symbolizes the large family he comes from and the idea of ​​feeling like he's just a number. Dag's unusual love interests show his lack of attention to anything ordinary or monotonous. These secondary characters contribute to their life stories, making me feel like I'm deeper with them. I felt like I had an understanding with Dag in the way that I'm afraid of doing the same boring, meaningless job every day and that my life will have no meaning or adventure. This also explains their courageous decision to abandon urban life and move to a desert area. They wanted to create their own rules after the previous thirty years of rules established by their elders. One of the best and funniest lines in the book is that they felt handed over to the world." . . like so much underwear marked by slipping” (Generation X, 86). Their anti-establishment mood starts to make sense because you realize that they don't want to live life by the rules. This concerns me in the sense that I have felt encouraged to remain myself amidst all the social changes of late. The discouraging part of this book is that you don't see many attempts to make a change. Nor do we see the characters ultimately succeed in making changes in their lives that defy social standards. They soon seem to discover that they are living life exactly as they were before they attempted to make life different for themselves. I understand that the book is more of a fictional tale about a generation, written by a man who wanted others to understand what his generation went through, what they were about, and why they are sometimes called "the silent generation." However, if it was pure fiction, I would have wanted to see a new society that they created beyond our imagination, like the way Marxism was mentioned in the Communist Manifesto. But that's the trick, our society has been so set up for us by capitalism, social standards and normative laws, is it really easy to imagine a different one? Especially now, since the media is so important that we are easily influenced by what we see and hear. It is easy for misconceptions to be created about us. However, I also think this is key to why they were called the Silent Generation. They didn't have the same mass media that we have and many members of my generation use it to their advantage in trying to make social change and question why our society is the way it is. The only problem now is that millennials have completely immersed themselves in the materialistic world created for us a long time ago, so perhaps while half of Generation X was busy longing for change; the other half of Generation X involved in the “yuppie life” contributed to the consolidation of our current society. One conclusion one might draw from this book is that it is difficult to make changes in the midst of conforming. Personally I liked the book in the sense that I like the fact that it represents a generation in difficulty; however, I have some criticisms to conclude my analysis. Members of different generations all identify with their own set of issues that arose in the historical moment in which they were born. Personally I believe that Generation X's problems were about.