The Lost Generation of Maui

On page 20 of Night Fisher, Loren turns in an essay entitled “Steinbeck and Fitzgerald: The Grapes of Gatsby”, networking two authors of the Lost Generation, a circle of literary individuals after World War I, to amplify the feeling of disillusionment found throughout the graphic novel.  It is also important to note that Fitzgerald and Steinbeck wrote on different topics for The Great Gatsby and The Grapes of Wrath: Fitzgerald’s novels addressed opulence, materialism, masculinity, and the unattainable American dream, while Steinbeck wrote on the civilians’ decrepit states after the American dream collapsed and left many destitute.  The key thing here is that both novels are about searching for the meaning of existence without a clear answer in sight.  Loren, too, seems to find himself obsessed with sex, the glamor of drugs, and chasing a goal that is unattainable.  At the same time, Loren finds himself distanced from his hometown of Maui evidenced by its peculiar formation, its foreign flora, and Lacey.
The story describes Loren and Shane’s disillusionments on different terms which are never fully realized at the end of the novel.  Loren’s goal, to match Shane’s level of prowess as an intellectual alpha-male, is continuously rejected and rebuffed, preventing Loren from progressing as a character.  Shane, a straight-A student, is able to acquire what seems valuable or material, but never desires the next plateau of life: “I love it here” (76).  Both of the students live “lavish” lifestyles, complete with drugs, adventure, and sex, which speaks to vanity and materialism present in Fitzgerald and Steinbeck’s novels.  This is offset by the aimless and complicated direction that the boys choose to follow, perhaps symbolized by the unruly nature of Loren’s knots (58).  The images and diction on pages 24-25 reveal Loren’s disillusioned state: A picture of an American action hero is torn off of the wall to reveal a large empty wall that is accentuated by the mess that surrounds it.  The American hero, an icon of America’s strength, prestige, and glory is violently removed and is substituted by a vast emptiness that symbolizes Loren’s inability to relate to the country he belongs to.  The material possessions also are cast aside by Johnson, since they are drawn to cramp up open spaces.  He continues in the same panel: “ It’s always been this way with him [Shane] — I’m always playing catch up” explicitly stating that he is chasing after Shane’s embodiment (25).  As the story progresses, it is clear that Loren will never catch up, exhibited by how quickly Shane runs away from Loren who staggers forward in shock during a track race (135).  To top it off, even Loren’s reflection in the troubled water suggests an air of disillusionment as Loren’s identity and self perceptions become blurrier and messier (24).
The reader also gets a sense of Loren’s distant relationship with Maui through the story’s mechanics.  The preface of the novel shows the formation of Maui, a process that is slow, alien, and somewhat capricious (2-4).  The reader accepts Maui’s conception as a foreign and unknown facet of the graphic novel which suggests that Loren views Maui on the same terms.  He is incapable of connecting with the state’s flora as a teacher gives a lecture on the movement of seeds from the Asiatic mainland many years before Hawaii was settled by Westerners (83).  The flowers’ origins remain shifty to Loren until the end of the novel when he notices the fruits and plants that make Maui a unique environment for growth (127).  One can further assess Loren’s detachment from Maui through Lacey, Loren’s unrequited love interest: “I can’t wait to get off this rock” (87).  As the story progresses, Loren becomes more distant to his homeland, a disembodiment that Steinbeck procures within The Grapes of Wrath.