I have a memory of a story about three generations of a family where the first strives hard and makes a fortune, the second maintains it, and the third fritters it away, but I can;t think exactly what it is. It’s not exactly the Magnificent Ambersons, nor the Radetzky March, or 100 Years of Solitude. A friend suggested I might be thinking of something out of the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible.
Does anyone have ideas?
Thank you for your help.
“We are an immigrant nation! The first generation works their fingers to the bone making things. The next generation goes to college and innovates new ideas. The third generation snowboards and takes improv classes.”
Look here.
The trope is well known: “Clogs to clogs in three generations”. I am sure there are lots of literary versions of the story.
Right, but that’s the thing–we’re all familiar with the notion, but I can’t think of any stories that follow that arc. Thank you for the links but they didn’t have any fictional referents either.
Bumping my own thread in hopes of other replies. Sorry for that but thank you all for any help.
Wasn’t there a Family Guy episode with the same theme? IIRC, they struck it rich twice and managed to fritter it away both times.
“The Good Earth” The Good Earth - Wikipedia
I seem to remember a Philip Roth or John Updike novel. . .?
It wasn’t a fictional story but I remember hearing a group of Authors on the radio who wrote a book about how you can classify almost every long lived society into a cycle of generations (I am paraphrasing from memory).
The first Generation lives through an Economic Catastrophe. Then their children (the authors called them The Builders) end up with a strong work ethic and end up rebuilding the Civilization. Then their children, who by reaping the benefits of the Builders, are able to be creators and thinkers. Then their children forget the lessons of the past and create a new Economic Catastrophe which starts the cycle all over again. They had names for all the Generations and showed how you can see this again and again in different societies.
I tried Googling but couldn’t find it. I heard it on the Thom Hartmann show a long time ago.
Quimby. the book is called “The Fourth Turning”. Very interesting.
Reading the page, that was indeed it, thank you.