This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald: An Analysis.

This Side Of Paradise, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s first novel, is a coming-of-age story about a boy named Amory Blain. Fitzgerald found inspiration in his own life, which is very much depicted in the book. The title was derived from a quote by Rupert Brooke: “Well this side of Paradise! There’s little comfort in the wise.”

The story begins with Amory Blain as a young boy raised by his mother, Beatrice, who married a wealthy man. Amory’s father rarely is mentioned in the book; instead, Amory’s father figure, whom he meets in a section of the book titled Amory, Son of Beatrice, is an old suitor of his mother’s who now is a priest, Monsignor Darcy. Amory receives much of his attitude from his mother, and, throughout his childhood, from when he attended elementary school and preparatory school, he is said to be arrogant and disliked by all the boys in his class. When confronted with this issue by the headmaster at St. Regis preparatory school, Amory reacts almost brokenheartedly and rash, saying, “Don’t you think I don’t know?”

When Amory meets Monsignor Darcy, he finds that the priest is almost a kindred spirit. In the novel, Fitzgerald writes of their meeting, “They slipped into an intimacy from which they never recovered”(Fitzgerald. pg. 29). It is important to note that Amory’s life is based on making it “big;” wanting to be popular and rich someday is his dream, but the illusion that Amory has built up in his mind is what ultimately destroys him and keeps him from realizing his potential. For example, Amory is disillusioned by the appearances of Ivy League colleges and their role in men’s lives. Even as a young boy about to attend preparatory school, Amory tells Monsignor Darcy, “I want to go to Princeton, I don’t know why, but I think of all Harvard men as sissies, like I used to be, and all Yale men as wearing big blue sweaters and smoking pipes. . ..I think of Princeton as being lazy and good-looking and aristocratic – you know, like a spring day”(Fitzgerald. pg. 29). For Amory, Princeton is lazy and good-looking, just like him.

Amory goes off to Princeton being very self-conscious of his appearance, but makes friends with a few young men who share his taste in literature, philosophy and life. Amory meets a wealthy girl named Rosalind Connage, who plays a key role in his life. Amory and Rosalind fall madly in love with each other, but, since Amory is not well-off, Rosalind rejects him and marries another gentleman for his money. Here, Amory realizes how much money really can talk. Later in the book, Amory deepens into a drunken stupor and, when brought back to reality after his mother’s death, he goes back to where he grew up, Lake Geneva, and meets Eleanor Savage. For Amory, Eleanor is the answer to all of his unanswered questions, which is why Amory thinks he dreamt her.

After a long meeting with Eleanor, Amory goes back to Princeton in a significant section of the book, The Egoist Becomes A Personage. Here, Amory realizes that his youth is indeed time lost “. . .from the personalities he had passed”(Fitzgerald. pg. 308).

Throughout the novel, Fitzgerald offers section titles that directly apply to Amory – The Egotist Considers,. for example. Throughout the novel, this recurring theme explains to the reader how we really see Amory – as an Egotist. This brings me to an important philosophical question in the book: What is an Egotist and why is Amory characterized as one? It’s very obvious why, but, in Amory’s case, being an Egotist is something that is not working out for him. Instead, Amory is disillusioned by his dreams, by the posing and showing off that he displays throughout his life. It’s only when he meets Rosalind that Amory seems to seriously consider his potential. Amory is very vain, especially about his appearance; he knows he’s good-looking even when people tell him, which is one of the philosophical issues with which Amory deals. In knowing he, indeed, is good-looking, he fails to accomplish his goals. Other questions brought up in this novel: What is a personality and what is a personage? These are key questions, because, again, they apply greatly to Amory and his story. When meeting with Monsignor Darcy after entering Princeton, Amory is disheartened by his failure at mathematics in the fall semester, and the clergyman explains that he is too caught up in trying to be a personality when he is really a personage. Monsignor Darcy elaborates, “Personality is a physical matter almost entirely; it lowers the people it acts on – I’ve seen it vanish in a long sickness. But while a personality is active, it overrides ‘the next thing.’ Now a personage, on the other hand, gathers. He is never thought of apart from what he’s done. He’s a bar on which a thousand things have been hung – glittering things sometimes, as ours are, but he uses those things with a cold mentality back of them”(Fitzgerald. pg. 116). Here, Monsignor Darcy tells Amory that spending all his time trying to be different things will never get him anywhere, and, if he applies himself accordingly and garners prestige and highly acclaimed talent within his boundaries, he need not depend on anyone, whether it be his mother, after whom he models himself, or a lover such as Rosalind. Amory will be able to cope with the loss of these “possessions” because of his personage.

Another philosophical issue posed in This Side Of Paradise is how Amory deals with Evil. For Amory, Evil not only is a figurative subject, like it would be for Fitzgerald, but an actual person who appears to him on several occasions. Amory’s friends at Princeton call him “Original Sin,” and, because of these meetings with the Devil (which are offered as implication of Amory’s moral struggle), he lives up to his nickname. One night out, a friend of Amory’s – Dick Humbird, a Princeton undergraduate who is popular, rich and charming – gets into a bad drunk-driving accident. Here, Amory makes a distinction between Good and Evil because he realizes that, without some glorification or power, without wealth and status, one cannot be given recognition, especially when it comes to “getting the girl.” On another occasion, Amory runs into the Devil when he and his friend, Fred Sloan, get together with two girls who are vaguely thought to be prostitutes. Here, Amory decides to give in to his sexual curiosity, but, before he does, he sees the Devil and is so frightened that he runs out of the room and into an alley to wait for Sloan. It is obvious that Amory equates Evil with sexuality and temptation. Here, Fitzgerald  depicts the Jazz Age at its highest, using This Side Of Paradise and the character of Amory Blain as an allegory for American youth during this era; Evil being identified with sex.” In every instance in which Amory is involved “romantically” with a girl, he is almost repulsed, with the exception of his love for Rosalind. Amory tries to pose as another personality, a “flaming youth,” but, in reality, he is a conscientious Puritan. Also, when Amory is utterly broken by Rosalind’s surrender to the idea and importance of wealth, and goes back to Lake Geneva only to meet Eleanor Savage, Fitzgerald writes of Amory’s first sexual encounter and initiation into “man-hood.” This is significant because Amory no longer is repulsed by the idea of sexuality.

Another important philosophical issue is Amory’s complex idea of money. During his courting of Rosalind and, at the time they both fall in love, Amory realizes that Rosalind has learned the concept of “supply and demand.” She knows the importance of money and that, marrying into money, even when not in love with that individual, is what girls always do; thus reminding us that “Poor boys don’t marry rich girls.” But Amory cannot fully understand this; out of determination, he is blinded by his unrealistic and romantic view about life, and, no matter how hard he tries to convince Rosalind of the latter, he ultimately will lose her because “money talks.”

After his breakup with Rosalind and his retreat to Lake Geneva, Amory finally lets go of his personalities and posing and becomes a personage. Another philosophical question: How does Amory come to realize this? The reader must know that, without Amory’s mother, Amory would not be a personage in the first place. Without his mother’s complex attitude, without her intricacies and preferences or her alcoholic states and depressions, Amory would not be, in his mind, a sophisticated and good-looking charmer. At the end of the story, we find Amory at Princeton and Fitzgerald writes about Amory’s obvious wasted time, “He wondered what graves made people consider life in vain. Somehow he could find nothing hopeless in having lived”(Fitzgerald. pg.306). Ironic, because, as much as Amory tried to live, he wasted it by dreaming, so the hopelessness is there, but Amory still, even after becoming a personage, does not come to terms with that. At the very end, Amory is stretched out on the grounds of the campus and he says a loud, crying “I know myself. . .And that is all”(Fitzgerald. pg. 308).

Having read this book so many times, it’s hard to say how I would deal with these philosophical issues if I were Amory Blain, and, since this is a coming-of-age story, why should anyone reading this novel try to answer the questions that Amory asks? I think everyone, especially in our youth, is brought to a certain point where it is necessary to consider these personal, philosophical questions. The one mistake Amory Blain makes is not doing so himself, which did not allow him to come to terms with his flaws. That is how I would consider the dilemmas in this story; Amory constantly seems to be in denial of his life, his actual personality and his environment, which is why he eventually fails at the end of his youth.