this side of paradise2
Many critics have complained, with justice, that a great flaw in This Side of Paradise (aside from its loose, rambling structure) is the fact that the author seems uncertain as to his own attitude. He mocks the romantic delusions or emotional melodrama of his "little rich boy," Amory Blaine, while too often he shares, or seems to share, in the delusions themselves. There is, in short, a kind of "smart" pseudo-sophistication imbedded within the narrative itself-a series of "clever comments" inserted for the sake of the cleverness rather than for any aesthetic purpose. And one result of this aesthetic self-indulgence is that the reader may find it difficult to take either Amory or his adventures with any degree of seriousness at all. Indeed, one feels as though the author himself were doing what Amory does during the course of the narrative: he merely holds the posture of writing about what actually is a very slight matter. The need for some sort of imposing or melodramatic gesture is, of course, one of the chief qualities of Amory Blaine as an adolescent. That neither Amory nor his creator-F. Sc
The "philosophers," on the other hand, are those who pursue their own course independently of the rewards - and the demands - of "Society" itself. Failure As A Theme Failure emerges as a basic theme of This Side of Paradise - and of Fitzgerald's work as a whole. " In a world composed of the "ins" and the "outs," he determines to achieve status at all costs, and to this end will use every talent at his disposal-whether it be a talent for "correct" dress, a talent for football, or a talent for writing. But the Princeton "atmosphere" rests on a foundation of intense social competition; Amory, indeed, discovers all too rapidly a pecking-order of prestige and power. Scott Fitzgerald's own life, is the central tension of Amory Blaine. Her very marriage to the weak and "ineffectual" (though rather literary and "romantic") Stephen Blaine, Amory's father, was a similar "sport": having married the all but invisible Mr. Amory Blaine, certainly, in his career up until the time he enters Princeton (Chapter I of This Side of Paradise carries us through Amory's 18th year), never seems quite "at home" even-or especially-when he does succeed in achieving a particular desire. The power of sex, indeed, offends him while it attracts; obsessed with guilt produced by his own emotions, Amory must either turn the emotions into Romantic Love derived from adolescent vapourings, or "worship" their object (as he worships Clara Page) until reality in some way becomes purer than its own existence. Amory At Princeton Even at Princeton, Amory's schizophrenic ambitions tend to dilute and weaken whatever intellectual power he possesses. It is Clara Page, who-refusing to be turned into an object by Amory's emotional unreality-defines what is, perhaps, his essential weakness, and the weakness of the Fitzgerald Hero as a type. " Amory senses this fatal "propensity toward failure" in himself. Amory, for example, from the very beginning of the book-especially during his early adolescence in Minneapolis and his four years at St. For Amory, at any rate, and for his mother Beatrice Blaine as well, the posture of reality all too often replaces reality itself, while gesture stands as a substitute for emotional commitment. Speaking to a companion during his last year at St.
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Acceptance Essays
