Convention, Love and Money
How does one attempt self-discovery? Often, in many novels we read of self-discovery through a traumatic event or in this case a loss of sorts. In a quest to discover their unique self, we follow young Amory Blaine, from F. Scott Fitzgerald's This Side of Paradise, from his childhood years right through his times at Princeton. He is a wealthy young man, who is brought up in a high-class society. On a similar quest as Amory, we follow Henry David Thoreau in Walden, he does not live a life of a high-class society, rather a much more simple existence. He leaves all that he owns behind to start anew on Walden lacking the convention of society, love and an abundance of money. However, unlike Thoreau's plan for a simple life, Amory begins his quest for himself with convention, love and money because he believes it is these things that will truly find him happiness. Walden is a narrative of Thoreau's time being alone on Walden Pond with no more than the necessities of life: food, clothing and shelter. He leaves all that he owns behind because he knows that without these things the focus on the self is much more clear and defined. He says, regarding simplicity: "the wisest have ever lived a more simple and meager life than the po
As Amory enters boarding school, and even at Princeton, he attempts in every way possible to behave in a conventional manner. Self-realization is anything that you want to discover about the experiment of living. Amory receives guidance from a childhood friend, Darcy, who tells him in a letter: "we are not personalities, but personages, you must find who you are at heart" (Fitzgerald 99). we should not play life or study it merely, but earnestly live it from beginning to end. His quest for his niche in society becomes relevant at a party with his friends; there he believes that he sees a vision of the devil. Thoreau began with little whereas Amory began with plenty, but both men found who they are and who they want to be through a process of simplification, realization and prioritizing. He soon learns that convention brings conformity, and that conformity is not his suit. It is from this experience that Amory knows he must lose the conventional aspects of his life. His search for individuality leads him to the love of a woman, Rosalind. It would appear as though Thoreau had this foreknowledge whereas Amory did not-he learned the hard way. He was born into a wealthy family; his sophisticated education separates him from his peers: "she [his mother] fed him sections of the 'Fetes Galantes,' before he was ten, he could talk glibly" (Fitzgerald 13). Even toward the beginning of his narrative, he knows that this is true. Against all the activities of the time period, the Jazz age, Amory learns that convention, love, and money are not the determining factors of happiness.
Common topics in this essay:
Amory Thoreau,
Shortly Princeton,
Amory Blaine,
Walden Pond,
Thoreau Walden,
Fitzgerald Amory,
,
Fitzgerald's Paradise,
convention love,
convention love money,
love money,
amory thoreau,
fitzgerald 99,
leaves owns,
experiment living,
amory blaine,
experience amory,
whereas amory,
learns convention,
|
Acceptance Essays
