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. He soon learns that convention brings conformity, and that conformity is not his suit. This vision is a symbol for Fitzgerald to show that Amory understands the immorality around him, and to show that he has a conscience. 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. It is from this experience that Amory knows he must lose the conventional aspects of his life. 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). He wishes for humans to look at the bigger picture just as Amory and himself do. 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. She leaves all of her assets to the church leaving Amory penniless. Some may argue that prior to Thoreau’s experiment on Walden he had convention, love and money; however, he made the conscience decision to rid himself of that when Amory did not, thus he had no need to reflect on what allowed him to reach his goal. Thoreau realizes that life itself is, “frittered away by detail” (Thoreau 75). He has lost everything, convention, the love of Rosalind and money— all the things in which he thought would bring him happiness. Self-realization is anything that you want to discover about the experiment of living. Some individuals may go through a process of self-discovery and not even know it until they have reached a point of epiphany or realization. or, they are poorer in outward riches, yet all so rich inward” (Thoreau 12).
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