female rules!

I think it is extremely symbolic in the order in which Fitzgerald makes appearances the female characters. The order in which these female characters appear show the growing social power of females in society. From Beatrice to Eleanor we see the differences in action and attitude. The first female character that is introduced in-depth is Amory’s mother Beatrice. Beatrice often complains about her nerves. This reveals her fragileness thus reveals men’s perceptions of women in that time period, and the fragility also reveals women’s weakness in society. However, Beatrice could also be portrayed as a woman who is socially and economically powerful. She seems to play a dominate role in the Blaine household because Fitzgerald describes Amory as “son of Beatrice” rather than the son of his father. The family also seems to be living off money from her side of the family. Beatrice therefore represents the generation of women who are more socially conservative and weak, and yet they are slowing moving towards more independent and dominating role. We are then introduced to Isabella. Isabella portrays a perfect picture of a young female who represents herself as a pure individual, but in reality she is a female who dares to flirt with males. Isabella therefore represents the notion that women are now moving towards less socially conservative roles, but yet, they are still more reserve. Then the readers are introduced to Clara. Clara is independent and because she is a widow it shows that she has escaped the dominance of men. This os socially symbolic. Then there is Rosalind and Eleanor. Rosalind openly flirts with males and Eleanor’s wild, independent, and strong nature shows that females have moved towards more socially liberated.

Ignorance is Bliss

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s This Side of Paradise leaves little hope for humanity. Although the book is based on the main character, Amory Blaine, “finding himself” and defining his own “self”, Fitzgerald takes from Amory’s happiness every time he attempts to look deeper in to himself. In the beginning of the novel, Amory is born in the lap of wealth and culture, but has little character and no depth of self. He is shallow and lazy, and pursues only the lustful fantasies of women. However, in spite of how the audience hates him, this may have been the pinnacle of happiness for Amory throughout the novel. By the end of the book, Amory understands and acknowledges his shallowness and selfishness, seems at the peak of change, and finally understands and accepts love over lust. However, because his mother leaves her wealth to the church, Amory is left poor. Because he is so poor, he is left without the love of his life, Rosalind, and thus, he is completely miserable. I saw the development of Amory’s character, as well his gradual decline in happiness represented through his relationships with various women throughout the novel.

The first book of the novel is interestingly titled “The Romantic Egotist”, which is applicable because this is the times when Amory gets what he wants out of romantic relations with girls. Myra and Isabelle represent the stage of Amory’s life where he is at his most shallow and most selfish, but he is as happy as Fitzgerald allows him to be. His relationships with the two girls are based on whether or not he can kiss them. There is little to be said about emotions other than lust, and little description about the characters other than physical and social attributes.

Rosalind represents the stage of Amory’s life where he learns that he needs to work for what he wants in life. He truly discovers what it means to love and care about another person. However, this is also the period where Amory loses his wealth and status. He is consequently prevented from marrying Rosalind. This stage of the book is where Amory gains a deeper knowledge of himself. However, this knowledge only provides the painful realization of what he cannot have.

Meeting Eleanor allows Amory to finally reach the point where he understands that he cannot truly love anyone but Rosalind. He realizes that he cannot revert back to ignorance of self and ignorance of love. Fitzgerald uses Eleanor to represent Amory’s opportunity to remain stagnant in his life of shallowness and varying women. However, Amory chooses to reject such a life. This understanding of self should result in happiness and acceptance of self, but instead, Amory sees everything he left behind and can no longer have.

It seems like Fitzgerald is almost telling the audience that the more one looks for in life, the less one is able to find. There was an almost bliss in Amory’s ignorance in the beginning of the book. It is only once he realizes what he does not and cannot have, Amory is truly unhappy.

Finishing Thoughts

It took me until the middle to end of the novel to actually get emotionally involved in the characters of This Side of Paradise. I will admit, in the beginning I found it to be boring and it did not capture my attention like a book of this status should. However, the novel became more interesting to me after I truly started to dislike Amory. I became emotionally attached in the sense that I wanted to read about what Amory did next, although I could most likely predict the pattern in which it would follow. His life as described by F. Scott Fitzgerald was monotonous in that it was full of continuous cycles in which Amory found himself at a loss. The one part that I did enjoy reading was the end in which he finally ends the cycle. I enjoyed that F. Scott Fitzgerald ended on this note because I am sure that the cycles would continue had he kept writing. However, the idea that Amory has finally found and learned to understand himself was a shock to me. After watching him make the same mistakes time after time, I liked to hear that he had stopped the cycle. He would continuously have a fresh beginning, in which he was a “young soul” searching for something wonderful. He would grow up along the way and learn that this wonderful idea or romance of his may not work out as planned in his mind. Then, many times through self-destruction, his plans would come crashing down on him and he would be in mourning for a period of time. Then, all of a sudden, he would get another burst of life and find something or someone else to obsess his time over. Continuing the cycle, he would grow from the person who had the original idea and adapt it to something more reasonable. Then, once again, it would fall apart and he would be left there with nothing. These cycles that originally made me uninterested in Amory as a character also acted as the saving point of the novel in my eyes. Had I not recognized and thought more about these cycles, this novel would not have made a long-lasting memory in my mind. However, I think that these cycles made a lasting impression on the audience at the time F. Scott Fitzgerald was writing and made the novel so popular almost overnight. The returning soldiers from World War I were forced to start their life anew. Their “rebirth”, although forced, was very similar to that of Amory Blaine. Many Americans at the time could relate to Amory’s character and therefore it made for a very popular read. However, although it was a hit back then, I do not understand the significance of reading it today. I believe that there are better novels that college students today could read to reflect of the past, rather than the rough novel that F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote in order to get his true love, Zelda.

The People We Tried to Impress

Wanted us to impress them.

They were not hoping that we would fail and did not take pleasure in denying us. They genuinely tried to connect with us and treated our applications like the precious gateways to our stories, dreams, and goals that they were.

At least this is the profile of a college admissions officer that the main character of the book Admission by Jean Hanff Korelitz, Portia Nathan, supports. Portia really loves her job and admits to sometimes letting herself get too attached to her applicants and too moved by their life stories. Portia is a lovable character—she has the right amount of passion, quirkiness and humor.

I really love this novel so far. I love that it shows that the nameless, faceless people we directed our essays towards and tried to win over were really neither nameless nor faceless. It shows that these admission officers try really hard to create the most passionate, most intelligent, most diverse, and most well-rounded class that they possibly can.

Unfortunately, I must admit that Princeton was a childhood dream of mine and the only school that denied me. The funny thing is that I was not surprised or really overly upset at this rejection because I recognized my limitations and my lack of the extraordinary. This is why I must say the part where Portia describes the essay of the girl who was “smart enough to know about, or at least imagine, the ones she would be compared with, who had been handed so much less than she, and done so much more with what they had, while the children of privilege were penalized for having been fortunately born, comfortably raised, and excellent in all the ordinary ways,” really resonated with me. I was that girl that realized I was not good enough but still applied because I really wanted it at the time. I remember writing a number of times that I realized that my life so far had been unremarkable, but that I knew one day I would change the world, and that I would gain the tools to do so at whichever university I was directing this message to. I love the line that finishes this paragraph about the ordinary girl: “Sometimes those were the ones who got to Portia the most.”

I had a Portia at Carnegie Mellon, UVA, William and Mary, and Cornell—somebody who saw that just because I am ordinary right now does not mean that I do not have the potential to do something remarkable and note worthy one day. I got to them.

I am really intrigued by this book, and I can’t wait to read more.

Discovery of self, redemption and satisfaction

My perception of Amory Blaine has softened in the closing pages of the novel. The closing chapters feature a more compassionate Amory Blaine that was somewhat absent in the opening chapters. His decision to put himself at the risk of prosecution for Alec is a heroic deed that was so unexpected, and probably the high point of Blaine in the novel. Blaine gives us the impression that he is no longer the self-conceited personnel we made him to be, and we gain a degree of likeability towards Blaine as a result of his actions. Amory demonstrates that he is capable of considering others and that Alec has more to lose than he does is a testament to his progression as a character throughout the novel.

The closing chapters have also made me feel somewhat sympathetic towards Blaine in wake of the unfortunate string of events that occur whereby Blaine discovers that Rosalind is engaged, Blaine’s guardian figure Monsignor Darcy has passed away and that his family’s investments will no longer be able to provide him with income. The loss of Rosalind and Darcy from Blaine’s life is significant as they were the two characters that Blaine shared deep connections with. We commiserate his loss, as it seems as if Blaine has lost all that he ever cared for and has little to look forward to in life. Such casualties seem harsh even for an unlikeable character such as Blaine.

The departure of Rosalind and Darcy is the turning point of Blaine’s life, the point of maturity when he discovers who he truly is as a person and is able to reflect on his life, his actions, and what he wants from life. Blaine is like Gatsby and the green light, there is always some hope that Rosalind will eventually reconcile with him and when that door closes he has little left to live for. Darcy similarly is his mentor in life, and as Blaine describes it he was someone who people “depended” on. The loss of these characters leaves Blaine lonely, and vulnerable. The feeling of isolation is what I believe enables him to analyse the continual downfalls he experiences in each stage of his life.

So to what degree does the ending of this novel satisfy us? It is pleasing to see that Blaine has finally found some form of self-identity, as his concluding line “I know myself, but that is all” indicates. We revel in the fact that he is at least aware of his selfish nature and is willing to admit to it, but his unwillingness to change this unpleasant characteristic is not so satisfying. Blaine’s comment that “that is all” also leaves the book loose-ended and open to speculation. Although he may have found out who he is, it brings into question where does Blaine go from here? Is there any use in being conscious of our self-identity? I would argue that Blaine’s search for self-identity was a fruitless expedition, as he retains no sense of direction of life and has not found his purpose of life. 

Egoistical Egotist

Supercilious (adj.) haughtily disdainful or contemptuous.

The concept of "sacrifice" in my mind is something noble and unselfish, the act of a person giving up something for the good of another -- like sacrificing one's time or money. Thus I was puzzled by the phrase "the supercilious sacrifice," as Fitzgerald entitles the fourth chapter in Book II. Here we see Amory throwing his reputation to the wind for his friend Alec, taking the blame for immoral sexual activity. He appears to understand all the consequences of his actions: shame, regret, responsibility, possible ruin.. he remembers a story where an innocent person sacrificed for another and eventually committed suicide. He considers how important it is for Alec to remain out of trouble because he has a family.

Does it not seem to you like Amory is doing something honorable, like he isn't such an egotist anymore? It does to me. Yet Amory's thoughts are that he is sacrificing out of his inherent selfish and arrogant nature. We could make this into a philosophical argument about altruism, how it isn't really concern for the welfare of other people -- but rather, it is an egoistical action so that people feel better about themselves. We could say that Amory's sacrifice is committed out of impersonality instead of a pure desire to help. Or is Amory being too critical of himself? He could reason with himself that he was committing an unselfish act, but he chooses to attribute it to selfishness. Could this be just a matter of perspective?

Despite our constant criticisms of Amory as an egotist and an "annoying" character, I cannot help feeling at least a little sympathetic towards him. He attains success in school and college through football and literature but has the courage to abandon these conventions because they are not what he is looking for. He is such a lost soul, trying to find something: success? Love? Himself? In the last chapter he seems to come to a realization and an acceptance of who he is, and he cries out that he knows himself. It is somewhat an unsatisfactory ending for me as a reader, because as I see it: he has no occupation, no religion, no family, no love in his life. By a worldly sort of standard, he is a wretched man. He says he knows himself, but that is all -- I wish we could have known the exact manner in which he uttered this, for perhaps then I would know whether or not I should pity him.

Understanding the popularity of the novel

Although This Side of Paradise is not my favorite book I have decided to
be more open-minded on its initial commercial success and its still
present popularity. I sat down and I really thought about the time period
and how Fitzgerald saw his generation.

The more that I thought about the publication year, 1920, the more that I
realized what a huge turning point this time was in was in history. The
Great War had just ended and the “Roaring Twenties” were not yet in full
swing. The First World War caused the most devastation and death than
had any other previous war. Boys, who were fresh out of high school or
college, became soldiers without really understanding the consequences.
They came back physiologically lost to what they were expected to be and how to act.
Were they men hardened by war who were supposed to undertake real
responsibilities or young boys not fully matured? I think that’s where
Amory comes along, he is lost.

It is hard for Amory to emotionally connect to people. Throughout that
novel, he is involved in incidents that seem to the reader to be
meaningful events but Amory is very rarely seen to reflect on them. His
father dies and the next day after the funeral, Amory is amusing himself
in the library. Beatrice, his mother, dies and Amory’s only real concern
is that he has been made poorer by her donation to the Church. This
pattern is seen again and again where Amory can’t seem to find a way to
connect his emotions to events in his life. I feel that the young male
generation who survived World War I must have felt distant from people
when they returned home. Here they had seen death and destruction in
Europe on a massive scale and then they would return home to a basically
an unchanged home. It must have felt very surreal to sit by the family
fireplace and calmly discuss a book or the weather or other daily
occurrences when they were suffering from such post-traumatic stress. I
feel that the boys couldn’t fit back into the lives that they had left
behind before going off to war.

The way that Fitzgerald depicts women is unusual. They seem to be trying
to throw off convention and be independent but haven’t fully crossed the
line in the sand still need to be shackled to a man through marriage. It
is Eleanor that clearly states that although she may be more brilliant
than many men of her acquaintance she will still need to marry one who is
inferior to her. In my eyes, she has the making of a flapper, strong,
independent but also self-destruction. Clara on the other hand doesn’t
want to marry because she has never been in love.

This quest for love keeps being brought up by Fitzgerald time and time
again. But how can Fitzgerald’s generation find love when they cannot even
find themselves. I feel that I understand the importance of this book.
It’s a quest to find oneself in a time where things do not make sense. And
even though I may not like Amory as the protagonist, maybe he is not there
to be liked but instead to reflect the vulnerable part inside that we are
scared of showing.

Amory's Relationships

For most of the beginning of the book, Amory does not have any true friends. His relationship with his mother could be considered a friendship, but he clearly has issues making friends. The other kids at his prep school do not like Amory because he is so arrogant and stuck up and different. I think this is probably because he is so used to his mother doting on him and treating him as an adult and telling him how superior he is. Beatrice clearly made a strong impression on
Amory and contributed to his vanity and his arrogant self-image. Even when he first gets to Princeton, Amory is only concerned with making friends who would improve his image. He finally makes some real friends who don't all live up to Amory's ideals of popularity (like Tom) but he establishes real relationships with these people. At this point, I thought that Amory would grow as a character and rely on his friends for advise and just generally become a less vain, less arrogant person. However, his shallow relationship with Isabelle confirmed that he has remained fairly static. He writes long love letters to her and seems completely obsessed with her, but once they meet up again, the whole thing is broken off because of a trivial incident where Amory leaves a mark on her neck. Isabelle is just as self-centered and shallow as Amory, so their relationship does not last--never really begins actually. Even the death of his friend in the automobile accident is not effect Amory enough. I think he should have valued his friendships more after that, seeing as how easily they could be taken away, but he continues to take people for granted and remains relatively distant from them.

relationships as objects and mockery of formal education

In what I've read I keep noticing a pattern of thinking about relationships and shows of affection (namely kisses) as achievements in the competition for social status. This first appears when Amory makes getting a kiss from Myra a conquest. He tries to be manipulative, he doesn't even really like her, but he bets he can kiss her. Once the conquest is complete he is repulsed by the idea of kissing her again; there is no real need for him to. Again in his Minneapolis days, he collects trinkets from girls, and the rings he borrows are chewed out of shape, meaning they can't be lent out again. This can be taken as a metaphor for the way that Amory ruins girls. The girls that Isabelle is going to the party where she meets Amory with have all had casual, meaningless relationships with Amory, they are all conquests of his. Isabelle is yet another conquest, although a more interesting and absorbing one. The spot that ended their relationship is yet another symbol of how Amory ruins girls. When Amory meets Rosalind they kiss several time as signs of mutual approval. Gillespie articulates this theme pretty well when he says “I thought that after a girl was kissed she was-- was – won.” Rosalind responds that she has to be won over repeatedly, which is ironic since she was just completely taken with Amory. This symbolism objectifies relationships between the characters and makes their relationships seem entirely superficial. This in turn intensifies the picture of an entirely superficial class system that Fitzgerald paints for us. The romantic relationships that Amory develops are a reflection of the class system that he participates in. The fact that the relationships are entirely superficial helps us to see that the class system is shallow and meaningless.

Another aspect that I found interesting about the book is that it seemed to poke fun at the formal education system while apparently showcasing the culture of college. One of the earliest criticisms of the formal education system is Fitzgerald's comment “yet as no tutor ever found the place he left off, his mind was still in very good shape.” Amory is also placed in situations where he feels like he has to dumb himself down in order to be popular, another failing of the education system. Amory's grades and school work always come secondary to his pursuit of success socially. When choosing a college to attend Amory made decisions based on the social rapport of the universities, as opposed to any educational benefits. The purpose in attending seems to be a prevailing need to be seen. Even once enrolled at Princeton Amory, though hesitant, doesn't miss any opportunity to cut classes. College does not appear to be a place for knowledge, but rather a forum for social posturing and making social connections. These jabs at the education system might have been appreciated by Fitzgerald's audience, many of whom may have never made it to college, and might enjoy finding the flaws in those who had been perceived as farther along in life.

This Side Of Paradise: One Night Only.

Throughout this section of the novel, I kept hoping that Amory would have some kind of personal revelation and be able to show some signs of maturity. However, this section only seemed to emphasize Fitzgerald’s failure to give the character any sort of depth whatsoever. As Book II begins, the writing switches from third person narration to that of a dialogue style. In this way, the reader begins to immerse himself in Amory’s life not by following his life through a narrator but rather experiencing like a show that he makes it out to be. This, to me, only emphasizes the superficiality of Amory’s life, as everything is a façade and a charade; all of his actions and feelings ultimately are representative of his desire to put on an act so as to pursue what he needs to pursue in his life.

The style of writing in the passages that contain dialogue and stage directions seem almost to mock Amory’s emotions as his relationship with Rosalind develops. Despite the fact that he seems deeply enamored with her, the highly dramatic dialogue and actions seem to downplay the sincerity and naturalness of their love affair. Everything about it seems like a very campy play in which the stereotypes are already established: the less-than-wealthy protagonist that makes up for his lack of money with wit and words, the beautiful, wild girl who is ultimately tamed by said protagonist and her scornful, reproachful, superficial mother who stands in the way of their love so as to financially better herself and her family.

While I wanted to take it seriously and I honestly hoped that this would make him emotionally grow and develop, he made no signs at doing so in any way. Rather than rationally hearing Rosalind’s side of why they could not be together, he threw a tantrum like a child and refused to take a step back from the situation. Overcome with emotion, one might argue that he was only demonstrating how much he loved her, but, again, this love was more of a façade. As he was passionately invested in the relationship, he reacted in this way so as to prove his love in the way he was supposed to: to be the devastated, scorned lover that the situation made him out to be. Even his retreat to the bar and his descent into his brief flirtation with alcoholism and quitting his job demonstrate his immaturity and inability to handle anything remotely serious or realistic in his life. When his illusion of this love affair with Rosalind was shattered by the reality that there was more to life than following one’s intrinsic desires, he was not emotionally ready to handle that, which only further demonstrates his immaturity and lack of growth throughout the novel (and play?). The dialogue-style that Fitzgerald presents the reader with ruins any chance of using his time with Rosalind as a learning experience that he has, as it makes it almost like a satire or farce of the archetype that Amory serves: that of the typical prep/school college student in the early twentieth century.

Guidance and distance, Amory the mannequin, criticisms of wealth and the role of the narrator

Guidance and distance, Amory the mannequin, criticisms of wealth and the role of the narrator

The purpose and satisfaction of life in the perspective of Amory Blaine continues to elude me. What exactly does Blaine wish to accomplish in life? Is Blaine condemned to the superficiality of popularity and aristocracy? So it seems, as far as the novel has told me so. Blaine seems to be a misfit in the world that he lives in. He lacks direction, and perhaps this is in part due to the absence of a guiding figure in his life. His father Stephen Blaine is seemingly absent from the world and passes away with little impact on Blaine. Beatrice Blaine is no better, being mentally unstable with her nervous breakdowns and aristocratic influence on Amory Blaine that seems to have an adverse affect on Amory Blaine’s ability to immerse well in society. Monsignor Darcy, whose attention to Blaine bestows him as the more dominant parental figure than Blaine’s biological parents gives Blaine some form of advice, but as Darcy self-admits later, he gives Blaine too much assurance and the impression that life will pass without struggle. There is also the issue of distance from youth; Blaine was only thirteen when his mother had a nervous breakdown and he was sent to Minneapolis. As of that age, he has been distanced from his family, with no one to ground him and steer him through adolescence, which is a crucial period for moulding one’s moral values and identity. Perhaps this is why we feel Blaine lacks identity.

My primary problem with the character of Amory Blaine is his lack of response and emotion to the activities surrounding or affecting him. He functions as a mannequin would, pulled in different directions but lacking depth and personality. The setbacks he encounters such as failing exams and being unable to continue as quarterback due to serious injury do not seem to alter his view of the world, nor do they seem to inject a sense of desire to seek success and find new meaning to life. Emotions of joy and love are fleeting moments as demonstrated with Isabelle and Clara, so short-lived that I am led to believe that they arose in the heat of the moment and exist as nothing more.

I am inclined to believe that Fitzgerald is trying to make an argument of the trivial lives experienced by members of the aristocracy. Fitzgerald’s presentation of the wealthy as narcissists makes us wonder whether or not he condemning the actions of the privileged. Amory Blaine does not stand alone in the category of conceited wealthy personnel, as much of this mirrored by Beatrice Blaine. Princeton University too is portrayed to consist of elitists from the pinnacle of the social hierarchy, with aristocratic organisations such as the Ivy Club. The description of the Ivy Club as “detached” suggests the exclusiveness of the wealthy in isolating themselves from the rest of society, that wealth and status are key to being accepted in the Princeton society.

I question the reliability of the narrator in giving us an accurate depiction of Blaine and the world Amory lives in. Perhaps the reason why we have such a negative depiction of Blaine and his pompousness is due in part to the narrator’s lack of understanding of Blaine. Our vision of Blaine is illustrated solely through the narrator’s perspective, which for all we know could be a skewed account of the life of Amory Blaine and clouded by the narrator’s distaste for aristocracy. This leads us to consider, just are we being unfair to protagonist Blaine?

College Culture

Fitzgerald conveys a sense of verisimilitude through Amory's superficial characterization of various social classes of students in college. In a previous lecture, a student mentioned the contemporary presence of those social classes in colleges. There are many students that fit the common stereotypes of nerds, eccentrics, jocks, etc. Nonetheless, within those divisions, each person faces their own and much more complex issues. In Amory's case, his superficial persona derived from his childhood when his mother engraved a sense of self into Amory. The result of this persona was a tactless and obnoxious kid. Furthermore, there was no internal conflict in Amory because he was incognito of his lack of his emotional characteristics.

In contemporary times, there are people that face the same kinds of disadvantages as Amory due to a similarity in childhood. Although it may not be as evidently clear as it is in Amory, people today are still trying to find themselves. There are many students that do not know their goals in life, their purpose, and their strengths and weaknesses. It is very difficult for someone to psychoanalyze themselves. There are many people that struggle with their insecurities. Yes the novel was very popular during the post-world war era. Many young males and females were able to relate to Amory since they were literally thrown into war before they could even experience enough of the world to learn more about themselves. However, the same lack of identity is present amongst teens and young adults.

It seems that Amory will never reach the expected climax of the novel when he realizes his ingenuity and reshapes himself. In reality, there are cases when people never find themselves. The readers are put in the same shoes as Amory when we feel so distant from the protagonist, we start to judge and complain just like Amory. It may seem simple to adapt to the social environment, but difference in wealth and power catalyzes the distinctions of culture.

Social Expectation

I think Fitzgerald iterates a lot on social expectation. Social expectation can be examined through Amory’s pursuit of popularity. Popularity is basically Amory’s social expectation. He, the society, and even the readers expect him to be popular in school because of his background. Amory’s wealth puts him in the higher social class of a society, and because of this, everyone thus expects Amory to be popular. I think Amory’s shallowness and obsession with social acceptance in school feed into the social expectation. Obviously, Amory does not know what he wants. He joins the football team and newspaper club for the sake of recognition; the recognition everyone expects him to have. Amory is confused on his own identity is also due to the fact that he is rather shaped by his mother. Amory often mentions that his mother would be proud of his performing of certain conduct. Many of his thoughts start out with something in the lines of “mother would be impressed…”and this shows that he is catering to his mother’s expectation. Amory’s relationship with Isabella serves as another example of social expectation. In the novel, on the night they meet, both Isabella and Amory agree that people expect the two to be together. They acknowledge that “everything” has been set-up by Isabella’s cousin who believes the two are a perfect match. Isabella’s cousin and the society have an expectation of the two being together because they possess similar family background and wealth. On the contrary, I did not expect Clara and Amory to be together because Clara and Amory are on different social class. Clara is poor while Amory is wealthy. Clara does not fall in love with Amory regardless of his feeling towards her. I think Fitzgerald uses this incident to convey the importance of social expectation.

Why Was This Novel So Popular Anyway? Thoughts On Today's Class Discussion

Today in class we kept coming back to the question of why this novel was so immensely popular at its first publication in 1920, and also today (though I do acknowledge that there are defiantly people in our class who do not like novel, a Google search produced evidence that there are in fact, contemporary fans of this book). Why is this? First off, I think that part of the attraction is escapist. Particularly for the post-WWI audience, there seems to me to be at least to some degree, the opportunity for living vicariously through Amory and his peers experiences. What an easy life by comparison, to float on a sea of money from private school to college, mucking about in grand adventure and “discovering oneself”. Returned solder's aside, Dr. Newman noted today that only about 1% of males went to college in the early 20th Century, making this novel for a many of its readers a glimpse into in A similar phenomena may account for contemporary popularity, because while in someways Amory's experiences are universal, there are many societal norms that are atypical and interesting to modern audiences, the school system, the intense socioeconomic divisions. However, I think escapism only work if the audience see something of themselves in the character. Although some of Amory's more obnoxious character flaws dissuade readers from relating to hid character, the journey of “finding oneself” (as we discussed, a relatively new idea) is common to 1920s audiences through audience's today. Though readers don't want to relate to the specifics of Amory's quest, they do relate to the idea that the journey needs to be taken. Which brings up another question: How real is this “journey” of finding oneself? How much has Amory fundamentally changed? And how much are real people, in really life, really supposed to change?

Popularity

What I found most interesting is that Amory has finally started to realize that social status is not as important as he think it ought to be after he fails to study for the exam. Amory considers his failure to have lead him to rediscovery of himself, I, however, think that he has been discovering himself since his first entrance into Princeton. Before entering Princeton, Amory has valued social popularity over anything, and this is understandable because of his family’s social status, and his handsome feature. Having been raised by his mother who possesses great wealth and social status, Amory is preconditioned to value social status. Amory also believes a greater social status for him is not optional because he grew up in a wealthy family and has a handsome figure. His handsome features plus his arrogant attitudes cause Amory to expect popularity, and if he is not popular he strives to be. This is evident when Amory is in Minnesota, St. Regis, and freshmen year in Princeton. Because of his personality, he is not well-liked in school so he strives to be popular in Minnesota. He thus plays football to gain popularity. At St. Regis, Amory is again disliked by most of the students. He then again plays football to gain status in school. At Princeton, Amory’s strive for social hierarchy becomes more evident. He joins the school newspapers and the Triangular Club in attempt to gain more popularity. His obsession for social popularity is even highlighted when Amory creates “Slickers” and “The Big Man” to analyze the social status. However, things start to change for Amory when he is at Princeton. Amory makes friends with Tom, and this reveals that popularity is slowly losing its ground in Amory’s mind. Although when Tom invites Amory to his room to look at his book collections, Amory hesitates because Tom is not socially popular in Princeton. But regardless, Amory agrees, and he and Tom become friends. I also think that Dick Humbird’s death also symbolizes a wake-up call for Amory and has the possibility of revealing that Amory is slowly becoming less class conscious. Dick Humbird possesses everything Amory admires of, and Amory wants to become more like Dick. His tragic death might convey an end to a power struggle.

"The Egotist Considers"

The egotist considers what?

This is a really interesting chapter of This Side of Paradise because Amory is up, down, and all around. He goes through a dizzying array of emotions and experiences. First, he and Isabelle call it quits. Amory realizes that they were never truly in love, and Isabelle is annoyed at how egocentric Amory is.

One thing Amory does consider throughout the book is how vain he is. An egotist by definition is a conceited and self-centered person. I’m not sure if he really realizes how vain he is. He questions it, but I feel like he never gets a straight answer. Plus Monsignor Darcy is always right there to make Amory feel like there is absolutely nothing wrong with his character. When Amory goes to him after he failed that test and thereby brings his Princeton social climb to an abrupt stop, Monsignor Darcy tells Amory that he is a “personage” and not a “personality” like many of his comrades at Princeton, and so his actions and feelings are justified. But it seems like the reason MD is so quick to defend Amory is the fact that they are very similar. By defending Amory’s character and temperament he is also defending his own. He writes a letter to Amory later in the book in which he states how he thinks of Amory as his son, and how they have a “deep resemblance” to each other. So maybe Monsignor Darcy isn’t the best person for the egotist to consider as a role model. He should have somebody to turn to who won’t stroke his ego but will rather help him build character and lose some of his excessive vanity.

The next thing the egotist considers is his morality. In the section “The Devil,” Amory has a really eye-opening and frightening episode. While out on the town with Sloane and two girls, Amory sees a man watching them. This makes him uncomfortable, but he shrugs it off and they leave to go to one of the girls’ apartment. When they get to her apartment, she offers them brandy which Amory hesitates to take. When he is just about to give into the temptation of the brandy and the night, he sees the man again. Amory pretty much freaks out. He is really terrified after he sees the man’s feet, by which he decides this man is the devil (which I thought was kind of comical—when I think of the devil I don’t think of a regular looking man with terrifying feet). Nobody else in the little party sees the man though, so they just think there is something wrong with Amory. He runs and runs, first feeling like he was being chased and then like he was following something. I found this part kind of confusing—but maybe this was Amory’s conscious telling him he needed to shape up? I don’t entirely understand why he sees Dick Humbird’s face either. Dick Humbird is the classmate that Amory really admired and envied who died in a car crash. Dick crashed the car because he had too much to drink but wouldn’t let anyone else drive. Maybe it was supposed to serve as a warning: Amory could end up like Dick if he didn’t clean up his act. This whole section was very dark and different; I don’t think I’ve ever read anything quite like it. Just when the reader might think that Amory is just delusional, Tom also sees something staring at Amory through the window.

So the egotist considers who he is. He considers his character, his relationships, his status, and his morality.

In my opinion, Amory has a lot more considering to do. His ever increasing vanity might just be his downfall.

Isabelle

Fitzgerald starts the subsection titled “Isabelle” writing about Isabelle which was a change from his usual style of focusing primarily on Amory’s action or his direct thoughts and then continues to write about her for several more pages, losing Amory as the focal point, although he is featured in her thoughts. Since Fitzgerald exercises so much energy to describe Isabella’s physical appearance, temperament, thoughts, emotion, and motivation, I was led to believe that she was to play a large part in Amory’s life. Overall, Isabelle struck me as a typical sixteen year old, immature yet trying to emit that air of sophistication that she must have paired with older girls of her acquaintance. Fitzgerald gives the impression that although Isabelle was a “Speed,” a girl that could be easily kissed, she also wants to leave that behind her but “…in a strange town, it was advantageous (Fitzgerald, 70).” This brings me back to her desire to be seen as more mature and sophisticated, she wants a striking reputation that impresses the other girls that she meets but Isabelle isn’t mature enough to carry it with pride. In that sense, she resembles Amory. Both are shallow, want to be mature but fail at it, and don’t see any real concerns or problems. Upon meeting Amory, Isabelle acts like the tease towards him and isn’t willing to lose the upper hand in their exchange, the game is to be played her way. She loves the attention that is besotted on her throughout the dinner; Froggy Parker was so engrossed that he even goes as far as to forget his good manners towards his date and Amory is in open admiration of Isabelle. However, Amory is also smooth and within a few verbal exchanges, Isabelle is quite taken with him. The adjective line pick-up line wouldn’t have worked on me, per se, but it had Isabelle eating out of his hand. The end of this subsection reveals the lack of sophistication on Amory’s part. The fact that there was a chance that his foot had touched her under the table made him excited, seemed childish to me, especially given the fact that he is 19 at the time. This section didn’t give me much hope of the two of them having a lasting meaningful relationship. There was nothing meaningful or clever or out of the ordinary about their exchange and other than her good looks, there as nothing that seemed attractive about her. This paired with the fact that it was very clear that Amory excreted much more effort towards the relationship in the form of extensive letter writing made me dislike Isabelle as a character and more specifically as a romantic interest of Amory’s.

On another note, I don’t know why Fitzgerald included that line about men wearing a certain type of shirt “…a silk ruffled shirt of the kind that women still delight to see men wear, but men are just beginning to get tired of (Fitzgerald, 73).” It was a random line that made me “rise my eyebrows” and wasn’t really amusing.

First Post: Welcome to the Class Blog!

Dear Students:

Welcome! If you want to test your posting ability, you can try a sample post and then delete it. You are required to post here, on before Monday or Wednesday night at 10:00 PM for the Tuesday and Thursday classes, ten times throughout the semester. You will not receive credit for 2 posts in one week. So, in other words, you should be making an effort to post once a week, starting now!

These posts are free form. You should write about anything that strikes you as interesting in the class reading. The blog posts are, in some ways, like doing a weekly "pre-writing" assignment. You could even set a timer, write for 10 minutes, check for spelling and grammar errors, and post it!

Good luck!

Prof. Newman