"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.