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 These cycles that originally made me uninterested in Amory as a character also acted as the saving point of the novel in my eyes.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.