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.