This Side Of Paradise Analysis

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, This Side of Paradise, was his first book that he published that sparked his stardom in the world of authorship. Thomas Jefferson once said,” If you find yourself constantly trying to prove your worth to someone, you have already forgotten your value.” Life is quite a journey. There are numerous things that will forgo in life that will cause people to change their thinking or beliefs. The friends’ people hang out with, their hobbies, interests, schools and universities they attend. They are all part of the equation in finding your identity and your purpose in life. For Amory Blaine, it started all the way back from his childhood when his mother was raising him. After that came the countless, un-meaningful relationships,
The book was written in the 1920’s, which was known as the “roaring twenties” and the “Jazz Age” (Rielly 31). It was predominantly ruled by the youths of that time. Lots of new ideas and styles were being brought up by the teenagers. Furthermore, Girls begun to wear shorter skirts and both guys and girls begun to smoke in public. This is why Amory was set in the college stage of his life for most of the story to show why he wanted to be the cool kid on campus. “There was a certain aura of glamour and mystery attached to college at the time.”(Biton 93). This is why when the book was published, it was very popular with that certain age group. They could relate to what Amory was going through and the types of environment he was surrounded with. In addition, this book was written two years after World War One ended. During that war, The United States was desperate for more battle troops. They had a selective service draft that enlisted an age group of men to be sent off to the battlefield. Which then corresponds to why Amory went off to war towards the end of his university
He was very different from the writers of his time. He liked to use third person in his writings to tell the story from an outside source who knew the thoughts of one or all the characters. (Weisbrod 11). He tended to deal with the topics of wealth, youth, and beauty. He also used a great deal of symbolism throughout his books which would sometimes catch readers off guard. (Weisbrod 13). What was different about him though, was the atmosphere he created through his stories using personal life experiences by basing the characters in the books off his family, friends, and even past lovers. You would see in Fitzgerald’s dedications that he was writing to a past or present lover at the time, who he was trying to impress or win back. For Example, in this book he uses Amory Blaine to represent his early life experiences, which focused on the adolescence and young adulthood of Amory. (Weisbrod 33). Through doing this writing style, Fitzgerald believed he would better develop his characters, and the story itself. (Card 27). The readers would rave about it, while his family members wasn’t usually fond of it, considering the way he depicted most of them. He would divulge lots of information and background of what happened with his life, but as one author quotes, “Though he describes his psychological and spiritual breakdown, his utter collapse, often in a wry style, he still doesn’t spill all of his life story beans” (Hampl 104). His fame