Commentary on This Side of Paradise Essay

This Side of Paradise, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is a novel that tells the story of Amory Blaine from his youth to his twenties. As a youth Amory travels through out the country with his high class and extravagant mother, Beatrice. After living a life like no other he leaves his mother and enrolls in St.Regis prep school in the Northeast. There, Amory tries very hard to fit in, but with his unusual childhood it is very hard. He is very intelligent, but an underachiever in his work. From here, Amory attends Princeton and his primary concern there is to be popular. After he earns an "F" in a class he gives up this goal and becomes a wallflower. He decides to take nothing in from his classes and only learns through personal reading and discussions. Near the end of his stay at Princeton Amory joins up for World War I. Whilst over in the war fighting, Amorys mother passes away. When Amory comes back to America his heart falls girl named Rosalind Connage. She, as well, falls for him, but a problem comes in to play when Rosalind fins out that the Blaine's have made poor investments and Amory is no longer wealthy. Amory decides to work for an advertising agency to try and keep Rosalind from leaving him, but his efforts do not help. Rosalind breaks up with Amory to marry a much wealthier man. The result: Amory is so devastated he goes on a three-week spree of drinking. The only reason it is cut to three weeks is because of the beginning of Prohibition. After he gets in to a summer fling with a wild French girl named Eleanor. Things do not last and Amory moves on, still thinking of Rosalind. One night Amory joins his old Princeton friend Alec in Alec's hotel room. Alec is in politics and on this he has a girl in the room. He is caught, and to save his friend from the possibly devastating publicity Amory takes the blame. At this point Amory tries to contact his old father figure, Monsignor Darcy, but learns that he has passed away. Now Amory finds himself in a hole with no money and no close friends. He decides to walk to Princeton and while walking is picked up by the father of a friend from the war. Now with no money, Amory expresses his new socialist beliefs to this man. Finally he departs from the car and continues his walk. The novel closes with Amory's famous words of self-knowledge: "I know myself, but that is all--".

I found This Side of Paradise to be a very intriguing and entertaining work. It, as well, served as a very educational work. Like any writing there were some flaws in my opinion, but, overall, it got the job done. The novel took the reader inside the world of a teenager and young adult during the 1920s. Before reading this I had no idea how interesting the social life for this age group was in the 1920s. It showed how fun life could be one moment and than in an instant it could all be turned upside down. Through out the novel Amory was in search to understand the world, but in the end he realizes he does not need to, all he needs to know is himself. Being a senior in high school I feel that the lessons here on how one cannot rely on anything and that realizing ones self is of great importance are going to play a role in my life for years to come. The one biggest problem I found with this book was the Debutante section. It is written in screenplay form and this really does not flow well. Besides this one problem, This Side of Paradise is an unbelievable novel with great insight into the world of the 1920s that shows the reader lessons about life for the 21st century.