This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
"This Side of Paradise" is F. Scott Fitzgerald's debut novel, published in 1920, which explores the life of Amory Blaine, a young man navigating his identity in the post-World War I era. The narrative traces Blaine's journey from childhood through his time at Princeton University and into early adulthood, highlighting his struggles against the expectations of American society. The novel is structured in two main sections: the first, "The Romantic Egotist," focuses on Blaine's privileged upbringing and initial disillusionment with elite social circles, while the second, "The Education of a Personage," depicts his financial downfall and quest for meaning.
Throughout the story, Blaine engages in romantic relationships that reflect different aspects of love and personal growth, set against the backdrop of shifting social norms in the 1920s. The portrayal of women in the novel signifies a departure from traditional expectations, illustrating evolving attitudes toward romance and sexuality. Fitzgerald's innovative use of literary form, which includes prose, poetry, and varied narrative devices, distinguishes the work. Despite initial editing flaws, the novel achieved remarkable success, selling out its first printing within days and establishing Fitzgerald as a prominent literary figure. "This Side of Paradise" serves as a profound commentary on the disillusionment and aspirations of a generation shaped by war and changing values.
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Subject Terms
This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Identification: A novel about a young man searching for his life’s meaning after World War I
Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald
Date: 1920
The first novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, This Side of Paradise was immediately and enormously successful. Readers embraced the story of a young man’s struggle after the devastation of World War I to forge his own identity apart from American ideals of faith and respectability.
Fitzgerald’s autobiographical novel This Side of Paradise follows Amory Blaine from childhood through his college career and into young adulthood. Blaine wants to be an important and ideal man, but he does not know what that means in terms of how to live, whom to love, or what to believe.
The novel’s first section, “The Romantic Egotist,” describes Blaine’s boyhood relationship with his indulgent mother and his years in a Connecticut boarding school. He enters Princeton University, pleased to be part of the social elite, but becomes disillusioned when a classmate challenges Princeton’s social structure. Blaine leaves Princeton to join the Army, a period covered briefly in an “Interlude” section that consists of two letters: one written to Blaine during the war and a second written from Blaine near the war’s end.
In the novel’s second section, “The Education of a Personage,” Blaine, who equates virtue with material success, learns he is in financial straits and must join the working class. Although Blaine has lost his faith, his family fortune, and the woman of his dreams, he hopes to be a positive influence on the coming generation.
Blaine falls in love with four women, each representing a phase in his developing identity and an ideal of romantic love, intrinsic goodness, wealth, or rejection of social norms. The women in This Side of Paradise are shockingly willing to kiss men they do not plan to marry, reflecting a marked change in the sexual mores of young Americans in the 1920s.
Fitzgerald experimented within the novel’s form, combining prose with poetry, lists, letters, and even a play with stage directions. The first printing was poorly edited and mocked for its many spelling errors and misused words. It was nonetheless the first best-selling book of the 1920s, selling out its initial printing of three thousand copies within four days of publication.
Impact
A chronicle of college life and changing values, This Side of Paradise beautifully captured young Americans’ disenchantment following World War I. Its success and Fitzgerald’s flamboyance in celebrating his newfound literary notoriety made him an iconic figure. Fitzgerald would return to the same themes in subsequent works, most notably in The Great Gatsby(1925).
Bibliography
Brackett, Virginia. F. Scott Fitzgerald: Writer of the Jazz Age. Greensboro, N.C.: Morgan Reynolds, 2002.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. This Side of Paradise. New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1920.
Pelzer, Linda C. Student Companion to F. Scott Fitzgerald. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2000.