This Side of Paradise

My opinion

I liked this story because it shows us the real life of a person who wants to achieve success in life, but instead he has to go to war and work after at a job he does not like. And the most important thing is that Amory realizes his destiny.

How does this work reflect the characteristics of the literary period in which the story was created

The book examines the lives and morality of American youth after the First World War. The main character is an attractive student at Princeton University who is interested in literature. The novel explores the theme of love warped by greed and status seeking. Amory strives to take a good position in society, but on the contrary he is considered as an egoist. The novel depicts the idea of reality, the relation of the individual with the society. The character has fixed points of view. This is about life after the war.

Plot summary

Amory Blaine is convinced that he has an exceptionally promising future. He is so successful in his studies that he even tries to answer worse in class. At first, he is unlucky in sports, but even here he achieves success thanks to numerous trainings. He is influenced by his mother Beatrice, an eccentric woman, and his mother's friend Monsignor Darcy. In his youth he decides to take a proper place on the social ladder. After entering school he faces difficulties - misunderstanding and negative attitude towards him from his peers. He feels deeply unhappy and abandoned because the classmates consider him an idiot. After entering Princeton Amory he becomes the editor of the Princeton Newspaper and succeeds. While at Princeton he goes back to Minneapolis where he re-encounters Isabelle Borgé, a young lady whom he had met as a little boy, and starts a romantic relationship with her. But the disenchant with each other after meeting again at his prom. Then because of his laziness he fails the math exam, loses the job and the position in society. After college he goes to war, after which he falls in love with a New York debutante named Rosalind Connage. Amory writes copy for an advertising agency, but hates this job because he considers himself as a creative person, too good for it. He goes on an alcoholic bender, then quits his job. Because he is now poor, his relationship with Rosalind collapses as well. Homeless, he speaks out in favor of socialism, though he admits he is formulating his thoughts on it. He believes that all children should have equal chances to begin with. He considers the revolution of 1917 as an interesting experiment.

biography of the author

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896- December 21, 1940) was an American novelist, essayist, short story writer and screenwriter. He was best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Age- a term he popularized. Born into a middle-class family in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Fitzgerald was raised primarily in New York. He attended Princeton University. In 1917 he joined the United States Army during the First World War. During his lifetime he published 4 novels, 4 story collections. and 164 short stories. Although he achieved temporary popular success and fortune in the 1920s, Fitzgerald received critical acclaim only after his death and is now widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of 20th century.

Literary period : modernism
Literary movement: Lost Generation.

Main characters