Why Is The Unknown Side Of This So Called Paradise

The Unknown Side of This so Called Paradise
The novel This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is not merely a love story, but a description of a search for self-realization and the ability to fit in society. The protagonist, Amory Blaine, finds himself falling in love with a woman who is looking for wealth and social rank over love in a man. Amory searches to find the truth in himself when all his attempts at succeeding, whether in his love or academic life, fail and he is left doubting himself due to the actions he has made. Fitzgerald captures the idea of the American Dream, and though it is often perceived in a positive way, he takes a negative approach to it, allowing his character Amory Blaine to understand the American Dream for
Scott Fitzgerald diverted from his Catholic background, Amory Blaine learns of the struggle between good and evil. With his “Disaffection from Catholic practice after Princeton years” (Stern 354), Fitzgerald feared away from religion and “the moral concern and the sense of evil to be found in all his serious work may be important consequences of his youthful religious interest” (355). His “lack of specific Catholic references in the four novels that followed” (354), portrays Fitzgerald’s lack of religious practice. He was no longer practicing Catholicism, but he had his own values to focus on. He found God in people than religious practice itself as he “found in this faith an understanding of the human heart caught in the struggle between grace and death. His characters are involved in this great drama, seeking God and seeking love,” much like Amory. Amory feels hopeless after his Princeton years, which leads him longing to find God to help him get through his struggles. “But Amory returns to Princeton after his brief experience in the army, aware that he is part of a generation that now finds ‘“all Gods dead, all wars fought, all faiths in man shaken”’ (qtd. in Stern 355), as after the war is over, people are still feeling the after effects of the war. They are depressed and have no reason to keep going on with their lives. They represent a lost generation, trying to get past the ending of World War I during a time a of instability and trying to
Scott Fitzgerald’s feminist viewpoint is portrayed through both his and Amory Blaine’s actions. This novel was“penned prior to his marriage to Zelda Sayre, keeping readers from simply explaining away his early female characters’ strong wills or potentially cold demeanors as the mere mirroring of his tumultuous marriage” (Riccardo 33). Zelda was a strong woman and she did not carry her husband’s inferior personality. She was an independent woman, a quality that was not appreciated during the 1920’s. Fitzgerald felt “insecure in his creative self when compared to his wife Zelda,” and often tried to compete against his wife. He could not imagine the thought of a woman, let alone his wife, beating him at his own dream as “Consistently, he put down her writing or, toward the end of their relationship, would claim she stole his material. In reality, Fitzgerald would take small portions of her writing, such as diary entries, and include them in his books” (qtd. in Riccardo 45), as Fitzgerald felt that his work was not good enough. Amory did not appreciate Rosalind’s feminist viewpoint as well. Rosalind was similar to Zelda, as they both did not rely on their husbands to live their lives. Rosalind was a gold-digger, something Amory could not offer, but Amory was also afraid that Rosalind would become more successful than him. Fitzgerald’s “inferiority complexes and traumas affected his work” (Riccardo 54), which may indicate and give reason to his characters’