51 pages • 1 hour read
This Side of Paradise
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Book 1, Chapters 1-2Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Book 1: “The Romantic Egotist”
Book 1, Chapter 1 Summary: “Amory, Son of Beatrice”
Chapter 1 is divided into various parts, some of which are marked by sub-headings (marked hereafter with “[title]”). The novel begins with a description of Amory Blaine in his youth. Amory inherits his height and lack of resolution under stress from his father, Stephen Blaine. Stephen lives in the family’s background and is constantly busy caring for his wife, Beatrice. Beatrice Blaine is a remarkable woman who grew up in extreme wealth and attended school at a Roman convent. She is well-cultured in art and tradition, spending much of her youth living in Europe. She returns to America and marries Stephen. Her only child, Amory, is born in 1896, and she travels the country with him when he is between the ages of four and ten, teaching him art, culture, and social graces.
The Blaine family originates from Lake Geneva, Michigan, and they have an extensive family but few friends. Amory’s education stems mostly from the sophisticated experiences Beatrice exposes him to and a series of tutors while they travel. Despite this unorthodox education, Amory is intelligent and capable while having a social intelligence his peers often lack. When he is 13 years old, Amory’s appendix bursts. This event causes Beatrice to have a mental health crisis, so she sends her son to live with his aunt and uncle in Minneapolis for the next two years.
“A Kiss for Amory”: Two months after arriving in Minneapolis, Amory feels superior to the boys at his school. He shows off in class, but it doesn’t usually have the effect he desires. Myra St. Claire invites Amory to a party, and he arrives 30 minutes late, thinking he’s being fashionable. When he enters the house, Amory learns everyone but Myra has left, so he lies and says he was in a car accident to protect his image. The couple rides to the Minnehaha Club, and Amory resolves to kiss Myra.
Myra and Amory enter the club and go upstairs to a room where they sit on a couch in front of a fire. Amory kisses her cheek and then her lips. Afterward, Myra puts her head on Amory’s shoulder, but he is disgusted by the kiss. Myra asks him to kiss her again. Amory refuses, causing Myra to stand and demand he never speak to her again. Myra’s mother suddenly enters the room and takes the two teens downstairs.
“Snapshots of the Young Egotist”: During his time in Minneapolis, Amory watches plays, reads books, writes poetry, and falls in love with numerous girls. His experience at school dulls his worldly knowledge and experience, and his teachers think he’s lazy and unreliable. Regardless, Amory feels destined for glory and dreams of achieving greatness.
“Code of the Young Egotist”: Amory establishes his first code to live by shortly before returning home to Lake Geneva. He feels he is very handsome, a good athlete, charming, magnetic, dominant over other boys, and fascinating to the girls. Amory also sees his mental superiority over those his age, yet he recognizes a coldness—and even cruelty—toward others.
“Preparatory to the Great Adventure”: Amory returns to Lake Geneva and feels deeply lonely, though he’s grateful to be reunited with his beloved mother. Beatrice tells him about her mental health issues and recovery, and Amory tells her he enjoyed his two years in Minneapolis. He then tells his mother that he wants to attend preparatory school elsewhere. Beatrice reluctantly agrees and arranges for him to attend St. Regis’ in Connecticut.
Amory leaves for St. Regis’ in early September. After taking his entrance exams, he travels to New York to visit Monsignor Darcy, a Catholic priest his mother once loved. The two instantly like each other, as both have very compatible personalities. They become like father and son within 30 minutes. Amory tells Darcy of his desire to attend Princeton University, and they discuss many other grown-up topics over lunch.
“The Egotist Down”: Amory spends two years at St. Regis’ and feels the experience has little significance. The boys dislike him for his arrogance, and his academic indifference frustrates his teachers. When he returns to Minneapolis for Christmas break, Amory lies and tells his friend Froggy that he’s doing well at school.
“Incident of the Well-Meaning Professor”: At the end of the first term, Mr. Margotson, the senior schoolmaster, sends for Amory and tells the boy he sees greatness in him. He has also noticed that Amory isn’t popular with the other boys. Amory stands suddenly and leaves the room, refusing to listen to Mr. Margotson’s gentle advice.
“The Incident of the Wonderful Girl”: In February, Amory goes to New York City with a friend named Paskert. He falls instantly in love with the city’s glamour. The pair attend a play and fall in love with the brunette dancer in the show. Amory and Paskert discuss the dancer as they walk back to the hotel, and Amory plans what he wants from life based on what he loves about New York.
“Heroic in General Tone”: In November of his second year, Amory plays quarterback in a football game, feeling that athletics is an excellent way to climb the social ladder. His courage makes him feel like a hero, and he triumphs when he scores the game’s only touchdown.
“The Philosophy of the Slicker”: Amory’s second year at St. Regis’ is more successful because his classmates accept his personality faults as merely being part of his identity. He continues to daydream of the ideal life he wants to live. In the spring, Amory and a friend named Rahill discuss ideas and life, causing Amory to view the two of them as philosophers.
Book 1, Chapter 2 Summary: “Spires and Gargoyles”
Amory walks up University Place to the house he’ll live in as a Princeton freshman. He analyzes the students as he tours campus and tries to appear like an upperclassman. At 5 pm, Amory returns to the house to see if other students have arrived and meets Kerry Holiday. The two men introduce themselves, and Kerry invites Amory to dinner with him and his brother, Burne. After dinner, they attend a movie, where Amory continues to analyze the Princeton upperclassmen’s behavior.
As the academic term begins, Amory falls in love with Princeton for its social structure. He decides he wants to be “one of the gods of the class” (48), so he goes out for football. He injures his knee in the second week of practice and can’t play for the rest of the season. He and the Holiday brothers become good friends, though Kerry doesn’t share Amory’s interest in the university’s social system. Amory participates in various clubs as the year progresses, attending only those that will increase his social standing. However, nothing gets Amory into his class’s elite group, which frustrates him. He and Kerry discuss Amory’s desire for admiration, and Kerry tells him to either take action or drift from one opportunity to another as he does.
Amory takes Kerry’s advice and delays his social goals until next year. In March, he goes to lunch at Joe’s, a diner near campus, and meets Thomas D’Invilliers. Tom writes poetry for the Princetonian and is someone Amory looks up to and is jealous of. They discuss books, to the delight of both men. Tom invites Amory to his room, and Amory agrees after deciding that doing so won’t have a negative social impact. The two men continue to meet once a week. Like Kerry, Tom is unconcerned with his social status. Kerry also enjoys Tom’s company and poetry, and Tom is grateful to have an audience.
“A Damp Symbolic Interlude”: That spring, Amory is determined to work harder during his second year, as he realizes the power Princeton holds.
“Historical”: World War I begins, but it doesn’t interest Amory. He hopes the war will be long and bloody; otherwise, it will be a disappointment.
“Ha-Ha Hortense”: Amory joins the Triangle Club, which writes and performs musical comedies. The club is planning its Christmas show, performing over Christmas break in eight cities.
“Petting”: As Amory travels with the Triangle Club, he sees how the morals of the Jazz Age are changing and how girls are adapting to more freedom and exploration.
“Descriptive”: Now 18, Amory is almost six feet tall and exceptionally handsome. However, his face is more memorable to those he meets than his personality.
“Isabelle”: Isabelle Borgé gets ready for an evening at the Minnehaha Club in Minneapolis. She’s with her friend Sally and anticipates meeting Amory, whom Sally has told her a lot about. Sally tells her that Amory is excited to meet Isabelle because of her beauty. When the girls are ready, they descend the club’s staircase together. Sally introduces Isabelle to numerous people, but when Isabelle realizes Amory is nearby, she dazzles Froggy. She suddenly turns and addresses Amory, and the group moves to their table. Amory and Froggy both vie for Isabelle’s attention when they are seated. She speaks to Amory, so Froggy admits defeat and talks with Sally instead.
“Babes in the Woods”: By 11 pm, Amory and Isabelle are sitting together in a small room upstairs, the same room where Amory kissed Myra years before. As Amory’s departure approaches, he tells Isabelle they might never see each other again and that he’s crazy about her. When Amory is about to kiss her, they hear footsteps running toward them. He turns on the light, and the couple acts as if nothing is happening between them. Froggy and two other boys enter the room, breaking the romantic spell. At 11:45 pm, Amory says goodbye and leaves for the train station. Two hours later, Isabelle tells Sally nothing happened between her and Amory, hiding her disappointment.
“Carnival”: Back at Princeton, Amory prepares for club elections and knows his popularity has risen significantly. The results are posted in March, which causes much social upheaval on campus. However, Amory feels this is the happiest time of his life and knows he can now drift through his remaining two years at Princeton because he joins the Cottage, one of the university’s most prestigious and elite clubs.
Alec Connage wakes Amory one spring morning and invites him on a trip to the coast with some other friends. They arrive at Deal Beach, but the group has very little money. They walk on the boardwalk and enter a hotel for lunch. Kerry underpays the waiter, and the boys leave. Later that day, Kerry finds a girl—whom Amory considers one of the homeliest girls he’s ever seen—and invites her to supper with them. Now truly penniless, the boys sneak into a movie and find a place to sleep near a casino. They continue this routine for two more days. On Sunday, they hitchhike back to Princeton.
Amory neglects his studies, focusing more on the area’s frequent parties. The boys skip so many classes that they must take an additional course next year to make up for it. Throughout the spring, Amory corresponds with Isabelle. However, she is unsentimental in her letters, which frustrates Amory. One night in June, Amory and Tom take a bike ride around campus together, discussing their summer plans. Tom admits that he’s tired of Princeton’s snobbishness and wants to go somewhere men aren’t judged by their clothing. Amory argues against this, telling Tom he’s a Princeton man whether he likes it or not.
“Under the Arc-Light”: On a drive back to Princeton one night, Alec and Amory pull up to a woman standing on the side of the road. She tells them of a car accident and points to a body in the road. It’s one of Amory’s friends from Princeton, and he is dead. Two other friends are injured. Amory returns to his house and hears the story from the two survivors. A doctor arrives at the house, and Amory finds the tragedy aristocratic and futile.
“Crescendo!”: Amory shuts the memory of the car accident out of his mind because Isabelle is coming to visit the following day. They attend club dinners and parties together. The next day, the couple travels to the Borgés’ summer home on Long Island. Amory is thoroughly happy, feeling he’s at the top of his generation. Once at the house, Amory changes into a dinner jacket and kisses Isabelle at the top of the stairs.
Book 1, Chapters 1-2 Analysis
F. Scott Fitzgerald uses various narrative methods to tell Amory’s story. Some of these methods include breaking the chapters into smaller chunks with sub-headings to describe the focus of those sections, snippets of Amory’s poetry, song lyrics from a play or from other characters, Tom’s poetry, and a letter Amory writes to Isabelle. These various techniques reflect the literary experimentation that was popular with Modernist writers at the time.
Fitzgerald introduces the theme of The Impact of Money and Class in Relationships from early in the novel. Amory is not like his peers and stands apart for various reasons. One factor is his unique upbringing: Instead of attending school and staying in one place, Beatrice travels the country with Amory. This experience allows him to gain a much broader perspective on life and culture than his peers, who stay stationary and only learn the cultural elements in which they live. Likewise, Beatrice’s wealth and personality introduce Amory to a social structure he values and aspires to uphold. Thus, Amory’s goals and ambitions center on popularity and reaching his highest creative and social potential.
Amory’s background and arrogance alienate him from other boys his age. He feels marked for greatness in life, and this superior attitude makes other boys dislike him, especially while he is attending St. Regis’. In time, Amory adapts and adjusts his attitude and behavior to maintain a level of superiority without alienating his peers. Fitzgerald illustrates this change when Amory attends Princeton and makes a group of good friends. He still values social order and ascension, yet he can mask it in a way that doesn’t make the men his age despise him. Amory becomes so good at adapting his behavior to meet his peers’ expectations that he can participate in some of Princeton’s most prestigious clubs and groups. While Amory still has a lot of growth to undergo, he is a dynamic character with charm and charisma driven by purpose and ideals.
This section also introduces the novel’s theme of The Experience of Disillusionment. The first time Amory experiences disappointment is when he attends St. Regis’ and finds the experience does not meet his expectations. He begs Beatrice to attend a prep school, thinking it’s the socially acceptable thing for a boy his age to do. However, once at St. Regis’, he finds the boys dislike his arrogance, and his school masters think him lazy and indifferent. His prep school experience is not what he expected, and Amory is disappointed when reality doesn’t align with his ideals—a conflict that Amory will continue to experience as he grows up. Another moment of disappointment occurs when Amory kisses Myra. Amory is a romantic and quite naïve in his outlook; he seeks the ideals in life and is more concerned with the process of achieving something than attaining it. Thus, Amory enjoys flirting with Myra, but once he kisses her, he is disillusioned and finds the result disappointing compared to the chase.
Likewise, Amory becomes frustrated when his ideals don’t align with his friends’. Kerry Holiday, for example, prefers to drift through life instead of climbing the social ladder. Tom also has a more indifferent attitude to social class, and even expresses frustration with Princeton’s snobbery, which Amory does not understand. Both Kerry and Tom are foils to Amory’s character, with their self-possession and more down-to-earth outlooks contrasting sharply with Amory’s vanity and fixation on social-climbing. Amory’s experiences will continue to be tinged with disappointment and disillusionment as the novel progresses, especially during Book 2.
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