51 pages • 1 hour read
This Side of Paradise
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Themes
The Experience of Disillusionment
One of the novel’s key themes explores the role disillusionment plays in an individual’s coming of age, as Amory’s grandiose self-image and idealized notions of life give way to a more sober and realistic view of the world as he matures. In This Side of Paradise, Amory must learn to cope with the disappointment of not everything turning out according to his wishes and expectations.
Amory experiences his first sense of disappointment when he kisses Myra at the Minnehaha Club. Amory views his feelings for Myra as an adventure and enjoys the chase. However, once he kisses the girl, “[s]udden revulsion seized Amory, disgust, loathing for the whole incident. He desired frantically to be away, never to see Myra again, never to kiss anyone” (21). This image of extreme disappointment foreshadows similar experiences where Amory’s expectations and ideals do not live up to reality. Amory asks to go to prep school thinking it will be a satisfying experience for him, but he ultimately ends up “discouraged and imagined himself a pariah” (33). Amory misunderstands the purpose behind his education at St. Regis’ and uses the experience only to further his social ambitions. This propensity for disappointment and discontent follows him to Princeton.
Amory attends Princeton because of its elitism and the social status he believes it will give him. Nevertheless, even when he reaches the height of Princeton society, his relationship with Isabelle soon punctures his illusions of grandeur and romantic passion: While he is initially attracted to her, he soon tires of her, and feels that the ending of their affair is “a tiresome anti-climax” (92). Likewise, when Amory meets Clara Page, he is genuinely disappointed that she is not as destitute as he had imagined, as he had built up romanticized ideas of her poverty. His disappointment is ironic, given his feelings about the lower classes, but it further demonstrates that Amory is difficult to please and lacks genuine introspection.
Amory returns from fighting in WW1 as a changed man, and his outlook starts to change once he begins to learn from his disillusionments and become a more mature and realistic adult. When Darcy dies, he realizes the importance of helping others in place of self-absorption, and his experiences of poverty inspire him to think more critically about the socioeconomic system in American society. While the novel’s ambiguous ending does not definitively promise happiness or success for Amory, his recognition that his experiences of disillusionment have helped him to know himself suggests that he will move forward as a wiser, more thoughtful man.
The Dark Reality Behind the Jazz Age
While This Side of Paradise reflects many of the elements that have since come to be associated with the Jazz Age—Flappers, extravagance, and rapidly changing social norms—F. Scott Fitzgerald also explores the darker side beneath the glittery façade. Throughout the novel, the shifts in gender and social expectations reflect some of the tensions and difficulties faced by Fitzgerald’s generation.
Many of the female characters represent how women’s rights and desires changed in the early 1900s. Isabelle and Rosalind enjoy socializing and flirting freely with men to an extent that would not have been possible for their mothers’ generation. Eleanor likewise embodies how women’s self-presentation changed dramatically during the Jazz Age. With her stereotypical Flapper haircut and outspoken political views, Eleanor represents the more androgynous and liberated mode of being available to young women. Nevertheless, she still resents being born a woman of high intellect because she knows her options are limited. Similarly, while she detests the thought of marriage, she knows that a woman in her generation must marry well to experience financial comfort and secure social status. Eleanor thus embodies some of the fluctuating gender norms of the age, with women both experiencing more freedom in some areas while continuing to feel stifled in others.
Amory also experiences the pull between the glamor of the Jazz Age and his nagging sense that there is something superficial and dissatisfying about all of it. While his time at Princeton exposes him to a wide social circle at an elite institution, Amory cannot find much satisfaction even when he achieves social success. Instead, he ends up intrigued by men like Tom and Burne who openly reject the traditional social hierarchies and obsession with status and materialism that they believe render Princeton a snobby, hollow place. Their more radical ideas reflect some of the political and social turmoil of the era that simmers just below the surface of the novel, hinting at the revolutionary ideals that threaten both the strict class hierarchies of the past and the glitzy materialism and superficiality of the Jazz Age generation.
By the end of the novel, Amory’s penniless and aimless condition embodies the dilemma facing his generation as a whole. On one hand, Amory longs for success, material comforts, and a more glamorous life. On the other hand, his experiences have revealed that much of what passes for success and happiness in the Jazz Age are shallow illusions that lead only to The Experience of Disillusionment. The novel’s title, This Side of Paradise, thus reflects the very essence of this theme: Amory’s generation longs for a life that can thrill and fulfill them, but there is also something about their paradisical vision that always remains just out of reach.
The Impact of Money and Class on Relationships
This Side of Paradise explores the impact of money and class on relationships, revealing how socioeconomic considerations frequently intersect with romantic ones. As Amory matures, he becomes more aware of how wealth and status can affect both one’s personal life and position in society more generally.
The strongest example of how money and class impact relationships occurs between Amory and Rosalind. Rosalind comes from an upper-class family at risk of financial decline; Amory comes from a once prosperous family that has slowly sunk into poverty. At the outset of their relationship, this difference in class does not seem insurmountable to Amory. He gets a job in New York to prove his worth to Rosalind, hoping to marry her. However, Rosalind soon realizes that Amory will never make the money she requires to be happy. She also knows she would be a different person without money, insisting to Amory, “I wouldn’t be the Rosalind you love” (183). Instead, she marries Dawson Ryder, who is from the same social class and can meet Rosalind’s monetary standards.
Rosalind’s decision to leave Amory because of class and money devastates him and ruins his ability to make genuine romantic connections for the remainder of the novel. Likewise, Amory returns to his apathetic and lazy habits by quitting his job and drifting through life just as he did at Princeton. The break-up also fractures Amory’s friendship with Rosalind’s brother Alec, who also unceremoniously abandons him: Alec offers no sympathy; he instead moves out of the New York apartment and returns to the Connage estate, leaving Tom and Amory behind to pay the rent. Alec’s departure is another blow to Amory’s ego and further demonstrates the power class has over relationships.
Amory addresses the issue of money and class directly when discussing Socialism with Mr. Ferrenby:
I’m restless. My whole generation is restless. I’m sick of a system where the richest man gets the most beautiful girl if he wants her, where the artist without an income has to sell his talents to a button manufacturer. Even if I had no talents I’d not be content to work ten years […] to give some man’s son an automobile (256, emphasis added).
In this statement, Amory decries the lack of equity his generation experiences, suggesting that the Jazz Age’s valorization of materialism and wealth has only served to deepen inequalities and to make genuine human connections harder to make and sustain.
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By F. Scott Fitzgerald
