This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald

I was gonna mention that I am amazed at how I can like Fitzgerald's writing so much when I cannot endure Hemingway's despite their friendship.  Then, I tried to remember which of his novels I had read and realized I never had.  The next book I read will be his.  *gavel pounds*

General:
1. This Side of Paradise is a lot like Catcher in the Rye insofar as they revolve around young men who become disenchanted as they come of age.  In TSOP, the main character, Amory Blane, is a wealthy boy raised by a free-spirited woman.  As he begins preparatory school, we see that Amory considers himself superior to his acquaintances.  This regular analysis of class systems is carried throughout the novel.  Later, Amory falls in love ( after a history of womanizing) with Rosalind Connage.  They're in love for a bit until she decides on a guy with some stability.  If the purpose of the novel was to explain how the young man discovers who he is, it did a wonderful job by taking the reader through class comparison, romantic relationship, and friendship.

2.  The theme of the novel was that discovering who you are is an experience that must be approached with caution and balanced against the rest of life by maintaining a considerate attitude <3

3.  The tone was always severe.  Unlike most books I've read, Amory is left to his own thoughts pretty often.  That seems like Fitzgerald's style.  This also makes for an isolation of character.

•  "...he wired his mother not to expect him...sat in the train, and thought about himself for thirty-six hours."
• " Tell 'em you're wild and have 'em reform you- go home furious- come back in half an hour- startle'em."
• "... his personality seemed rather a mental thing, and it was not in his power to turn it on and off like a water-faucet."

4. Aphorism: " With people like us, our home is where we are not."
 Exemplary of the way Amory was always an observer.  He's a teenage boy trying to figure where he goes in the world and so many can relate to that lack of a sense of belonging.

Foreshadowing: " A few years later this was to be a great stage for Amory, a cradle for many an emotional crisis."
The best part of this quote was how it showed a future Amory who despite being older, was assured to make mistakes common to his teenage years.

Evocation: " Many nights he lay there dreaming awake of secret cafes in Mont Martre, where ivory women delved in romantic mysteries with diplomats and soldiers of fortune, while orchestras played Hungarian waltzes and the air was thick and exotic with intrigue and moonlight and adventure."
Me too, kid.  Me too.  This quote shows how Amory could think of such an intricate world despite never having known it because it was an expectation he hoped for the future to become.

Anecdote: " However, four hours out from land, Italy bound, with Beatrice, his appendix burst, probably from too many meals in bed, and after a series of frantic telegrams to Europe and America, to the amazement of the passengers the great ship slowly wheeled around and returned to New York to deposit Amory at the pier."
This anecdote says, "Look at me.  I've had wealth and influence in my past and I expect things to happen for me."

Personification: "  She was conscious that they were a handsome pair, and they seemed to belong distinctively  in this seclusion, while lesser lights fluttered and chattered down-stairs."
This excerpt addresses Amory and the girl he's with at the moment as bright and handsome lights.  By interpreting that idea through personification, one can see that they have potential as clever and socially adept people who believe themselves to belong in the upper echelons of society.

Imagery:  " At first Amory noticed only the wealth of sunshine creeping across the long, green swards, dancing on the leaded windowpanes, and swimming around the tops of spires and towers and battlemented walls.  Gradually he realized that he was really walking up University Place, self-conscious about his suitcase, developing a new tendency to glare straight ahead when he passed any one."
By describing the grandeur of Amory's new setting with such extravagance, we feel the insecurity of feeling out of place.

Pathos:  "  He stretched out his arms to the crystalline, radiant sky.  ' I know myself,' he cried, ' but that is all.'"
Despite the simplicity of this excerpt, it bears the weight of an idea borne on the shoulders of many. An idea that oftentimes is never removed.

Pedantry: " Amory had grown up to a thousand books , a thousand lies;  he had listened eagerly to people who pretended to know, who knew nothing.   The mystical reveries of saints that had once filled him with awe in the still hours of night, now vaguely repelled him."
At this point, the narrator states an observation of what I imagine every young person eventually realizes.  The people we thought of as adults are really people who we know to have experience, not necessarily the key to living life the right way, but a perspective as to how life really works.    

Pacing: " For this is wisdom-to love and live, To take what fate or the gods may give, To ask no questioin, to make no prayer, To kiss the lips and caress the hair, Speed passion's ebb as we greet its flow, To have and to hold, and, in time-let go."
This is the point in the plot where Rosalind is explaining that she loves him too much to live their poor life and become mean.  Here is where we notice that life is no longer a slate that Amory can just wipe clean.  I imagine Fitzgerald's own tumultuous was influential in the development of this relationship.

Characterization:
1.Direct:  In this book, the question of class is addressed with direct characterization.

•  " In consequence, Stephen Blaine handed down to posterity his height of just under six feet and his tendency to waver at crucial moments, these two abstractions appearing in his son Amory."
• "  Children adored him because he was like a child; youth revelled in his company because he was still a youth, and couldn't be shocked."

 Indirect:  When characterization is indirect, an interpretation similar to realistic processes brings the reader to understand Amory's situation.

• "  I've always suspected that early rising in early life makes one nervous."
• "  With the attitude he might have held toward an amusing melodrama he hoped it would be long and bloody."

Through the combination of the indirect and direct methods of characterization, we receive a more realistic and credible understanding of Amory's perspective because we are presented with superficial characteristics and flaws/qualities of personality simultaneously.

2.  Fitzgerald's syntax becomes prescriptive when he addresses the subject of character.  Whereas his diction flows elegantly through context, the flow is interrupted and blocky during characterizing statements.

3.  Just as we initially are shown impersonal qualities, we learn Amory's character as one of aristocracy, pomp, and circumstance.  Later, Amory develops into a matured character with an emotional capacity with which he can not only react to others, but also predict their reactions.  This makes Amory a dynamic character.  I would consider him a flat character though, as the lessons he learned were not applicable to other areas of his life directly.

4.  I am glad to have read the character of Amory Blaine after being so let down by the character of Holden Caufield.  Amory showed positive growth while learning as much as Holden did.  He released the machismo and became a vulnerable entity which is characteristic of the readers and audience I believe F. Scott Fitzgerald was hoping for.

" Don't talk that way; you frighten me.  It sounds as if we weren't going to have each other."