Review: This Side Of Paradise By F. Scott Fitzgerald

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Beautiful and Damned, the main character of Gloria, Anthony’s wife, and Dot, Anthony’s mistress represents Fitzgerald 's wife, Zelda. The way that Anthony meets Dot, as well as the personalities and the lives of these women are very similar to Zelda Fitzgerald. Gloria is the sophisticated city girl, while Dot is the simplistic country girl sides of his wife. Gloria can be also classified as the wild public version, while Dot is the troubled private version.

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s writings largely focus on the American aristocracy during the 1920s. The ‘20s became alternatively known as “the Jazz Age,” a term coined by Fitzgerald with connotations encompassing the prosperity, frivolity, and decadence of the upper class. The atmosphere and mindset of lavish excess are preserved in the plots and characters of Fitzgerald’s writings. Although Fitzgerald’s protagonists are wealthy, there is a noticeable distinction between those who come from “old money” and those who are considered “new money”. Amory Blaine, of This Side of Paradise, and Jay Gatsby, of The Great Gatsby, exemplify this difference.

The couple later got married on April 3, 1920 in St. Patrick Cathedral, located in New York. A little over a year later He and his wife had a child named Frances (Doreski). Fitzgerald lived more by his feelings than his morals (Doreski). He and his wife, Zelda, would throw extravagant parties which put the couple in financial hardship early on. Sometimes these parties would even last 4 days in a row (Shain). Because of all the partying and choice of lifestyle, Zelda developed a mental disorder and had her first mental breakdown in 1930. Fitzgerald wrote short stories to pay for his wife’s treatments. However, he is best known for his works This Side of Paradise, from which he gained his wealth, and The Great Gatsby, arguably Fitzgerald’s most popular work (Coale 190). This Side of Paradise was his first autobiographical novel. The book is based on Fitzgerald’s childhood and portrays him as a young boy who is ready for his exciting life to begin (Shain). After it was published, Fitzgerald became rich quickly. Following Zelda’s hospitalization, he wrote the book Tender is the Night. The book was centered on a wealthy psychiatrist and his unstable wife (Bruccoli). By this

Fitzgerald expresses the corruption of the American dream through the use of characterization of different characters. Daisy is one of the few

Throughout his novel Fitzgerald shows the reader that love is essential to a fully functioning relationship through portraying the failure of relationships based on materialism. All the major relationships presented in the novel were doomed to an extent based on differences in social class/status and obsession with wealth and success. The overriding theme of moral decay in America of the 1920’s determined the nature of society and its relationships, most of which were doomed to

Fitzgerald indicates that wealthy people are not always happy. At Tom and Daisy’s dinner party, Nick says that Daisy’s face “was sad and lovely” (13). The description of Daisy’s attitude and appearance shows the reader that her beauty intends to mask her despair. Many

F. Scott FitzgeraldF. Scott Fitzgerald is in many ways one of the most important American writers of the twentieth century. In his first novel, This Side of Paradise, Fitzgerald epitomized the mindset of an era with the statement that his generation had, grown up to find all Gods dead, all wars fought, and all faiths in man shaken(Fitzgerald 307). Aside from being a major literary voice of the twenties and thirties, Fitzgerald was also among The Lost Generations harshest and most insightful social critics. In his classic novel The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald blatantly criticized the immorality, materialism, and hedonism which characterized the lifestyles of Americas bourgeois during the nineteen-twenties. Collectively, Fitzgeralds novels and short stories provide some of the best insight into the lifestyles of the rich during Americas most prosperous era, while simultaneously examining major literary themes such as disillusionment, coming of age, and the corruption of the American Dream. The life of F. Scott Fitzgerald is marked by as much, if not more, romanticism and tragedy than his novels. Throughout Fitzgeralds life, he unsuccessfully battled alcoholism, depression, and himself, in a quest for both personal and literary identity. At the age of twenty-three, Fitzgerald published his first novel, This Side of Paradise, to critical raves and unimaginable economic success. Shortly after the publishing of this novel, Fitzgerald was able to coerce Zelda Sayre into marriage. This

Through Fitzgerald’s characterisation of the protagonists, the moral chaos within the society becomes evident, with a society of immense greed and wealth being born, revealing the dreaded materialistic trait within individuals in the society leading to drastic consequences. Similarly to the prodigious increase in wealth during the “roaring 20’s”, the luxurious society of New York revolves heavily around money, with “the rich getting richer and the poor getting children”. The materialistic trait is evident within the protagonist Daisy Buchanan - ‘a careless person”. We learn of Daisy’s materialistic behaviour through her decision to marry Tom Buchanan over Jay Gatsby “because she was

One of the points that is consistently brought up in Toni Morrison’s Paradise is that of the all black town “Ruby”. Paradise uses the setting of Oklahoma to discuss how many black towns are shaped by past history and religion. While the town in this novel is fictional, there have been real all black towns in the United States, and it seems that these towns influenced many aspects of the town Ruby, which is why it is so easy to imagine that the story could actually be real. Many authors have written in general about the novel, and specifically about the town within it.

Expressions such as these only distance Tom from benign human tendencies, leaving him less worthy of receiving any compassion from his audience. By creating a character like Tom, Fitzgerald leaves the reader with the impression that one born into and consumed by wealth will become the most unappealing and bland character of all. In this way the author leaves a sense of emptiness associated with Tom and continues to sew the thread of emptiness in all other characters consumed by wealth in his story.

The main theme throughout Fitzgerald’s novel is that wealth leads to corruption. Several characters in the novel have corrupt aspects, such as Jay Gatsby, Tom Buchanan, Daisy Buchanan, and Myrtle Wilson. This can be seen through the indirect and direct characterization of the characters. Each of the characters corruptness is evident in their perspectives and actions. The motivation of wealth also corrupts an individual. Wealth makes a person act a certain way and do certain things. Fitzgerald uses imagery to embody the personality of Myrtle as being corrupt. Fitzgerald’s use of irony shows that society wants to be with you only if you have money. In order to be with someone you have to be up to their standard.

F. Scott Fitzgerald felt as if he needed excessive amounts of money to succeed and succeeded as an author in the 20th century, after his first novel in 1920, he wrote The Beautiful and the Damned which was then followed by The Great Gatsby. In the Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald showed comparisons to his own life as he went to Paris with his wife after This Side of Paradise in 1920 succeed and lived an extravagant lifestyle but behind his façade was a writer struggling to continue the wealthy lifestyle and was unhappy and struggling with alcoholism. These comparisons show as Jay Gatsby was a wealthy man who longed for the American Dream and a wealthy lifestyle. As well as the want for wealth and a sophisticated lifestyle, he also has the desire for Daisy Buchanan. The novel is written from Gatsby’s neighbour Nick Caraway’s point of view, Jay Gatsby is introduced to the audience as a wealthy and generous man who throws extravagant parties and has built his fortunes himself in the hope that it will win him Daisy. Gatsby is killed for Daisy’s mistake at the end of the novel and his wealthy lifestyle is no more. The beautiful and the damned is the story of Anthony Patch “who was intended by Fitzgerald to be a tragic character” and was born into a wealthy family but rejects this and tries to distance himself from their reputation and upper-class name. He marries a socialite called Gloria and their common longing to live an extravagant lifestyle but the lack of interest in working to

Fitzgerald presents his audience with Daisy, a married “girl” who eventually reunited with the lost love of her life, Jay Gatsby. While breaking rules and being adventurous, Daisy ultimately brings Gatsby to his death. Although she explores her sexuality and runs off behind her husband Tom’s back, Daisy continues to be oppressed. Tom’s aggressiveness and wealth force Daisy to depend on him, making her a slave of her husband. Because of this, she can not leave him to be with Gatsby, the one she loves. Doing so would mean losing economic support and losing a stable life. In this way, her husband defines her life. There is an evident contrast however with Tom’s role. Tom keeps an apartment away from home for his mistress and gets away with it. Because he is the man, society would not dare punish him for exploring his liberties. Daisy on the other hand is inferior to Tom and, as a social norm, is not allowed to indulge in such freedoms because doing so would bring shame to her honor.

Fitzgerald’s success came along with the roaring 20s, also known as the Jazz age. His fame and fortune skyrocketed during this era with his first novel, This Side of Paradise being a hit. However, the lifestyle of the rich and famous during the Jazz age would prove to provide an insurmountable heartbreak. Fitzgerald claims that the Jazz Age “flattered him and gave him more money than he had dreamed of” (qtd. In “Broken Dreams” 42). With this new fame and money, he began living very recklessly. He threw extravagant parties and “rode on the roofs of taxi cabs and jumped into fountains... and got drunk at countless parties.” Fitzgerald said, “I had everything I wanted and knew I would never be so happy again.” (QUOTE). He finally had a taste of the glamor of the American Dream, and he absolutely loved it. However, this lifestyle was expensive, one that Fitzgerald, even with all his money could not afford. He lived so irresponsibly that he was often in debt. He wanted more of this lifestyle, but it was the lifestyle of the American Dream that eventually lead him away from the American Dream. He began chasing the American Dream just so he could

him. So on the third of April of 1920 in St. Patrick's Cathedral New York City