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The Unknown Side Of Paradise Analysis

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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. 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 him is …show more content…

Scott Fitzgerald’s life. In Fitzgerald’s novel, “bad text significantly affected abook's initial reception and an author's subsequent reputation” (West 45). As Fitzgerald’s first novel was published when he was 23, he was still a young man and could not foresee his future. Amory’s life is similar to that of Fitzgerald’s future, though Fitzgerald was not aware of his upcoming, self-destructing actions. Amory’s storyline represents his “cyclical pattern of success/failure/comeback that characterized much of his later life”. Amory Blaine also follows a cycle of successes and failures as he tries to find love throughout his college life and after fighting in the military. During Fitzgerald’s time, “Early in July 1919 Fitzgerald returned from New York to his parents’ home in St. Paul. His spirits were low: he had failed at business and at writing, and his relationship with Zelda had ended—apparently forever,” having no hope left. Fitzgerald dreamed of becoming a successful writer, but his books were not recognized till much later after his death. Zelda, his wife, had left Fitzgerald just as Rosalind left Amory in the novel, and both Fitzgerald and Amory are left contemplating the decisions they made in

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