This Side Of Paradise Analysis

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel This Side of Paradise was his first book that he published that sparked his stardom in the world of authorship. Thomas Jefferson once said, “If you find yourself constantly trying to prove your worth to someone, you have already forgotten your value.” Life is quite a journey. There are numerous things that will forgo in life that will cause people to change their thinking or beliefs. The friends’ people hang out with, their hobbies, interests, schools and universities they attend. They are all part of the equation in finding your identity and your purpose in life. For Amory Blaine, it started all the way back from his childhood when his mother was raising him. After that came the countless, un-meaningful relationships,

He was very different from the writers of his time. He liked to use third person in his writings to tell the story from an outside source who knew the thoughts of one or all the characters (Weisbrod 11). He tended to deal with the topics of wealth, youth, and beauty. He also used a great deal of symbolism throughout his books which would sometimes catch readers off guard. (Weisbrod 13). What was different about him though, was the atmosphere he created through his stories using personal life experiences. He managed this by basing the characters in the books from his family, friends, and even past lovers. You would see in Fitzgerald’s dedications that he was writing to a past or present lover at the time, who he was trying to impress or win back. For example, in this book he uses Amory Blaine to represent his early life experiences, which focused on the adolescence and young adulthood of Amory. (Weisbrod 33). Through doing this writing style, Fitzgerald believed he would better develop his characters, and the story itself (Card 27). The readers would rave about it, while his family members weren’t usually fond of it, considering the way he depicted most of them. He would divulge lots of information and background of what happened with his life, but as one author quotes, “Though he describes his psychological and spiritual breakdown, his utter collapse, often in a wry style, he still doesn’t spill all of his life story beans” (Hampl 104). His fame didn’t last too long though. Fitzgerald seemed to down spiral after his best seller, The Great Gatsby was published. Everything started to collapse in his life, resulting him becoming to become a heavy drinker, and causing terrible depression along with writer’s block. Everything started to collapse in his life. His wife Zelda was struggling with mental health issues, causing many financial problems and the general depression of losing his wife. The stress became too