'This Side of Paradise'

Here is a critique of a classic novel that I just finished about a week ago. The name of the novel is 'This Side of Paradise'. The author is quite famous for a lot of his work. His name is F. Scott Fitzgerald. My idea is to start reading or even re-reading and offering reviews and critiques of my collection of classic novels that I have bought over the years.

'This Side of Paradise' is the story of a man named Amory Blaine and his search of self and where he belongs in society. This story does start out with describing Amory's childhood and his early education at St. Regis. Amory moves on to Princeton and on to enter the service during World War I where he learns a little more of the meaning of life. At both of these junctures in learning Amory and his friends both male and female ask many questions and from Freshman to Senior year answers will be found but are they the answers they want and need. Amory has relationships that he learns about women from his mother to Beatrice to Rosalind to Isabelle Amory learns many aspects of living, but does he learn what he needs and wants even from a 'Father' figure as in Monsignor Darcy. Monsignor Darcy shares his feelings with Amory mostly through several letters that he writes to Amory at crucial times of Amory's life.

'This Side of Paradise' shows us in F. Scott Fitzgerald's words what life in the 1910's and 1920's were like from a personal standpoint as well as from a historical view. Fitzgerald mentions the 'flapper' and 'Gibson' girl and living in the Jazz Age of music. Women were shown in different light as from the past decades even though there were similarities between the older and younger women. This is also a story of finding the 'Ying and Yang' of relationships and finding where does on fit in society. This is also a story that shows us that our decisions that we make and the dreams that we have are bound to be squashed and we must be able to pick ourselves up and continue living for the relationships whether male or female come and go and just do what is expected of us even if it seems harsh as in Amory handles certain aspects of his living.

In a piece of classic literature such as 'This Side of Paradise' there were times that were very critical of Amory and what he was looking for, but even now in the present time aren't we all looking for a way to fit in somewhere and with somebody that challenges us to be better. 'This Side of Paradise' is a story to me all about gaining self-confidence in ourselves and trying once again to better understand where we fit in our family and in society. This is how I understand this F. Scott Fitzgerald novel being right or wrong. This is a novel that should be read at least once in one's life. One more thing the way that F. Scott Fitzgerald writes at least for me is one where I could see Amory's surroundings and even hear and listen to the various conversations of the characters at various points of the story and could feel the angst that they felt.

(During these critiques and/or reviews I have attempted to answer some questions that were presented at the end of the book.)

(This is my first critique and I hope you like what you read, comment and maybe tip and subscribe to may work. It would be greatly appreciated.)