Simcho
...a war story. It is a coming of age novel through a rite of passage, and the mission is to find yourself. It is a social portrait, historical novel, political novel, and a novel of ideas. This novel is split into two books referred to as “Book 1” and “Book 2” with and interlude in-between. The main themes in this book are egotism and generational conflict. This Side of Paradise is told in 3rd person, by a narrator who is telling Amory Blaine’s story. In the beginning you learn that Amory is an outstanding individual, the way he was brought up and by the way he acts leads us to believe that Amory is on the path to self-discovery, and like many of us, he too makes mistakes and becomes distracted from this path by conformity and by romantic involvement with women.
As this story starts Amory is under the influence of his unconventional mother, Beatrice, and because of that he establishes his uniqueness, but when he sees that being unique at school makes him stand alone, he tries exceptionally hard to fit in at school in the Midwest, boarding school, and then finally Princeton. As the action rises and Amory is finally successful, he discovers emptiness in conformity and abandons conformity half-way through Princeton, and gets back on the path of rediscovering who he is. The climax I believe comes when after the war, Amory and Rosalind fall deeply in love, and then because of Amory’s lack of wealth, Rosalind breaks Amory’s heart. As a result of this Amory begins to drink, ends up giving love another try with Eleanor, ends up feeling incapable of love, abandons women as a source of inspiration, and feels that he has lost himself in Rosalind, and will only find himself again without her.
This book is a classic because people were able to, and will be able to relate to it no matter what time period. This basis of Amory trying to change himself to be better liked by...
View Full Essay
