Discovering F. Scott Fitzgerald's Wise and Tragic Sense of Life

Abstract

The youthful illusions Fitzgerald alludes to in This Side of Paradise exist in both Amory Blaine, the novel's protagonist, and in Fitzgerald himself speaking through the novel's omniscient narrator. With an attitude of complete superiority, Fitzgerald patronizes Amory. As the young hero struggles to discover his identity and role in the world, Fitzgerald, speaking directly as the narrator or indirectly through other characters, critiques Amory's path toward self-realization. This condescending attitude results from Fitzgerald's belief that he has already experienced these trials and has endured to discover his role in life. Thus, Fitzgerald undercuts Amory's romantic confidence and sense of infallibility in order to profess his own self-assurance. By 1931 and the publication of "Babylon Revisited," however, Fitzgerald's air of superiority toward his characters has disappeared. He no longer portrays himself as wiser than his protagonists; instead, as with Charlie Wales in "Babylon Revisited," he empathizes with their efforts to find meaning in their lives. The years between the writing of This Side of Paradise and "Babylon Revisited" illustrate Fitzgerald's shift from a youthful romanticism to a tragic fatalism . . . [From introductory section]