One found God, four found Paris

I'm going to preface this by saying F. Scott Fitzgerald is my favorite writer and This Side of Paradise is my all time favorite book. Seeing as the Great Gatsby is coming out in theaters tomorrow I'd like to say I really don't understand why it is Fitzgerald's most popular work.

When I first had to read the Great Gatsby my sophomore year of high school I absolutely hated it and now even as an English major it is still my least favorite Fitzgerald work. Looking at it from the surface Gatsby is beautifully written. This Side of Paradise is a first novel and it shows. Paradise is touch and go for a while, but the flashes of brilliance completely make up for that. Gatsby on the other hand is well-written and much more polished, but I didn't feel the same human connection at all.
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Given all this I do understand why Gatsby is what is taught in high schools. The symbolism is so blatantly obvious that it makes it a good read for students who aren't that great at literature. All you have to do is tell the class "this is what the eyes mean, this represents the American Dream, this is what the green light means," and bam you have a class who can at least fake an essay or maybe even feel like the finally understand a work of well-known literature. Don't get me wrong, that's a good thing, kids should feel like literature is accessible, but that doesn't mean I like this book.

There's just such a lacking of depth as compared with his other books. Nick is just a moral character standing above everyone else and not even Gatsby becomes that likable by the end of the novel. The symbolism is too obvious and so is the whole critique on the American Dream. There's a reason the Great Gatsby didn't sell well at all when it was first released, even then it's not his most connectable work. While not as well written, This Side of Paradise was better received.

Amory Blaine, the main character of Paradise, is still not a saint. The themes of This Side of Paradise are similar, disillusionment, coming into adult life, the American dream, but somehow they are better conveyed. Even through a choppier writing style I felt more connected to Amory Blaine and what Fitzgerald was saying. It was more raw. There wasn't a heavy veil of symbolism to force your way through.  The bottom quote is from This Side of Paradise, and it's obvious that it's dealing with the same things as Gatsby.

“Here was a new generation, shouting the old cries, learning the old creeds, through a reverie of long days and nights; destined finally to go out into that dirty gray turmoil to follow love and pride; a new generation dedicated more than the last to the fear of poverty and the worship of success; grown up to find all Gods dead, all wars fought, all faiths in man shaken… .”

The Great Gastby is a good piece of literature, and I will be sing it Friday, but I'm not seeing it for the plot. I am seeing it for Fitzgerald.


-Tate