السبت، 10 نوفمبر، 2012
The Dominance
of Transcendentalism
in F. Scott Fitzgerald's Early Fiction:
The case of This Side ofParadise .
in F. Scott Fitzgerald's Early Fiction:
The case of This Side of
CH 2
BY
M. Mustafa Riad Al ajeely
أ. مصطفى رياض علي العجيلي
مدرس اللغة الانكليزية في
ثانوية صلاح الدين للبنين/ الانبار
(ماجستير في الادب الانكليزي)
This Side of Paradise (1920) is the climax of Transcendentalism in
Fitzgerald's early fiction.
Transcendentalist aspects in this novel are the emphasis that good solution to
human problems lies in the free development of individual emotions, by 'Reason'
the people can be 'insight', the emphasis on self- reliance and individuality,
the neglecting of social principles and rely on 'Reason', individual should
reject the authority of Christianity and gain knowledge of God through insight
and protest against materialism of American society. As well as romanticism and
idealism are a part of Transcendentalism.
This Side of paradise, which is considered the first novel of F. Scott
Fitzgerald, written in 1920. The novel that launched F. Scott Fitzgerald's
career as a writer.
''The novel is much more than
a sensation, however; it is a landmark in modernist fiction that challenged
literary tradition and helped give a voice to a younger generation shocked by
the horrors of Word World I.''1
An admittedly self- obsessed
portrait of the 'egotist' Amory Blaine and his intellectual development. See
here the phrase, 'intellectual development' which considers one of the major
principles of Transcendentalism. Also, this feature itself is predominant
inside the protagonist character of the novel who is Amory Blaine.
Fitzgerald's novel is also a
portrait of his own artistic development that led to his emergence as an author
now considered perhaps the most important American modernist writer. Widely
criticized as a haphazard collection of short stories that fail to cohere as a
whole, This Side of Paradise does reveal some naivety in its young author, but its
unique structure is also a vital part of what makes it a challenging and
innovation text.
''In the early 2000s it was
recognized as an enormously influential and compelling novel by an emerging
legend of American literature.''2
In the story of Amory Blaine,
an idealistic youth in pursuit of an ideal, idealism is a form of
Transcendentalism, therefore Amory Blaine is an idealistic.
''Fitzgerald explored the
themes and characters and experimented with the narrative strategies and
techniques that define his vision and characterize his style.''3
This Side of Paradise , like the majority of first novels, is not without its
flaws and weaknesses. Yet its importance to Fitzgerald's development as a
writer is undeniable, and it is 'valuable' as biography Jeffery Meyers
observes; ''both as autobiography and as social history.''4
Moreover, with this novel that
made his name synonymous with the Jazz Age, Fitzgerald staked claim to
territory that simultaneously nurtured and constrained his literary career. A
decidedly autobiographical novel,
This Side of Paradise, ''recounts the life of Amory Blaine from his wealth
and pampered childhood through prep school and Princeton ,
charting the courses of his moral education, sexual awakening, and romantic
disillusionment with life.''5
We confirm these features
above are closely related to the Transcendentalism aspects. Amory, a 'romantic
egotist' has a fine sense of his own immense possibilities and believes that a
great destiny a waits him.
His heightened conception of
self, however is both his best and his worst quality, providing him with a
sense of mission but also convincing him of its easy attainment.
''Expulsion from college and
rejection by the woman he loves eventually lead Amory to discover that his
dreams are not enough to ensure his desires, and he grows disillusioned with
life.''6
Yet that disillusionment does
not cause Amory to lose faith in himself, and the novel ends as it begins- with
Fitzgerald's 'romantic egotist' in pursuit of his great destiny, beginning yet
again the eternal quest that will define his life and existence.
Transcendentalism's features
appeared in Amory's character. He is the main character of the novel in the
process of becoming a 'personage', Amory is chiefly characterized by his
intense self- obsession and egotism. He changes markedly in the course of the
plot, growing from a superficially clever and pretentious boy to much more
profound thinker, but his egotism remains his defining characteristics.
His affair with the four young
women of the novel, as well as his relationships with other adults and friends,
are in many ways important to him only as they affect and influence his own
development and desires.
''Physically good-looking, but
not conventionally so, and known for his 'penetrating green eyes'.''7
Amory is very successful with young
women and consistently manages to intrigue them. By the time of his
relationship with Eleanor, however, Amory is not sure if he is able to love
again after Rosalind affected him so deeply.
Much of his taste for
enigmatic and unobtainable women goes back to his unconventional relationship
with his charming indulgent, but often absent moth.
Like his mother relationships,
''the young women in Amory's life represent the stages of his intellectual
artistic, and religious development, and they reflect that his own changing
opinions and beliefs become more substantial as he reads more and explores
himself more thoroughly.''8
He retains something of an
inability to persist in his endeavors, however, just as he remains an
ambitious, and romantic dreamer.
''Amory has become known as a
Fitzgerald- type character, an elitist, ambitions and daring youth of Jazz Age
based on the author himself.''9
Therefore, I can prove that
Amory is a Transcendental, because he adopted and followed the
Transcendentalism's aspects and ideas, like; his intellectual and
emotional changing in his personality, free thinking, romantic dreaming,
changing opinions and rely on 'Reason'.
This Side of Paradise has two main subjects in the text; the first subject
called book one which is: 'the romantic egotist' and book two called: 'the
education of personage'.
In both books,
Transcendentalism are clearly appeared inside them. According to the following
explanations of the two books; The novel opens with a description of Amory
Blaine's mother Beatrice and her exciting life of travel with her son Amory
until his appendix bursts on a ship to Europe,
And ''He is sent to live with
his aunt and uncle in Minneapolis ,
Minnesota
After enrolling at the school,
where he is unpopular because of his arrogance. Amory meets his friend and
mentor Monsignor Darcy.
''Amory is more popular during
his second year because he succeed at football and as a writer for a school
paper, and he decides to enroll at Princeton
University
At Princeton ,
Amory once again gradually becomes a social success by acting in plays and
writing for the college newspapers, and, ''he meets some of
his most important friends, such as; Kerry and Burne Holiday, and Tome
D'Invilliers.''12
''he travels back to Minneapolis
They exchange long letters
while Amory is at Princeton with his elitist
group of friends. Then, coming back from a night out in New York
''When he next sees Isabelle
at the prom, they quarrel and Amory leaves her.''15
This is followed by Amory's
discovery that he has failed math and therefore will be expelled from the
editorial board of the college paper. Amory's father then dies suddenly, ''but
this does not affect Amory deeply, and it leaves him with an inheritance
despite his father's somewhat ineffective investments.''16
After returning to Princeton,
''Amory encounters a disturbing and devilish man with 'queer feet' who
terrifies him and from whom he flees through the streets of New York
During Amory's find two years
of Princeton , many of his peers, especially
Burne Holiday, begin to challenge the social institutions and traditions of the
college, but Amory does little himself.
''He falls in love with his
third cousin, Clara page.''18 but this comes to nothing, Amory begins to be
more interested in poetry at Princeton, but then the United States
''This is followed by the
novel's 'Interlude' which consist of a letter of advice to Amory from Monsignor
Darcy and a letter to Tom from Amory with a plan to meet in New York after the
war.''19
''Book two beings in a format
of a play to introduce Rosalind Connage, the sister of Amory's Princeton friend Alec..''20
Amory and Rosalind immediately
fall in love, and become consumed with each other, ''but their relationship is
doomed.''21 because Amory is poor and without prospects, and Rosalind leaves
him for the rich Dawson New York
He does begin to write and
read more, however, and ''he discusses philosophy and literature with his
roommate Tom, but soon Tom must go home because his mother is ill, and they
sell the apartment.''22
After narrowly missing
Monsignor Darcy in Washington , ''Amory travels
to Maryland
An intelligent and passionate
girl from an old Maryland
But, ''Amory is still affected
by his relationship with Rosalind..''24
Then he leaves Eleanor in a
rather bitter mood. The next scene shifts to a party in Atlantic city, after
which Amory wakes up in a hotel room he was supposed to be sharing with Alec
Connage to discover that Alec has illicitly brought a girl back to the room and
two house detectives are banging on the door to find them.
''Amory makes a 'sacrifice' of
himself in order to save Alec's reputation.''25 then he discovered in the paper
that Rosalind has been married and Monsignor has suddenly died.
''The last chapter of the novel describes
the Amory's intellectual convictions during his attempt to walk from New York to Princeton .''26
On the way, hi is picked up by
a 'big man' who is revealed to be the father of his college friend Jesse
Ferrenby, and with him and his companion Amory argues about socialism and the
radicalism of his generation.
''Amory then leaves theme and
reflects on religion, philosophy, politics and literature.''27
Unsure about precisely what he
believes or where exactly he should go with his life. As he exclaims in the
last line of the book, ''I know myself; he cried, but that is all….''28
So that, Transcendentalism's
features and ideas are aroused widely in the events of the novel and much
adopted by the main character of the novel; Amory Blaine, features such;
changing intellectuality, romanticism, free thinking and the like..
Although, Fitzgerald's novels
may seem less shocking now, it created a sensation when it was published
because of its representation of a younger generation that perceived itself as
departing entirely from the tradition of the generations before it.
''Amory's vanity and egotism,
his flirtatious affairs with young women, his startling ideas such as about
socialism, and his vague contempt for nineteenth century tradition
all struck a chord with a generation that blamed their parents, for example for
the horrors of World War I.''29
''This generational conflict was one of the key
motivation for the modernist literary movement, which adopted by
Transcendentalism in United
States
In This Side of Paradise, the intellectual and aesthetic aspects of
Transcendentalism are first revealed by Burn Holiday ,
who inspires many of Amory's own convictions against nineteenth century
traditions. And Amory's meditations and convictions in 'The Egotist becomes a
personage', although many critics have noted that they are not necessarily well
informed or even coherent, are nevertheless something of an intellectual
manifests to for his generation.
As Amory says while he
is arguing with Mr. Ferrenby about socialism, ''I'm a product of a
versatile mind in a restless generation.''31
While his specific
intellectual theories of Transcendentalism are unclear, and for example;
''Amory does nothing but dabble without conviction in socialism.''32
This wavering is consistent
with Amory's previous statement: ''I'm in love with change and I've killed my
conscience.''33
Such a demand for a progress a
way from the pervious generation without a clear view about the direction that
this progress should take led to criticism of the novel such as that Edmund
Wilson in his essay; 'F. Scott Fitzgerald':
''In short, one of the chief weakness of This Side of Paradise is that it is not about anything: its intellectual and
moral content a mounts to little more than a gesture- a gesture of indefinite
revolt.''34
Whether this revolt was
'indefinite' however, it moved and excited many readers, and was key in
defining Fitzgerald as a spokesperson for his generation.
''Amory's vanity, narcissism, and Transcendentalism is
more than a character trait; it is an emblem of the theme of 'egotism' that
pervades Fitzgerald's novel.''35
When Amory says that he is an
egotist, he does not simply mean that he is self- absorbed; he is revealing an
essential philosophical Transcendental trait of the novel, which is that the
self is all important. He best express this idea in the final chapter of the
novel, 'the egotist becomes a personage' with statements such as; ''this
selfishness is not only part of me. It is the most living part.''36
Like many people in his
generation feeling cut off from tradition and drastically changed after World
War I, Amory comes to think that his self is in a sense, all that he has. This
idea, which is common in other important modernist texts; ''such as Ezra
Pound's famous magazine, the egoist is influenced by Freudian psychology.''37
By the modernist generation's
disavowal of past traditions and by the individualism that was a part of
Transcendentalism notion. Often however, ''Fitzgerald is also critical and
satirical of Amory's egotism, and he certainly mocks its more superficial form
of vanity, a trait that characterizes Amory's youth as well as his first love
Isabelle.''38
The egotism and snobbishness
of many aristocrats in the novel is also something that Fitzgerald
alternatively ridicules and admires. By the end of the novel, it is not
necessarily clear whether Amory fully embraces egotism, although he does seem
to recognize its valuable artistic and intellectual aspects of
Transcendentalism.
Throughout, This Side of Paradise, ''Amory encounters social hierarchies, aristocratic
families.''39 elitist standers of behavior, and vast amounts of wealth that
allow a unique insight into the American upper class in the first two decades
of the twentieth century.
Since Amory is an elitist
himself, he is continually coming into contact with the institutions and
practices of upper class families such as Connages, and upper class
institutions such as Princeton university.
Fitzgerald offers a through satire of the vanity and hypocrisy of the
aristocracy (such as when Rosalind rejects Amory for a wealth husband.) at the
same time as, ''he suggests its enormous allure in the form of Beatrice
Monsignor Darcy, and Rosalind despite their faults.''40
His satire of the 'petting
party' in which young upper class girls kisses and makes promises to a variety
of men, was particularly shocking to the aristocracy, as was his ridicule of
various Princeton clubs and elitist hierarchies.
(Transcendentalism is a
plaiting of Romanticism.) There we can see romanticism is widely appeared in This Side of Paradise . Romanticism is clearly appeared in Amory's four love
relationships with four women. But he failed with them all, because of
his emotional and intellectual development in his life as well as class
distinctions in that society. So that, he failed with all his relationships, but
he actually lives live relationships with certain ladies.
''Amory's first love with Isabelle Borge.''41. she is
capable of very strong, very transient, emotions, ''He travels all the way to Minneapolis
During which they flirt and
begin a relationship of passionate letter writing until they fall out when she
comes to Princeton prom. Isabelle is something
of an actress and fits in well with the vanity of Amory's pre-war Princeton
period because, ''she is quite vain herself.''43. nevertheless, she and Amory
make an exciting couple during their relationship, and she enchants Amory as
much as she infuriates him.
''Amory's second love with
Rosalind Connage.''44. Which considers the most important and intense love in
the novel. Rosalind is an extremely striking character. Her long description
shortly into the first chapter of 'Book Two', beginning; Rosalind is – utterly
Rosalind, emphasizes that all men fall in love with her except those that are
afraid of her claims that she is not spoiled despite her selfishness and states
that:
''all criticism of Rosalind ends in her beauty.''45
She is spontaneous and
intriguing, and her treatment of men in some ways represents a new type of
liberated woman, since she explains, she toys with men and leaves them as male
lovers always used to do their female partners in the past.
Because, of this pattern,
Rosalind very frequently devastates men by leaving them and, ''there is much
foreshadowing to her abandonment of Amory for the rich Dawson
Nevertheless, Rosalind seems
entirely absorbed with Amory, as he is with her during their brief and intense
romance.
''She seems to agonize over her decision to leave Amory
because he is too poor.''47 She does not suffer from it later as he does.
''Amory's third love with
Clara Page.''48 She is a poor widow with two children and has led a 'hurried
life', but ''she is nevertheless charming and delightful and everyone treats
her with respect.''49
Because of the vast 'goodness' that
he sees in her and her ability to bring out a different side of his
narcissistic personality.
''Amory proposes marriage to her. Clara
brushes this off, however, and they lose touch with each other at the beginning
of the war.''50
''Amory's four love and final one in the
course of the novel with Eleanor Ramilly.''51
She is associated with
wildness and nature. From a very old Maryland
family Eleanor was brought up in France
''She describes herself as a 'romantic little
materialist' and has an inclination towards paganism in thought and
literature.''52
Although her appearance is
unclear at first she is eighteen years old and beautiful with pale skin and
green eyes. She and Amory later write poems to each other, but ''their
relationship ends when Amory leaves Maryland
Therefore, romanticism aspects
are clearly and widely appeared in this novel. We know that, Transcendentalism
is a form or a reflection of romanticism. So, Transcendentalism is clearly
appeared in Amory's four love relationships. But these relationships never
success, for certain reasons; Amory's egotism, class distinction, materialism,
and Amory's intellectual and emotional development.
There are much
Transcendentalism's features that cohesion between Amory Blaine and Monsignor
Darcy. We are going to see in coming paragraphs, there is a Transcendental
relationship between Amory and Monsignor.
Monsignor, an influential and
successful priest in the catholic hierarchy, is ''Amory's confidant and father
figure.''54
''He was Beatrice's passionate lover in his youthful
romantic days.''55
But when she abandoned him for
the rich Stephen Blaine, Monsignor began his career in the priesthood. Because
of his charm and ability to be adored by everyone.
''Father Darcy earns the little 'Monsignor' which is a
general term of influence in the catholic church and tells Amory before his
sudden death towards the end of the novel that he will soon become a
cardinal.''56
Monsignor exerts a great
influence over Amory, and they are very close because of their many
similarities, including their elitism and their taste in philosophy and
literature.
Amory and Monsignor get along
immediately when they meet during Amory's first year at ST. Regis and
discover an intense affinity with each other. Their relationship remains close
enough for Monsignor to constantly compare their similarities and even write
that he considers Amory the 'reincarnation' of himself.
Monsignor's description of a
recurring dream of his in a letter to Amory during the novel's 'Interlude' is
particularly enlightening on this issue:
''I've enjoyed imagining that you were my son,
that perhaps when I was young I went into a state of coma and begat you, and
when I come to, had no recollection of it's the paternal instinct, Amory-
celibacy goes deeper than the flesh. Sometimes I think that the explanation of
our deep resemblance is some common ancestor.''57
Not only does this dream
reinforce Monsignor's significance as Amory's father figure; it helps to
establish the idea that Amory's deep connection to Monsignor has been passed
down from an ancient tradition of spiritual, intellectual, and artistic ideas.
See here the Transcendentalism's aspects are distinctly appeared.
Later, ''Monsignor and Amory's
relationship became to breaking down.''58 because the growing of Amory's
ideological specifically in religion against Monsignor's beliefs. Here is the
turn point of Amory's intellectual development toward religion.
Fitzgerald is very
purposefully uses the image of a catholic priest to represent the separation
and therefore firmly connects it to a rejection of his faith.
Indeed, ''The author's agenda
is much more radical than the satire and frankness about upper class America
As Fitzgerald goes on to discuss more overtly in the
form of Amory's thoughts and conclusions in 'the egotist becomes a personage'
as far as the modernist egoist is concerned.
''Religion has no place in the philosophy of the
younger American generation.''60
Therefore, we can approved
that Transcendentalism's features and ideas are appeared; when Amory's rejects
the authority of Christianity. Transcendentalism adopted in its implementation
that; individuals should reject the authority of Christianity and gain
knowledge of God through insight (Reason).
Therefore Amory's rejects the puritan
religions attitudes according to F. Scott Fitzgerald's demonstration.
''In both style and form, This Side of Paradise is Fitzgerald's novel of Transcendentalism
apprenticeship.''61
In it the novice writer is
clearly striving to demonstrate both his technical virtuosity and his
seriousness of purpose. To display his mastery of literary form, for instance,
''Fitzgerald creates a novel that is a pastiche of poems letters, lists, and
even a play in three acts embedded within a prose narrative.''62
At times the novel's style is
almost cinematic. ''chapters are divided by subheadings such as 'snapshots of
the young egotist' and 'the superman grows careless'''63,
That function as subtitles
to what could very well be a new sred about the life of a famous person. The
effect of these various narrative strategies is startlingly original and
unabashedly exuberant, conveying the brash self- reliance of both Fitzgerald
and his fictional hero. It conveys as well a youthful enthusiasm perfectly in
sync with its time and place.
Therefore, we see here the
phrase; self- reliance above it is another indicate that This Side of Paradise is a Transcendentalism's novel, because self-
reliance one of the features that adopted by Transcendentalism notion.
Since its publication, ''This Side of Paradise has also considered a chronicle of the Jazz Age.''64
Conveying the styles, themes,
and fashions of a generation. As the English novelist and critic Malcolm
Bradbury observes, ''no writer set out more determinedly to
capture in fiction the tone, the hope, the possibility, and the touch of
despair of the Twenties, than Fitzgerald.''65
The novelist himself explained
the source of his tale by saying; ''I was certain that all the young people
were going to be killed in the war, and I wanted to put on paper a record of
the strange life they had lived in their time.''66
Clearly then, ''This
Side of Paradise is a novel of manners.''67
Literary from depicting the
manners and mores of a class of people in a particular time and place. In it,
Fitzgerald, as Bradbury explains:
''Made sure that the Twenties was known as 'the jazz
age', that the new goods and chattels, then new expressions and sexual styles
made their way into fiction''68
Indeed the automobile,
prohibition the flapper and the sheik, the new woman and man of the age all
figure prominently in the novel's pages, revealing the profound changes
in the attitudes and moves of a modern generation.
While, ''It may lack the comic tone characteristic of
the novel of manners.''69
Conveying its vision with a
seriousness that frequently registers as pretentiousness. This Side of Paradise does contain as Meyers notes: ''flashes of insight on a
number of serious subjects: wealth, class, sex, mores, fame, romance, glamour,
success, vanity, egotism, politics, and religion.''70
Most of these characteristics
are adopted by Transcendentalism as well we see the word 'Insight' in the above
it is a word widely used by Transcendentalism's people.
Transcendental, believed that
the person should neglect the social principles and rely on 'Insight' in their
life.
The sharp insight based on
personal experiences of Fitzgerald's life enhances the value of his literature
so as to touch the heart of the younger generation after World War I.
Fitzgerald's way of life
manifests above all, ''the quintessence of the jazz age in America , in fine he depicted vividly America
Entrusting his heroes with
romantic dream. We know that Romanticism is a reflection of Transcendentalism,
therefore the romance scenes in this novel as mentioned before are distinctly
belong to Transcendentalism notion and its aspects.
Within, ''This Side of Paradise , Fitzgerald chronicles the development of Amory.''72
We see here the chronicles
development phrase, this phrase is adopted by the Transcendentalists, as well
as the section headings of 'the romantic egoist'. And 'the education of a
personage', reveal an interest in ego formation and self knowledge. Self
knowledge is a term used by Transcendentalist in their belief and they said
that knowledge is not limited to experiences and observation as shown in
Amory's character.
Amory believes for most of the
novel that, ''he can create himself through an understanding of the observed
and external.''73
The idea that one's
consciousness and life's plan and shapes are formed consciously appealed to
Amory, and in his musings on how he wants his life to be occur throughout the
text.
''it was always the becoming he dreamed of, never the
being.''74
This becoming hinges on
knowledge of the self, and early on Amory. ''formulated his first philosophy a
code to live by which as never as it can be named, was a sort of aristocratic
egoism.''75
This egoism relies on
comparison with others and a maneuvering of the self to the best advantage of a
presentation to an audience. An examination of Amory's list of his own traits
demonstrates his concern not only with audience appreciation, but also with
comparison with others:
''Physically, Amory thought that he was exceedingly
handsome. He was. He fancied himself an athletic of possibilities and a supple
dancer.''76
Here the narrator agrees that
Amory is handsome, but does not agree with his self- assessment of his athletic
and dancing abilities, two activities that occur before others.
''The location of himself as superior to others
necessarily relies so much on self- knowledge.''78
As one of the adopted aspects
of Transcendentalism, as on detailed observation of how he is slightly better.
In locating observations within other's behavior and placing himself a top in
which he does not need to grow or change but only pay careful attention to how
others compare.
''Amory also categorizes large groups of people, and
even places, without firsthand knowledge of how he came to those opinions.''79
A good example of this is his
conversation with Monsignor Darcy regarding college. ''I went to go to Princeton , said Amory. I don't know why, but I think of
all Harvard men as sissies, like I used to be, and all Yale men as wearing big
blue sweaters and smoking pipes … I think of Princeton as being lazy and good-
looking and aristocratic- you know like a spring day.''80
In imagining Princeton
as lazy, good looking and aristocratic, ''He is listing qualities that Amory
himself to some degree possesses and more to the point desires to possess.''81
His desire to go there
solidifies those characteristics for his future self, and positions Princeton as superior to those other colleges, and thus
himself as superior to those who will attend those colleges.
''Amory can see everyone is pretending to be something,
and these pretences and performances become 'type' ''82
Amory notices the performances
and chooses his own out from the visible choices the kind of performance he
wants and chooses to do is Princeton, because out of the available options,
that is the best.
''When he and Paskert go to the play 'the little
Millionaire' they both leave the theatre enchanted by a brunette actress.''83
Both boys desire a future that
includes the chorus girl, or someone like her. How the boys dream about the
girl is quite different, and gives a clue to the distinctiveness of Amory's
plans. While Paskert desires to take her with him and further notes that he
would, ''be proud to take her home and introduce her to my people.''84
Amory constructs for himself a
future that will insert him into the situations they had just observed on the
stage.
''He was planning his life. He was going to live in New
York, and be known at every restaurant and café, wearing a dress suit from
early evening to early morning, sleeping a way the dull hours of the
forenoon.''85
Paskert vocalizes a desire to insert a bit of Broadway
into his ordinary life, while Amory observes Broadway and plans to insert
himself into it. That he can dream up a role, or take up an observed persona
further confirms Amory's performance.
Amory possess a limited self-
reflexivity in that he desires to know himself, not for knowledge alone, but
for maximum enjoyment of and understanding of life.
While at Princeton ,
Amory remarks to Tom D' Invilliers that, ''Either your eyes were opened to the
mean scrambling quality of people or you'd have gone through blind, and you'd
hate to have done that.''86
Amory observes that further
knowledge of society or the self can take a toll on happiness, yet ''the
intentional blindness on must practice to remain oblivious to it is itself a
larger price.''87
This desire for and
privileging of self- knowledge are predominant Transcendental feature on
Amory's character.
''Amory wants to mold himself to suit society, but in a
very specific way.''88
He has no desire for permanent
self improvement but rather desires, ''cosmetic changes that will allow him to
navigate social structures to his own private terms.''89
Indeed, self improvement' is
one of the Transcendentalism's features, is not about the self at all, the
ideology behind self- improvement lies in the belief that by nature, one is bad
and this badness must be improved through participation in culturally
acceptable and profitable acts of conformity.
''The improvement serves to reinforce ideology and
confirm the individual to what society needs of him or her in order to serve
cultural agendas.''90
The self is made up of
actions, and if these actions are enacted in order to continuously create the
self, then there is no real self to improve. An individual is a term used
widely in Transcendentalism, is made up of his or her actions, fictive idea of
self and what others see in him or her.
Amory, in acknowledging that
one is one's performance, also vocalizes an occasional dissatisfaction with how
society is organized. When he arrives at Princeton ,
being the only St. Regis boy allows Amory a perspective from which to better
see the stratified social milieu before him:
''Amory resented social barriers as artificial
distinctions made by the strong to bolster up their weak retainers and keep out
the almost strong.''91
This phrase risings false when compared to the
conversation he has the very next page.
''we've the damn middle class that's what! He
complained to Kerry one day …. Well, why not? We came to Princeton so we could
feel that way toward the small colleges- have it on me, more self- confidence
dress better, cut a swath, oh, it isn't that I mind the glittering caste
system, admitted Amory. I like having a bunch of hot cats on top, but gosh,
Kerry, I've got to be one of them, but just now, Amory you're only a sweaty
bourgeois.''92
Amory actually relishes
stratified society, as much as he pretends not to. What presents a frustrating
challenge to Amory is that the social hierarchy for Princeton freshmen is in flux, and Amory cannot under the
circumstances then discern the shortest path to popularity.
As Amory himself notes; ''I
hate to get anywhere by working for it. I'll show the scars, don't you
know.''93
He does not want a revolution,
which would entail a rejection of the entire concept of 'big man' and 'hot
cats', he merely wants a set rulebook that lines out what he must do to
succeed. Recognizing, ''social barriers as artificial distinctions.''94
Allows Amory to be more
objective regarding the trapping of popularity, and indeed to believe that,
''the outer appearance of social achievement is all it entails.''95
This seeming subversion and
negation of the systems of popularity are in actuality a calculated documentation
of college society in order to conquer it, not as an example of social
Darwinism, where the strong beat out the weak, and the better man wins', but an
externalization of the rules of the caste system. In seeing the rules of social
hierarch as discernable and arbitrary.
''Amory can achieve his goals, personal adaption and
social navigation, through the use of categorization.''96
Categorization serves several
functions for Amory, those of documentary, control and coded rules of behavior.
The documentary effect of noting distinctions and events in order to assert
some control over them, creates for Amory the safety of an observation stance,
and a distance that allows him to both critique what he sees around him and
play his observations to his best advantage, these 'types' of people existed
before Amory drew these distinctions, but he accrues power in naming them.
However ''In his
categorization and his locating himself as within or in the top section of his
categorization, Amory too is participating within the categories he notes, and
this participation mark his actions as performance.''97
One example of such functional
categorization occurs when Amory is still at St. Regis.
''he and Rahill are discussing slickers, and Rahill
asks, who is one? What makes category of slicker, already knows what a slicker
is, as he has categorized others and placed himself close, but not within that
categorization.''98
The spent two evenings getting
an exact definition. The slicker was good- looking or clean- looking; he had
brains, social brains, that is and he used all means on the broad path of
honesty to get a head, be popular, admired, and never in trouble.
''then slickers of that year had adopted tortoise,
shell spectacles as badges of their slicker hood, and this made them so easy to
recognize that Amory and Rahill never missed one.''99
''In grouping the popular boys under one umbrella and
then going further by naming them 'slickers' Amory asserts some control over
the social environment he inhabits.''100
By making the slicker an
object of ridicule, Amory positions himself above them he can see their
laughable scrambling for popularity as a pattern, and as a pattern he, in
observing rejects.
The fact that Amory locates
himself as a bit of a slicker, ''you're not one, and neither am I, though I am
more than you.''101
It is an attempt to
incorporate the good aspects of slicker hood into himself while avoiding the
negatives attendant with that categorization.
In creating categories and
then using them as a maneuvering tool to place himself above observed
phenomenon, Amory reveals his concept of per formative nature of identify.
One of the writers said;
''acts, gestures, and desire produce the effect of an internal core or
substance, but produce this on, the surface of the body, through the play of
signifying absences that suggest, but never reveal the organizing principle of
identity.''102
Amory confirms and subverts
this rule of the per formative: his masculine identity is contingent upon
revealing Transcendentalism's aspects and characteristics which dominant on the
events of the novel as well as dominant on Amory's character.
In revealing this organizing
principle, he forms his identity. The awareness of this substitution of effect
for cause of external for internal is the basis of Amory's claim to self-
awareness.
''Amory hides within categorizations of others, and
with this coping strategy, creates the appearance of self reflexivity.''103
Amory's categorizations give
him a rulebook with which to guide and plan his performances. From an early
age, Amory is a ware of the per formative nature of transcendental
interpersonal relations and reality itself, however, this awareness rarely
extends to a self conscious change in attitude, which would have been a more
true self awareness. One of the critic says; ''to understand identity as a
practice, and as a signifying practice, is to understand culturally
intelligible subjects as the resulting effects of a rule-bound discourse that
inserts itself in the pervasive and mundane signifying acts of linguistic
life.''104
Amory understands identity as
a signifying practice but does not locate himself with the significations. He
can easily assign categories to others, but is unable or unwilling to locate
himself within those categories, not because they are constructed but because
these boundaries would ultimately contain and conscribe his ego and identity.
Amory constructs himself off
of other people, both their characteristics and their responses to his
performance of self. At the end of the novel, he cries; ''I know myself, but
that is all…''105
In locating self- knowledge
which consider one of Transcendentalism's features, in knowledge of others
identity constructions, Amory is a successful manufacture of documentary, but
perhaps not ultimately successful in attaining self knowledge in a full
meaning. For Amory, there is little self to know. His performed self is somehow
indistinguishable from his true self.
Notes
1. (1): Broun, Heywood. ''Paradise and Princeton; In F.
Scott Fitzgerald'', ed. by Jackson R. (New York :
New York University
2. Ibid. P. 31
3. Ibid. P. 32
4. Ibid. P. 33
5. Ibid. P. 34
6. (6): Way, Brian, ''F. Scott Fitzgerald and the Art
of social Fiction.'' ( New York: ST. Martin's ,1980) P. 44
7. (7): ''With College Menuin''. F. Scott Fitzgerald:
The critical Reception, edited by Jaskson R. Bryer, Burt Franklin & Co.
(New York: Book Review, 1978), p.21
8. Ibid. P. 22
9. Ibid. P. 23
10. Ibid. P. 24
11. Ibid. P. 33
12. Ibid. P. 32
13. Ibid. P. 33
14. (14): Mizener, Arthur. ''The Side of Paradise .'' (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1951) P. 15
15. Ibid. P. 34
16. (16): Bryer, Burt Franklin & CO. '' This Side of
Paradise 's criticism'' ( New York: Tribune,
1978). P. 9
17. Ibid. P. 10
18. Ibid. P. 15
19. Ibid. P. 16
20. Ibid. P. 17
21. Ibid. P. 20
22. (22): Rascoe, Burton Chicago
23. (23): Moreland, Kim. ''The Education of F. Scott
Fitzgerald: Lessons in the Theory of History.'' ( USA: Southern Hamanities
Review, 1985) : p. 25
24. (24): Wilson, Edmund. ''F. Scott Fitzgerald: In F.
Scott Fitzgerald: A collection of critical Essays, edited by Arthur Mizener, (
New York: Prentice- Hall, 1963) . P. 70-99
25. Ibid. P. 71
26. Ibid. P. 73
27. Ibid. P. 77
28. Ibid. P.78
29. Ibid. P. 79
30. Ibid. P. 80
31. (28): Fitzgerald, F. Scott. ''This Side of Paradise '' ed. By James L.W. West III, (London: Cambridge
university press, 1995), originally published by Scribner's 1920
32. (32): Gallo, Rose Adrienne. ''F. Scott
Fitzgerald.'' (New York: Frederick Ungar Press, 1978), P. 42
33. Ibid. P. 44
34. (34): Moreland, Kim. p. 26
35. Ibid. P. 28
36. (36): Pelzer, Linda Claycom. ''Student Companion
to F. Scott Fitzgerald.'' (London :
Published& printed by Greenwood
37. Ibid. P. 55
38. Ibid. P. 56
39. Ibid. P. 57
40. Ibid. P. 59
41 Ibid. P. 60
42. Ibid. P. 61
43. (43): Kahn, Sy. ''This Side of Paradise "
the pageantry of Disillusion.'' In F. Scott Fitzgerald: A collection of
criticism. Ed: Kenneth E. Eble. ( New York: MCGraw- Hill Printer, 1973), p.33
44. Ibid. P. 34
45. (45): Bloom, Harold. ''F. Scott Fitzgerald Blooms
major novelists.'' ( USA
46. Ibid. P. 22
47. Ibid. P. 23
48. Ibid. P. 24
49. Ibid. P. 40
50. Ibid. P. 41
51. (51): West, James L. W, ''The Making of This Side
of Paradise .'' ( USA: Pennsylvania University
Press, 1983), P. 33
52. Ibid. P. 34
53. Ibid. P. 35
54. Ibid. P. 36
55. Ibid. P. 37
56. Ibid. P. 38
57. Ibid. P. 44
58. Ibid. P. 45
59. Ibid. P. 46
60. Ibid. P. 47
61. (62): Mizener, Arthur. P. 48
62. Ibid. P. 49
63. (64): Cowley, Malcolm. ''Fitzgerald and the Jazz
Age.'' (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1966), P. 51
64. Ibid. P. 52
65. Ibid. P. 53
66. Ibid. P. 54
67. Ibid. P. 55
68. (69,70,71,72,73): Lehan, Richard D, ''F. Scott
Fitzgerald and the craft of fiction.'' (Carbondale
:Southern III . Univ.Press,1967) p.30
69. Ibid. P. 31
70. Ibid. P. 32
71. Ibid. P. 33
72. Ibid. P. 34
73. (74): Eble, Kenneth. ''F. Scott Fitzgerald:
A Collection of Criticism.'' (New
York
74. Ibid. P. 41
75. Ibid. P. 44
76. Ibid. P. 45
77. (78): Gallo, Rose Adrienne. P. 60
78. Ibid. P. 61
79. (80): Fitzgerald, F. Scott, This Side of
Paradise'' ( London Cambridge
Univ.
80. Ibid. P. 34
81. Ibid. P. 35
82. Ibid. P. 36
83. (81): Way, Brian. P. 60
84. Ibid. P. 61
85. Ibid. P. 62
86. (84):
//www.netins.net/showcase/tdlarson/fslinks.htm1 Accessed on April 2009, P. 4
87. Ibid. P. 5
88. Ibid. P. 6
89. Ibid. P. 7
90. (88): Huse, William. '' This First Book Has Real
Merit.'' In Chicago
91. Ibid. P. 3-10
92. (90): Rebecca, L. Nicholson, B. A, ''Modernist
masculinities in the works of D.H Lawrence, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and James Joyce.''
M.A Thesis published in August 2004 in Taxas
Tech University
in USA
93. Ibid. P. 50
94. Ibid. P. 51
95. Ibid. P. 52
96. Ibid. P. 53
97. Ibid. P. 54
98. Ibid. P. 55
99. Ibid. P. 56
(للدراسة
تكملة ان شاء الله)
Thank you
Regards,
Mustafa
( M. Mustafa Riad Al ajeely )
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