Section 2 Pg. 98-178 Analysis

In the second section of Fitzgerald's, This Side of Paradise, Amory's adaptability which has allowed him to succeed in social situations and to a degree love, finally seems to unravel. Amory since his early years has prided himself on his ability to "play the game" by getting accepted into elite clubs and maintaining in his own mind a sense of popularity. However, once in New York City where Amory has his encounter with the devil, it seems to entirely alter his personality. Amory's manipulative and to a degree socially successful personality is replaced as Amory strives to rediscover his image, the change is most evident after Amory fails the make up test.

Amory's constant failures and changing mental states seem to depict a youthful character, prone to making mistakes, which would seem to relate well to all readers as who hasn't made mistakes grown up and learned from them. Amory's failed attempt at love with Isabella, is more a result of his immature behavior in an inconsequential moment rather than a long history of arrogance and self indulgence. Amory appears as shallow and self-indulged as ever as he consistently leaves people worse off than before they met him, but the blame tends to shift from Amory himself to a sense of youth and naivete that goes hand in hand with growing up. While Amory has in my opinion failed to really learn from these mistakes, Amory maintains a me-first attitude and a lack of care for those around him, there is no doubt his failures have changed his character. Amory drops his social climbing friends and some of his unsuccessful activities, but seems to maintain the old Amory's passion for working the system.

Amory puts this knowledge to good use by helping out Burne with his club boycott and later in his own sense joining the war effort. Amory seems to be clinging to his old ideals of self-indulgence, however called to action and motivated by a terrorizing figure Amory begins to make small changes in his personality slowly bringing him down to a more human level. Amory displays some of his greatest emotion just before he leaves Princeton for the war, something that up until this point in the novel was hidden by laughter, arrogance, and a genuine disinterest. Amory's sudden emotional connection to a place, serves as a starting point from which Fitzgerald can build a carrying and emotional character the reader can connect to. This change in emotion coincidences with notions that Amory's fortune is diminishing, which seems to serve as a transition from the old, rich, self-indulged Amory into a new and more everyday but still passionate human being.