This Side of Paradise Themes

This Side of Paradise is primarily a coming-of-age novel, or bildungsroman: it traces Amory Blaine’s development from childhood to adulthood, losing his youth and innocence along the way. Despite depicting youthhood nostalgically and romantically, the novel does not glorify youth in and of itself: rather, it suggests that losing one’s innocence is necessary for self-knowledge and responsibility to others. In short, it suggests that many virtues are gained in the process of coming…

In many ways, friendships between men are at the heart of This Side of Paradise. Many of Amory’s deepest, most significant relationships are with his friends from Princeton, including Thomas Park D’Invilliers, Burne Holiday, and Dick Humbird. While these relationships are all platonic, the novel suggests that admiration, aspiration, and even desire are central to these friendships: Amory (as well as the rest of the boys) seems to want to…

Class status and class mobility—both upward and downward—are central concerns in This Side of Paradise. Amory starts the novel with a middle-class, moneyed family, but by the end he has no inheritance. The novel ultimately hints at the meaninglessness and futility of chasing money and worshipping class hierarchy: wealth is shown to be impermanent and undependable, and it’s also implied in the novel that a person’s financial status is no guarantee of integrity, character…

Amory is prone to falling deeply in love and feeling passionately attracted to women. Indeed, he is enamored with four women over the course of the novel: Isabelle Borgé, Clara Page, Rosalind Connage, and Eleanor Savage. Youth sexuality and romance are increasingly permitted in Amory’s surrounding cultural landscape, though they are still considered inappropriate by elders. The novel suggests that despite the relative sexual freedom that Amory, his friends, and his…