Beginnings and endings. This Side of Paradise begins with the sentence, “Amory Blaine inherited from his mother every trait , except the stray inexpressible few, that made him worthwhile.” It is the first sentence of the novel, and it might display an anti-maternal sentiment and possibly anti-woman tendency. In Irish literature, James Joyce and Samuel Beckett each had fraught relations with their mothers. Beckett remarked something like, “the best mother has no children,” and blamed his mother for giving birth to him. I have a complex relationship with my own but love her for giving life.
The last lines of Paradise are: “‘I know myself ‘he cried, ‘but that is all.'” It might sound solipsistic and just plain wrong, but also true on a level. Ancient Greek philosophers recommended “gnothi seauton,” or “know thyself.” And it can be difficult to follow such a simple imperative.
This novel was actually more popular in its time than The Great Gatsby, which is now considered the better critical/literary success. The introduction to the Everyman version says Paradise is a “qualified success” and “remains a seriously underrated novel.” It is questionable whether fiction writers get better and more refined over time or just drift off into mediocrity as they get older. Fitzgerald barely made it into middle age, so it is hard to say.