Interpreting on This Side of Paradise from the Perspective of Narratology

周本香　陶明明　王惠红

【Abstract】This paper interprets on this novel from the perspective of narratology.First it represents the researches on This Side of Paradise and the development of narratology； then this paper focuses on the character arts， the narrative plot， the narrative person： the third-person omniscient， and the narrative focalization to help readers understand the novels theme and to highlight the authors writing technique and writing style.

【Key words】 Fitzgerald； Amory； plot； third-person； focalization

1.Introduction

F.S.Fitzgerald isregarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century.This Side of Paradise is written by Fitzgerald， which describes the features of young man， social morality， lifestyle and atmosphere in school yard in the 1920s.

Fitzgerald figured out， the depravity of social morality， the disillusion of “American Dream” and the corruption of society， at same time he spoke highly of the perseverance of dream， the merits and values of man with hamble birth， and the freedom of love（Wu Jianguo 2006：188）.

This article attempts to interpret the novel from the perspective of narratology， and to focus on the novel narrative strategies used by the arrangement of the plot， narrator and focalization， this will help us from a new aspect to understand Fitzgeralds writing intention.

2.Narratology

The term “narratology” is most typically applied to literary theory and literary criticism， as well as film theory and （to a lesser extent） film criticism.Atypical applications of narratological methodologies would include sociolinguistic studies of oral storytelling （William Labov） and in conversation analysis or discourse analysis that deal with narratives arising in the course of spontaneous verbal interaction.

The signs of the flourishing of narrative studies over the past decade are everywhere： scholars in multiple disciplines speak of the “narrative turn”； scholars presented four such approaches： the rhetorical， the cognitive， the feminist and the postmodern.These approaches， despite their differences， are all examples of “postclassical narratology，”

3.Character Art

In E.M.Forster book Aspects of the novel， he defined two basic types of characters， their qualities， functions， and importance for the development of the novel： flat characters and round characters.Flat characters are two-dimensional， in that they are relatively uncomplicated.By contrast， round characters are complex figures with many different characteristics and undergo development， sometimes sufficiently to surprise the reader（Forster 1990：255）.

In this side of paradise， most characters are flat characters， for example， Amory Blaine is the protagonist in the novel and easy to identify.Amory is always romantic， cynical， lack of confidence and self-esteem.As the narrator stated in the book， for instance， “narcissus”， “young irony”， “aristocratic egotist”， “he was a slave to his own moods and he felt that though he was capable of recklessness and audacity， he possessed neither courage， perseverance， nor self-respect（Fitzgerald 2006：23）.” In the latter chapter， the writer describe Amorys personage as before.Amory tried to change and improve himself but he could not his weakness and could not change his college life in Princeton university， at the end of the story， Amory failed in love and study and he still in the maze of life.

As to Thayer Darcy， he is also the flat character in the novel.Readers can easily conclude his traits， he was the minister who is mature， stable， knowledgeable， considerate， kind and warmhearted， he was Father and the father of Amory.The two characters are typical men in the novel， they are extremely contrastive.

Aristotle defined character as “that which reveals decision， of whatever sort”.It is possible， therefore， to have tragedies that do not contain “characters in Aristotles sense of the word， since character makes the ethical dispositions of those performing the action of the story clear.

4.Omniscient Third-person

The narrative mode encompasses not only who tells the story， but also how the story is told （for example， by using stream of consciousness or unreliable narration）.In This Side of Paradise， the whole story is narrated by the third person “he” or “they”， and meanwhile the writer describe the characters internal world.Reader can read into Amorys inner world by the description of the third-person.Amorys essence did not changed， thought he realized his shortcomings.Readers believe in what the characters inner world and easy to have sympathetic resonance with the story.

On the other side， the third-person omniscient narrator is the least capable of being unreliable—although the omniscient narrator can have its own personality， offering judgments and opinions on the behavior of the characters.Because the writer Fitzgerald spent efforts to separate himself from the character.This Side of Paradise is an autobiographical novel， as are all of Fitzgeralds novels； but he learned how to disguise or transmute the autobiographical material in his subsequent novels.

5.The Narrative Plot

The whole story is clear and easy to understand.The main clue of the novel is about the protagonist， Amory Blaines fate， the basic story narrative order is the story-developing order.But specific to each chapter， the author describes the story of the sequence of events and its linear layout in this paper， the time sequence of deviation produced good artistic effect.

The plot of This Side of Paradise is the development of Amory Blaine， love stories and his life in Princeton University.The book one is about “the romantic egotist” and the book two is about “the education of a personage”.So they are two clue of the main story， one is the life experience and the other is the development of personage.The climax of the story is that Amory sacrified himself to help his friend Alec out of trouble.This is the summit of Amorys personage because of his awareness.“Yet he had no sense of waste， no sense of the present hope that waste implied.He felt that his life had rejected him（Fitzgerald 2006：234）.” So Amory wanted to find the worth and value of his life after his failure in love and study.

Some plots are simple， and some complex， for the obvious reason that the actions of which they are representations are of one or other of this kinds.By a simple action I refer to one which is single and continuous in the sense of my easier definition， and in which the change of fortune comes about without a reversal or a discovery.A complex action is one in which the change is accompanied by a discovery or reversal， or both（Aristotle 2007：38）.

6.Focalization

A novel in which no simple rules restrict the transition between different focalizations could be said to be unfocalized， but specific relationships between basic types of focalization constitute more complex focalization strategies； Manfred Jahn stated in “Windows of Focalization： Deconstructing and Reconstructing a Narratological Concept”， and divided Focalization in four different types—fixed focalization， flexible focalization， multiple focalization and collective focalization.He advocated “we-narrative focalization” as the collective focalization.Manfred Jahn believed that we-narrative focalization means that that narrator participating the story.It can help readers to read into the story and to increase the reliability.

According to narrative point of view ， Genard Genette classified focalization into three types： non-focalization， internal focalization and external focalization.This Side of Paradise adopts non-focalization， which is equal to the-third omniscient narration.Readers can easily know everything about characters.The write exposed the Amorys inner world and thought in sentences， and readers can easily to identify his traits.Because of non-focalization the omniscient narrator can give a lot of comments on all the characters.That is the reason this paper classified Amory as a flat character.

7.Conclusion

This paper interprets this novel from the perspective of Narratology to highlight the theme and Fitzgeralds writing technique， for instance， the character art， the narrative plot， Omniscient Third-person and focalization.But there are still lots of unresolved problem in this paper， so the writer of this paper should improve the research in future.

Refences：

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