In The Framework Of The Male Homosocial Relations In This Side Of Paradise

This Side of Paradise is the first novel of one of the outstanding writer Francis Scott Fitzgerald in 20th century in America.The novel is set in the background around the first world war in United States.The protagonist Amory’s growth is a process of gender deduction and also the development of homosocial relations.Homosocial relation can also be understood as homosocial desire,which is the theory that put forward by American queer theorist Eve Kosofsky sedgwick in her book Between men:English Literature and Male Homosocial Desire.In Sedgwick’s view,the primary motivation and object of desire for a man in heterosexual relationships is not the woman,but another man who is closely related to that woman.Men try to gain the recognition of their masculinity from the third party,so as to win the dominant position in same-sex social relations,which reflects a homosocial relationship.In this thesis,it takes F.S.Fitzgerald’s novel This Side of Paradise under Sedgwick’s homosocial desire and combine with Judith butler’s Queer theory "Gender Performativity" to analyze the gender of the characters and the male homosocial relations in the novel.This thesis may be divided into five parts,including introduction,three body chapters and conclusion.The introduction summarizes the study of This Side of Paradise and points out the research purpose and significance of this thesis,and introduced the Gender performance theory and Male homosocial theory of queer theory brieflyThe first chapter analyzes some main characters in the novel with the Gender Performativity theory:Amory and two famale characters,Clara and Eleanor.The pursuit of social and dissatisfaction with the status led these people to make un-traditional choices about gender.This choice of gender shows us the diversity of gender.The second chapter analyzes the Male Homosocial relations between Amory and Monsignor Darcy.Monsignor Darcy is the first adult friends that Amory makes with.Amory gets a lot of truths of life during getting along with Monsignor Darcy,and have a firm social goal.The worship and pursuit of Monsignor Darcy formed a male bonding for Amory,and this kind of father-son relationship was also the embodiment of amory’s Male Homosocial desire.The third chapter discusses the Male Homosocial relations between Amory and Alec.Alec had been a classmate of Amory’s since he entered college,and their complicated experience had been a spiritual catharsis for Amory.Alec was Amory’s mirror and a turning point in his social life.The conclusion is to summarize the whole text:Just as gender is not just include male and female,it is not just heterosexuality and homosexuality in social relationships.The Male Homosocial relation explores more connotations of social relationships and helps us to examine the relationships between women and women,men and men in literature from a new perspective.