An excerpt from: This Side of Paradise—Day 7—Generalization and Conclusion—Main Points
F. Scott Fitzgerald
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FOR YEARS AFTERWARD when Amory thought of Eleanor he seemed still to hear the wind sobbing around him and
sending little chills into the places beside his heart. The night when they rode up the slope and watched the cold moon float
through the clouds, he lost a further part of him that nothing could restore; and when he lost it he lost also the power of
regretting it. Eleanor was, say, the last time that evil crept close to Amory under the mask of beauty, the last weird mystery that
held him with wild fascination and pounded his soul to flakes.
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With her his imagination ran riot and that is why they rode to the highest hill and watched an evil moon ride high, for they
knew then that they could see the devil in each other. But Eleanor—did Amory dream her? Afterward their ghosts played, yet
both of them hoped from their souls never to meet. Was it the infinite sadness of her eyes that drew him or the mirror of himself
that he found in the gorgeous clarity of her mind? She will have no other adventure like Amory, and if she reads this she will
say:
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"And Amory will have no other adventure like me."
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Nor will she sigh, any more than he would sigh.
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Eleanor tried to put it on paper once:
"The fading things we only know
We'll have forgotten...
Put away...
Desires that melted with the snow,
And dreams begotten
This to-day:
The sudden dawns we laughed to greet,
That all could see, that none could share,
Will be but dawns ... and if we meet
We shall not care. "
Question:
What can you infer about Armory and Eleanor's relationship? Explain how you came to your conclusions.