Zhitong Yu ENGL- 2120
Professor: Joseph Oct. 19, 2015
“Babylon Revisited”
“Babylon Revisited” was written by modernist author F. Scott Fitzgerald, who tells the story of a man named Charlie who regrets the mistakes he made in his previous life and is trying to create a new beginning. The 1920s were a time of leisure and carelessness. The Great War ended in 1918, and people looked forward to return to some semblance of normalcy. The end of war and acts of violence gave rise to a feeling of bitterness toward traditional values and morals, because people began to condemn the excessive and support a return to simplicity and minimalism.
Charlie revisits Paris, which has changed dramatically. In the past, he lived lavishly, with a privileged, extravagant life that epitomized the hedonism of wealthy Americans in the 1920s. Then, the American stock market crashed in 1929, an event mentioned only briefly in the story but casts a pall over its characters. Just like the stock market crashed, Charlie’s life also crashed down, leading him to stay at a sanitarium. Charlie is representative of an entire era. Fitzgerald draws heavily upon the current events of the world he is living in and uses the present to depict the past. The author creates the character with three features- regretful, fatherly and materialistic to embody the values of the generation.
The first feature of Charlie is that he is regretful. Charlie has many regrets regarding his past actions. His main regret is excessive drinking. “I haven’t had more than a drink a day for over a year and I take that drink deliberately, so that the idea of alcohol won’t get to big in my imagination” (Fitzgerald 682). He realized the bad effects of alcohol abuse and tried to get rid of any attraction of drinking. He is no longer the same person compared to previous life, and he attempts to separate himself from unhealthy circumstances.
Another regret he tries to recover from is Helen’s death. He regrets not taking good care of his wife and daughter. When Helen died, he lost the legal guardianship of Honoria, his daughter. Fitzgerald indicates that “Going over it again brought Helen nearer, and in the white, soft light that steals upon half sleep near morning he found himself talking her again” (Fitzgerald 685). This describes Charlie’s strong emotion of missing his dead wife and reflects his guilt for bringing much pain to Helen. Now, Charlie’s personal change is only having one drink per day. These behaviors express his regrets for his past mistakes, and shows his determination to correct errors in order to make a fresh start.
Another way to describe Charlie is fatherly. If one overlooks Charlie’s former bad actions, he is a caring father. We can obviously see the efforts Charlie made for obtaining his daughter’s legal guardianship. Firstly, he provided spiritual care for Honoria. “He must be both parents to her and not shut any of her out of communication” (Fitzgerald 679). Charlie hopes that he can make up with Honoria through paternal love. When Charlie and his daughter went to the show, he observed that Honoria was already an individual with a code of her own. He considered that he may not truly know his daughter, and it is the father’s woe. “He waited in the dark street until she appeared, all warm and glowing, in the window above and kissed her fingers out into the night” (Fitzgerald 681). When Charlie is in the dark, alone, his daughter represents a new start filled with hope for the future. Secondly, Charlie offered material comforts to his daughter. He wants to use his ability to give Horonia a perfect childhood and the best life. “But today you are to have anything you want” (Fitzgerald 679). In addition, he intended to select a good governess for her. He would meet all of Honoria’s needs in life and her education. I was moved by Charlie, and this reminds me to think of my parents. Parental love is great and selfless. They do their best to create a better environment for us even if the family is not rich. In addition, Charlie persisted in getting the legal custody of Honoria from his sister-in-law. He kept his temper even though Marion talked with an aggressive attitude. A father sacrificed all of his dignity and pride for one purpose- living with his daughter.