Joan Turner Babylon Revisited

Joan Turner from Old Dominion University wrote an article about F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short story “Babylon Revisited”. In the article, she demonstrates how the frequent time references in the story help support an important theme. Turner begins her article by pointing out what that theme is. She says that Fitzgerald’s use of words relate to time, which in turn reinforces that the past cannot be escaped. This is one of the main themes throughout the story. She continues on by noting each reference of time used. (Turner) First, she mentions the hours and minutes that are noted in the beginning of the story. The main character Charlie Wales is at a bar and tells the bartender, that he is in Paris for “four or five days” and it is the “late afternoon” when he leaves the bar. Turner mentions that throughout the whole story exact times are told. The example she uses is when Charlie eats at “noon”. She says that the marking of time helps the reader know that Charlie is aware of the time passing by quickly and he is trying to make up for lost time with his daughter. (Turner) Secondly, Turner talks about how Charlie has great hopes for …show more content…
Marion is the one who speaks of the “times” he lost his control and that time being “those crazy years”. Just as before, the mistakes Charlie made are referred to in terms of time. It is cited that Charlie thinks Marion forgot his “seven years” of hard work and “just remembers one night.” He states that his drinking was only “a year and a half” long. Marion gets so upset she ends up blaming Charlie for her sister’s death. He has to stop himself and keep calm “for a moment” Turner states that “for a moment” was repeated three times in that same paragraph. That phrase emphasized how difficult it was for Charlie to keep calm and also how much he wants his daughter Honoria back.