Charlie Wales In F. Scott Fitzgerald's Babylon Revisited

Improved Essays
F. Scott Fitzgerald
&
Willa Cather
Vanda Mallo
Keiser University

Babylon Revisited
Charlie Wales is the protagonist of "Babylon Revisited" (Fitzgerald, 1931), a former drunk and self-absorbed party-goer who returns to Paris, the site of his past 1920s decadence, to retrieve his daughter Honoria. Charlie sees his formal life with sober eyes, and is both shocked and appalled by its extravagance. At times he appears to come to terms with his mistakes and its consequences but sometimes it seems as if he misses his old life, not necessarily the heartache, but the exuberance of it, as in the following passage “But it was nice while it lasted. We were a sort of royalty, almost infallible, with a sort of magic around us” (Fitzgerald, 1931,
…show more content…
Throughout the story Charlie reflects upon his mistakes and understands that some of them are harder to correct than others, especially in regards to his relationship with his sister-in-law. “Family quarrels are bitter things. They don't go according to any rules. They're not like aches or wounds, they're more like splits in the skin that won't heal because there's not enough material” (Fitzgerald, 1931, pp. 2175).
Another distinguishing feature of the protagonist, is his willingness to change himself for someone he loves. Proving that he is worthy of getting his daughter back has kept him sober and financially stable.
Ultimately, I believe that the most important characteristic, is the protagonist’s ambiguity. Throughout the story he shames his past behavior while sometimes relieving it fondly. He changed to get his daughter back, but places himself in a position that ultimately guarantees that he will lose her. The story starts at the bar where the character has high hopes of getting his daughter back and ends at the bar, with him refusing a second drink. He vows “He would come back some day; they couldn’t make him pay forever. But he wanted his child, and nothing was much good now, beside that fact” (Fitzgerald, 1931, pp. 2178). As the reader, I can’t help but wonder if he will keep his
…show more content…
Even though there is no specific plot in “Neighbor Rosicky,” there is a common theme throughout the story, to live a simple life. Modernism literature is about changes in literary form and Cather’s work certainly shows this, incorporating fragments of thought in an effort to capture the flow of the characters’ mental processes. Throughout the story we learn about the main character as he contemplates life, past and present, along with his inevitable death, such as when he reflected over the graveyard and its proximity to his home, “He was awful found of his place, he admitted. He wasn’t anxious to leave it. And it was a comfort to think that he would never have to go farther than the edge of his own hayfield” (Cather, 1228, 123, pp.

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Imprisonment within Revenge As humans, we have emotions that sometimes get the best of us. People tend to seek revenge in the heat of the moment or with a well carried out plan. The revenge, however, doesn't always bring that closure that is expected. Committing an act of revenge is deemed morally wrong. In “Clean” by Edward J. Delaney, the unnamed protagonist murders a peer out of jealousy in drunken rage, spur-of-moment decision.…

    • 723 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan is a heartwarming and inspiring novel about a young girl who lost her parents and learns about life on her journey of recovering from her loss. Willow Chance is a girl who was adopted by her parents and has been living with them in Bakersfield, California. Since she is exceedingly knowledgeable, nearly everything intrigues her. She is especially fascinated by plants and medical conditions, though, and also is obsessed with the number 7. However, despite her extraordinary brilliance, she is always an outcast at her school because of her unique personality.…

    • 771 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    “‘Well then, why don’t you pray?’ She asked trembling with delight suddenly. ‘I don’t want no help,’ he said. ‘I’m doing all right by myself’” (O’Connor 386).…

    • 1439 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Babylon Revisited, a short story written by the author F. Scott Fitzgerald, was written in 1930, but was first published in 1931 in the Saturday Evening Post. The author, Fitzgerald, was known for his turbulent personal life (“F. Scott Fitzgerald”). Beginning in the 1920s, Fitzgerald embraced his new celebrity status by living a lifestyle that involved heavy partying (“F. Scott Fitzgerald”). Fitzgerald’s personal life was somewhat shown through Babylon Revisited. The majority of literature is typically influenced by the present circumstances at the time the text is written.…

    • 1245 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    T. Caraghessan Boyle’s story, “Greasy Lake”, is a rite of passage story. This can be seen in the themes throughout the story. The story itself has coinciding themes in it. Right from the beginning the boys are looking for trouble.…

    • 755 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    People with disabilities are attached with stigmas, such as being less intelligent or incapable in certain facets of life. Stereotypes are present in society, but it may be difficult to discuss and to further change or overcome them. However, humor can be used as a device to allow a serious topic to be more approachable by relying on preposterous situations. Through the use of dark humor in Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot, John Callahan breaks these stigmas and illustrates an outrageous view of disability in order to show the irrationality of the stereotype or stigma portrayed. Throughout this work, Callahan directly attacks the stereotypes regarding disability and illustrates the realistic portrayal of disability and offers a solution, through humor, to overcome the societal prejudices.…

    • 1779 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    F. Scott Fitzgerald, author of “Babylon revisited,” uses his own life to illustrate themes to his readers. Fitzgerald uses themes of alcoholism, love, mental illness, money, and class that correlate with his own life; he was a struggling alcoholic who “lived affluently in the 1920’s with his wife, Zelda, who struggled with mental illness” (Johnson & Arp 200). The Fitzgeralds spent much of the 20’s in Paris, the setting of the short story, “Babylon Revisited.” The story depicts a recovering alcoholic, Charlie, whose marriage has failed and ex-wife has passed. He has returned to his old town for his daughter, Honoria, to live with him.…

    • 788 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In The Great Gatsby, F. Stott Fitzgerald shows the change in America’s morals in the “Jazz Age” using characters like, Daisy, Gatsby, Tom, and Myrtle. The Great Gatsby, shows the change in our society after World War I, by using characters who had changed over time. This time period known as the “Jazz Age”. During this time America’s morals were changing and society was changing as well. The first appearance of morals changing, is when Tom is cheating on Daisy with Myrtle showing that husbands were not staying faithful to their wives and families after World War I.…

    • 1618 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Positives In Change Change: it’s something that many people don’t like, but also something that people all have to live with. In This Side of Home, the main character, Maya, sees her community changing, and she doesn’t like it. But, as the story develops, Maya realizes that change doesn’t always have to be a horrible thing. The theme “you can always find something positive in change” is present in the novel This Side of Home by Renée Watson. This can be seen through the main character realizing that the change in her community will make it safer, and realizing that her sister changing also helped her to look at things in new ways.…

    • 1146 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    TITLE (HOOK)GIVING UP Short stories are put together in a way that the reader can find meaning on what is being unsaid more then what is being said, allowing the reader to read in between the lines and think critically. Short stories compared to novels have less content, therefore making it more difficult to find the meaning, but with the use of elements of fiction one can effectively grasp as much information as possible. One common theme for “Tall Tales from the Mekong Delta” by Kate Braverman and “Aurora” by Junot Diaz” is destructive relationships and drug influence. The authors of Tall Tales and Aurora use characterization and figurative language to interconnect the thought that when undesirable temptations are displayed to human kind, it can lead to bad decisions and no self-control of the inner self that ultimately lead to physical/verbal abuse and drug use. Characterization is a fundamental piece of a story, allowing the readers to create their own perspective and interpretation of the character.…

    • 966 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Drinking the Memory Away “First you take a drink, then the drink takes a drink, then the drink takes you” (“F. Scott Fitzgerald”). This particular quote by made by Fitzgerald shows the powerful supremacy that alcohol can have over an individual’s body. F. Scott Fitzgerald was notoriously known for his intricate reflection of culture life in the 1920’s and 1930’s. With that being said, Fitzgerald not only wrote stories that reflected general aspects of culture life, but also wrote about his own personal struggles with alcohol and family.…

    • 1194 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A writer’s job is to use words to immerse a reader into a world of adventure and thought. To be able to do this requires great skills and many years of writing experience. F. Scott Fitzgerald was such a person who dedicatedly wrote through poems and plays during his earlier years and fiction later on, to convey little bits of himself in his writing. In his short story, “Babylon Revisited,” he uses the power of words to transport readers through feelings of an experience he knows personally. The main character of his story, Charlie, reflects Fitzgerald himself and his struggle as a former alcoholic who changed for the sake of his family.…

    • 1363 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story, "Babylon Revisited," explores the theme that a person never truly escapes his past mistakes. Charlie Wales, the earnest protagonist, searches the streets of Paris seeking atonement for past debaucheries. However, everywhere he looks, he encounters haunting memories of his frivolous and decadent past. When he lunches with his young daughter, he can find only one restaurant that is "not reminiscent of champagne dinners and long luncheons that began at two and ended in a blurred and vague twilight." At the same outing with his daughter, two "ghosts from his past," Duncan and Lorraine, intrude upon his precious time with his daughter.…

    • 178 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Our future is created by those choices we have made in the past both good and bad. The novel “Babylon revisited” is a tale of a man Charles who is trying to reestablish a relationship with his daughter. This is complicated by his past of heavy drinking and wild partying. The time in which this novel is placed is also a factor on those characters in it, because this is a time of economic downturn following a time in which everything was going great economically. Having lived thru this time known as the great depression himself the writer of Babylon revisited is able to draw from the world that he lived in, and create non exaggerated landscape for the reader.…

    • 1679 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Through the perception of society, a mentally disabled person is no longer human. How humans treat the people that need us the most is mainly negative. In the novel Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, Charlie Gordon a 32 year old man who has the IQ of a 8 year old due to his medical condition. After he receives a life altering experimental procedure, his intelligence has immediately been changed for the better, or so he thought. His expectations for the experiment was that he would become very smart and people would treat him well.…

    • 948 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays