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. In desperation, he tries to avoid their company; however, like his past,
