Idealism and dreams are essential influence of a character, however, there are times when they clash with characters’ decision. This occurs in ‘Babylon Revisited’ which earned Fitzgerald his top Saturday Evening Post price of four thousand dollars and which is considered to be one of his best short stories (Mangum 1373). As most of his better known fictions, this one is also intensely personal, expressing his feelings about his alcoholism, his wife’s breakdown and his responsibility to his daughter (Bruccoli 616) .
This short story is about a man named, Charlie Wales, who lost everything during the Big boom due to his reckless behavior. He returns to Paris, his Babylon, where the misdeeds were done. Some of his mistakes cannot be undone, nonetheless he still tries to fix major parts of it. During his journey through his past, the writer lays out two …show more content…
. . . I had been given, even the most wildly squandered sum, as an offering to destiny that he might not remember the things most worth remembering . . . . his child taken from his control, his wife escaped to a grave in Vermont.” (BR 620)
He remembers his money ‘given’, the use of the passive voice here is important, as to demonstrate just how separate he is from his past self. In his reminiscences of the past in Paris, especially about the money squandered, he tries to convince and justify himself: "But it hadn't been given for nothing." He thinks about Honoria being "taken from his control," not that "he had lost the right to her control." His wife has not "died," but has "escaped."
In order to regain the custody, Charlie has to convince Marion, his sister-in-law that he no longer behaves like he did in his former life. “As I told you, 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
This short story is about a man named, Charlie Wales, who lost everything during the Big boom due to his reckless behavior. He returns to Paris, his Babylon, where the misdeeds were done. Some of his mistakes cannot be undone, nonetheless he still tries to fix major parts of it. During his journey through his past, the writer lays out two …show more content…
. . . I had been given, even the most wildly squandered sum, as an offering to destiny that he might not remember the things most worth remembering . . . . his child taken from his control, his wife escaped to a grave in Vermont.” (BR 620)
He remembers his money ‘given’, the use of the passive voice here is important, as to demonstrate just how separate he is from his past self. In his reminiscences of the past in Paris, especially about the money squandered, he tries to convince and justify himself: "But it hadn't been given for nothing." He thinks about Honoria being "taken from his control," not that "he had lost the right to her control." His wife has not "died," but has "escaped."
In order to regain the custody, Charlie has to convince Marion, his sister-in-law that he no longer behaves like he did in his former life. “As I told you, 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