Babylon Revisited by F. Scott Fitzgerald

 

Babylon Revisited- F. Scott Fitzgerald

F. Scott Fitgerald starts off the story as Charlie comes back to Paris to see his daughter. The city is vastly different from what he remembers it being like. The once full and lively streets are empty and quiet. Americans that used to overcrowd this area are nowhere to be found, and nearly all people in the area are from Paris. Charlie and his wife came over from America to party and they spent their newly acquired fortune until it bottomed out after the stock market crash in 1929. Charlie’s daughter Honoria lives with her aunt and uncle, and there is pliable tension between them and Charlie. We later learn that after the death of her mother Helen, Honoria was sent to live with them because Charlie was recovering from alcohol addiction in a sanatorium.  He is sober now and wants his daughter to be a part of his life, and he struggles to gain the trust of her aunt and uncle.

            Charlie’s past haunts him in this short story, and I think that in some way readers can relate to him and how their past influences their present and future.  Charlie views the city differently when he visits from when he lived there. He thinks to himself, “I spoiled this city for myself. I didn’t realize it, but the days came along one after another and then two years were gone, and everything was gone, and I was gone.” (Fitzgerald 1146) This thought is heart breaking, but also very true. He got caught up in the parties, drinking, drugs, and shenanigans, and before he knew it his marriage was falling apart and he was left with no money. His life is the perfect example of the saying you “don’t know what you’ve got till its gone.

Fitzgerald also plays with the theme of trust, which is something that Charlie must fight to regain from his late wife’s sister and husband.  He must regain their respect and prove that he is a fit father for Honoria in order to start a new life with her.  Marion has issues forgiving Charlie and she has little trust in him after seeing how he locked Helen out in the cold snow when their marriage was on the rocks. After some debate with Marian and Lincoln, it seems as if Charlie will be able to take Honoria to Prague with him. In the end of the story, Charlie’s past haunts him yet again when “old friends” show up drunk looking for a drink at Marian and Lincoln’s home. Charlie had nothing to do with their appearance, but they upset Marian and Charlie must return back to his hotel alone. When all hope seems to be gone, Charlie sits at the bar, devastated from getting his hopes up, but he manages to only have one drink. He has hope for the future, and it leaves the reader with a sliver of hope for Charlie and Honoria.