Review on Babylon Revisited Story

In life, one must realize that it is impossible to be perfect, and so there are always going to be things that one will regret. Modernist author, F. Scott Fitzgerald, in his short story, "Babylon Revisited", tells the story of a man who has made many mistakes in his life and is living with these regrets and trying desperately to bring his life back together. Specifically, this is the story about the main character, Charlie. He a thirty five years old American, who used to live in Paris, now come back Paris to regain the custody of his daughter after recovering from the death of his wife and his own battle with alcoholism. However, as he pays for his mistake in the past, he has to face up to the barriers, preventing him from achieving his goal, which are the suffering from the death of his wife and fighting again alcoholism, the Marions prejudices, the harassment of his old drunk friends.

The first barrier effects to Charlies achieving goal that Charlie is suffering from the death of his wife and fighting again alcoholism. He falls apart for several years as in his thought "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". Therefore, he loses the custody of his daughter, Honoria, to Marion. In order to get Honoria back, he must show that he is now different. Therefore, he tries to limit himself only one drink a day in the afternoon, he is fighting against the urge to drink because of his daughter. For instance when Lincoln invite him a cocktail he said: "I take only one drink every afternoon, and I've had that." However, that was not an easy fight as he has a serious problem with alcohol. The first thing Charlie does when revisit Paris is come to the familiar bar, The Ritz. The Ritz bar appears in very beginning and in the end of story is a proof of how the bar has the close relative to Charlie and how serious the Charlies alcoholic problem is. Even though Charlie loses his daughter again in the end, in the future, Charlie can overcome this obstacle. It can be predicted when Charlie refuses to refill the drink in the end of story and keep hoping some day he can win his daughter back as in 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. He wasn't young any more, with a lot of nice thoughts and dreams to have by himself. He was absolutely sure Helen wouldn't have wanted him to be so alone.

The second barrier to Charlies achieving goal that is Marion always assumes that the death of her sister is all because of Charlie. Marion Peters is Charlies sister-in-law. She is taking care of Honoria and loves her as much as the other family members. Marion, at first, appears as a nice woman. She protects and care for Honoria as she is one of her child, and she afraid that Charlie still an alcoholic and cannot take care for his daughter. So when Charlie comes back to Paris for the custody of Honoria, Marion is firmly against Charlies will. For instance, she gives Charlie a hard time for running to the Ritz bar first thing when he got to Paris, and she makes it in a subtle enough way: "I should think you'd have had enough of bars". However, she is seemed like stand up because of her hatred toward Charlie than her good motivations. Marion always assumes that the death of her sister is all because of Charlie, as he locked Helen out of the house during a snowstorm. Although there is no real medical connection between the snow incident and Helens heart attack, Marion still connects the two events in her mind because they occurred about the same time, and unjustifiably holds Charlie responsible for the death of his wife. Because Marion sees her dead sister as a martyr, she sees Charlie as the villain; the possibility that Helen could have played an active part in the breakup of their marriage.

The third barrier that Charlie has to face up to achieve his goal is his old drunk friends come and harass the Marions family. Marion, the sister in-law was ready to give Honoria back to the father until the appearance of Duncan and Lorraine. Duncan and Lorraine were ghosts from the past. It is always difficult to forgive and forget the past especially when death is involved. It is the natural instinct of Man to find someone to blame for death. Marion already considers Charlie responsible for her sister's death. The appearance of Loraine and Loraine's reference to Charlie's former state when she said "I remember once when you hammered on my door at four A.M I was good enough sport to give you a drink" is completely shocked Marion. That incident it was difficult for her to trust Charlie. It confirmed Marion's earlier statement that her sister had died because of Charlie's ill treatment. All he had done when he came back to Paris the second time were forgotten in that split second. The appearance of Lorraine and Duncan are reminders of the things he has to get completely rid of before he can get back custody of his daughter. If Charlie comes back at the end of six month's still sober and not hanging around with his old friends. Marion will give him back his daughter satisfied that she is not betraying her sister's trust in her.

In conclusion, at the end of the story, Charlie is sitting in a bar with a empty glass in front of him, he has refused to drink, but if he continues to sit in bars as he used to, he will not refuse refills forever. He wants his child, but he had a struggle between his past that he must win to achieve his goal. Thought to be custody his daughter always inspire in him, keeping him from getting what he wants.