Fitzgerald- The Ultimate Expatriate

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “Babylon Revisited” is a story of a man, Charlie, attempting to bring his daughter, Horonia, back into his life. However, the story breaks down into many complications leaving the reader with several questions and indecisive feelings of the characters, especially Charlie.

As soon as the story begins, there is a sense of nostalgia within the air of Paris. It is obvious that Charlie has just returned to the city after many years, but to him it seems like it was a different lifetime. It is apparent that he does not mind this though hence the “emptiness”; this brings up the thought that maybe he does not want to be seen or found, but if that is true than why not? This becomes certain during his conversation with the bartender, Alix. Alix reminds him of his past, “You were going pretty strong a couple of years ago,” when Charlie admits to have a change in a lifestyle, “I’m going slow these days…I’ll stick to it all right, I’ve stuck to it for over a year and a half now”. As the conversation with Alix continues, Charlie explains his reasoning for coming back, to see his daughter, and begins to show a bit of resentment; resentment in himself, Paris and the past, he states, “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”.

Charlie is afraid. There is a sense of fear that lies within him due to trying to get his daughter back. As the story continues, we are presented with slight information that year’s ago, Charlie was in a bad place; he lost all of his money, became an alcoholic and was somehow partially blamed for his wife’s death. Because of this, Horonia would stay with Charlie’s wife’s sister and husband, and he would go off to try and change his life. Now that he is back, his mission is to convince Marion, his wife’s sister, and Lincoln, her husband, that he has changed and can provide a good lifestyle for Horonia. Having this in mind, within the character of Charlie, we a major sense of awareness and “holding back”. Every step he takes and word he says in front of Marion and Lincoln, Charlie is aware. He hold’s back some of the things he wants to say or do in order to receive is daughter. He acts with confidence as he admits that he now only has one a drink a day, a glass of whiskey, and will never allow what had happened in the past to reoccur. But one of the main questions is, has he really changed?

For me, it is hard to decide how I feel about Charlie. Half of me feels it is difficult to not have a small admiration for him and the other questions his doings. Although the past has made him out to be this someone destructive force that has aided in his wife’s death, abandoned his child, been a drunk, etc. I would like to believe that he has come back with genuine intentions. Along his journey, there seems to be obstacles that try to get in the way of his goal and he strongly turns them down, although Marion does not see this. Also there is the fact that he came back before it was too late. But is this an act of selfishness? He admits to wanting to be able to raise Horonia now that she is young before it is too late so he doesn’t “miss out”, but most importantly so the truth about him does not turn up to have her view him negatively the rest of her life. Even though it is shown that he loves his daughter immensely, Charlie makes sure to keep a sort of “distance” or “detachment” between him and Horonia. The reasoning for this is so she does not get her hopes up of finding a man to love like him someday because it will be impossible. Is this an act of honesty or one of self-doubt in that he doesn’t want her to end up with a man like him?