Alcoholism In F. Scott Fitzgerald's Babylon Revisited

Reckless or careless behavior can lead to pain and suffering that money and other forms of wealth cannot fix. In the story Charlie Wales, a struggling American, lost everything to the stock market crash of the 1920s. He goes back to Paris to win back his daughter, Honoira, whom he lost custody of after his life gets out of control. Marion Peters, his deceased wife’s sister, has been looking out for Honoria since the crash and has a vendetta against Charlie ever since. In “Babylon Revisited,” Charlie’s pursuit of regaining custody of his beloved daughter, Honoria, allows F. Scott Fitzgerald to connect emotionally with readers while portraying important lessons from the wealth and resulting poverty of many Americans in Paris at the time. Charlie

Sadly, alcohol dependence is a constant struggle in his life. In the opening scene, Charlie reunites with Alix, a bartender at the Ritz bar. They have a brief conversation about how everything feels different after being gone for such a long time. After being offered a drink by Alix, Charlie declines, showing improvement in his self-control with alcohol. Deep in the conversation, Charlie exclaims “No, no more, I’m going slow these days… I’ll stick to it alright,’... ‘I’ve stuck to it for over a year and a half now’” (Fitzgerald I). Fitzgerald uses the story of Charlie’s downfall with alcoholism to express righteousness about excessive behavior inevitably leading to the crash. Charlie’s alcohol abuse follows the economic cycle of “boom and bust” that led to the Great Depression. It shows how “Charlie demonstrates his strong character by taking one drink, but only one, to show that he can confront temptation without reverting to his former self. Yet questions about his reformation linger” (Rosenblum). In the opening scene, Charlie is a sole survivor, while all of the other members of the previous crowd he was with succumb to death, disease, or dishonor. While everything about his casual demeanor towards drinks suggest he has moved on from his past, it still leaves the readers questioning whether or not he can be truly trusted on this matter, and wondering if Charlie really has fought his

It sends him into an understanding of learning from everything he has lost. Throughout everything, Charlie tries to reestablish for himself his many losses, understanding that the significance of wealth is by far the most important, and the most difficult, challenge he faces. He perceives this idea by understanding, “‘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 I). The theme of wealth is a primary topic that “Babylon Revisited” revolves around. Charlie learns from his mistake of taking something as important as money for granted: “Having too much money, ironically, was the source of Charlie’s greatest losses. As he sits in a bar realizing that he has once again lost Honoria, at least for a time, the bartender offers his regrets for a different loss: ‘I heard you lost a lot in the crash.’ Charlie responds, ‘I did’ and adds, ‘but I lost everything I wanted in the boom’” (Haisty). Fitzgerald uses contrast as a major writing technique, as he illustrates Charlie and Paris as they were before the crash of 1929 and as they are in the time of the story. The stock market creates a hint of irony as Charlie appeals to the rise and fall of his fortune - both economic and fate in general. After taking a step back and looking at his life now and how it was then, Charlie