F. Scott Fitzgerald themes and influences

Fitzgerald’s father failed at his business of selling wicker furniture and could never hold a steady job. His mother inherited a million dollar grocery business and a personal fortune. His childhood was pampered but somewhat unstable because of his frequent moves. This childhood could explain the reason for him t

Zelda would be admitted in and out of insane asylums. This may have contributed to Fitzgerald’s drinking problem. (“Brief Life” 1)

In Fitzgerald’s short story, “Babylon Revisited”, as with many of his other short stories there is a main character who is struggling with alcoholism. In this case Charlie Also in the story one of the themes of loss is mentioned when the man’s wife dies. “The richness of "Babylon Revisited" as a work of fiction lies in Fitzgerald's ability to encompass so many themes while leaving the important questions about Charlie Wales' character unanswered. On the surface, the story is about a father's attempt to regain the custody of his daughter after a series of personal disasters. Critics have consistently praised the story for its authentic and affecting portrayal of the love between Charlie and Honoria, and. . .Fitzgerald himself later referred to "the tragedy of the father and the child" that lies at the heart of the story. Within this basic emotional core, however, Fitzgerald dramatizes a universe of emotional, social, historical, and psychological themes. Charlie's quest to win back Honoria, for example, is also his quest to prove to himself and those who know him that he is a new man. Only a year and half before, he was an unemployed, irresponsible, spendthrift alcoholic with poor taste in friends, a broken marriage, and a malicious streak that allowed him to lock his wife out of their apartment on a winter night. Beyond Charlie's personal drama, "Babylon Revisited" also explores larger social and historical issues: the contrast between Europe's decadent culture and the decent domesticity of traditional American values, America's transition from the prosperity of the 1920s to the straitened conditions of the Depression, and the moral value of work versus the "free money" of the speculating investors of the "boom" years. As a portrait of the city Paris in the years before World War II, " Babylon Revisited" also captures the glamorous, culturally rich flavor of that city while evoking the darker, morally threatening qualities that distinguish it in Charlie's eyes from

Some topics in this essay:
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