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Babylon Revisited

 

            Scott Fitzgerald puts together a charming and unique story; "Babylon Revisited." The story is about a father's attempt to regain the custody of his daughter after a series of personal disasters. Fitzgerald uses different types of characterization in his story, the three major types of characters are: dynamic, static and minor. Charlie Wales, the dynamic one in the story. Charlie battles with the death of his wife and the custody of his daughter. He realizes how important his daughter is to him, therefore he must try to get her back.
             Charlie Wales has come to Paris to try to regain the custody of his daughter after a series of personal disasters. Honoria , lives with his late wife's sister, Marion, to whom the child was giving custody to after Charlie fell apart. In order to get Honoria back, he needs to present a superficial appearance to Marion. Charlie spends the first scene of the story in a bar. From this we learn that Charlie has had a problem with alcohol. The opening paragraphs establish that he has been away for a while, much has changed. He describes how empty the bar is, which was one of his favorite old places. He used to drink excessively, but has disciplined himself to one drink a day. His quest is to win back Honoria, for example, is also his quest to prove himself and those who know him that he is a new man. .
             Marion has no time for Charlie, and we can see that her angry and animosity stems from the time he was living a fast and loose life. She refers to an incident when Charlie locked her sister, Helen out of the house in the snow. Helen at the time was also ill. Marion connects the two events together in her mind and unjustifiable holds Charlie responsible for the death of her sister. Because Marion sees her dead sister, she sees Charlie as the villain. "Things have changes now changed radically with me and I want to ask you to reconsider the matter" (224). Even thought he speaks of sobriety, she still cannot forgive him.


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