1. Charlie Wales is the clear protagonist of "Babylon Revisited." The close third person narration puts us immediately next to him for the story. We could say with the reading of “Babylon Revisited” could very well be Charlie's story in the first place. Charlie is not a common hero because we doubt him and the character of his transformation. He's also a very bad alcoholic with some very bad things he has done hiding deep inside of his body. Still, you wish to have to root for him.
Despite his many flaws, Charlie is a person whom practically every person can’t help to like. It’s surprising that Charlie’s so likable seeing that his wild prior of uncontrollable alcoholism, his feasible complicity in his wife’s dying, and the fact that he pretty much abandoned his child. Charlie is tough to dislike because he seems so earnest in his efforts to want to turn over
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Mr. Fitzgerald wrote “Babylon Revisited” in 1930. It was writing at a time when the world has been through two world wars, and the desperate time when the stock market crashed and people who have worked all their lives have lost everything. After all of that there came a period in time when there was economic prosperity and decadence. When the way of life became better for people, known as the roaring twenties. This is when our character or protagonist who is known as Charlie Wales profited. Charlie's had a serious conflict inside of him and can be outlined by his grief and guilt over the loss of his wife, who died as a result of obtaining a terrible chill from walking to her sister's housing when Charlie locked her out because of him being angry at her. He feels accountable for Helen's death which is attributed to a heart condition that she had and was very week. He also is fighting a battle with himself concerning his own health issues and a being a heavy alcohol drinker. He has an external conflict with his sister-in-law Marion Peters. Marion has legal custody of his daughter Honoria. (Fitzgerald,
Franklin Scott Fitzgerald's life as a writer in the 1920's shaped the stories that he created. Much of the content of many of his tales correlates with his private life with his wife Zelda, his trouble with alcohol, and their lives in Europe. Fitzgerald wrote the story "Babylon Revisited" - perhaps his most widely read story - in December of 1930, and then it was published in February of 1931 in The Saturday Evening Post. Mathew J. Bruccoli writes in "A Brief Life of F. Scott Fitzgerald" that "The dominant influences on F. Scott Fitzgerald were aspiration...Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald, and alcohol," and each of these influences are painfully visible in "Babylon Revisited." Charlie Wales, the main character in "Babylon Revisited," is obviously an image of Fitzgerald and the life that he lived in the roaring twenties, but the sympathy that Fitzgerald's writing seems to presume is as shallow as Charlie's giving up alcohol. The bond between Fitzgerald and Charlie Wales, however, is not as shallow as the contempt that Fitzgerald holds for the life that both he and Charlie experienced: both Charlie and Fitzgerald experience financial success, suffering marriages, and alcoholism.
We are always being haunted by our past sins and Misdemeanors. Even when we have been reformed, it takes a similar incident or someone appearing from the past to remind us of what we were before. I think Charlie is a strong Character. He was able to reform himself and stop drinking. This shows that he is strong. His coming back for his daughter proves that he is aware of his Civic responsibilities and he is ready to undertake them. There is a Strong bond between him and his daughter which is definitely a plus on his side.
A growing problem of Charlie’s is his extremely mixed emotions toward the opposite sex. He starts a serious relationship with Alice Kinnian, his former teacher. Charlie begins to learn of how society treats the mentally retarded. He realizes his old friends at the bakery just make fun of him. After watching the audience laugh at video of him before the operation, Charlie runs away from a mental health conference with Algernon after learning that his operation went wrong. Charlie does research on himself and learns that intelligence without the ability to give and receive affection leads to mental and moral breakdown.
In "Babylon Revisited," Fitzgerald uses these troubled times as a background for his story. The main character is someone many Americans of the day could sympathize with. His rise from mediocrity to a life of wealth and leisure and then his tragic fall appealed to the broken and world-weary masses subjugated by the demoralizing affects of the depression.
Ish is the only one who feels hostility towards Charlie and act awkwardly around ...
The first civilization to rise was the Mesopotamia, located in present day Iraq, between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, and Egypt, along the Nile River. It’s split in two ecological zones. In the south Babylonia (irrigation is vital) and north Assyria (agriculture is possible with rainfall and wells). By 4000 B.C.E., people had settled in large numbers in the river-watered lowlands of Mesopotamia and Egypt. Archaeologists have shown that large-scale irrigation appeared only long after urban civilization had already developed, meaning major waterworks were a consequence of urbanism (population). Mesopotamia cities were made of people called the Summerians in the land of Sumer located on the south of Babylonia. The Summerian city was one of
Charlie’s character transition is an evidence of the saying, “Walk a mile in my shoes. See what I see, hear what I hear, feel what I feel, then maybe you’ll understand why I do what I do. Until then don’t judge me.” His journey with Kanalaaq showed him how important it is for people not to judge other for superficial
For Charlie, Ignorance is bliss. He realizes that his so called ? friends? were just using him to entertain their perverse humor. Also, he was also fired from the job that he loved so much because his new intelligence made those around him feel inferior and scared.
He doesn’t lack of encourage anymore, he has overcome his fear and despair. “I have to go. I have to disobey every impulse and leave her for Jasper Jones, for Jack Lionel, for this horrible mess.” We see a different Charlie from his determination. From escape to face up, he shows us more responsible. From helpless to assertive, he comes to realize what he really wants. He knows the dark side of human nature and this unfair and cold world. His innocent, his perfect world has been destroyed by those horrible things; because of these, he knows the part of real world, he knows how the ‘dark’ actually changes this world, his friends, his family, included
Scott Fitzgerald. In his story titled Babylon Revisited, Fitzgerald epitomizes the genre. The story focuses on Charlie Wales, who is visiting Paris after a year and a half away. During Charlie’s time away, the stock market crash hit America, sending a shockwave through the economies of the world. Charlie’s old life in Paris was one of almost limitless money fueling a decadent lifestyle of alcohol, parties and promiscuity.
Charlie’s love for Honoria is the biggest reason for him to regain her custody. Throughout the story, Charlie has expressed how much he loves Honoria and how much he needs her in his life. Honoria also expresses how much she loves her father and how much she misses him. She tells her father more than once that she would rather live with him than with her Aunt Marion. To separate a father and daughter from each other is both devastating and cruel. It is hard to understand why Marion would not let Charlie have Honoria, when Honoria expresses so much love for her father.
The name Babylon means “Gate of God”. The location of the ancient city was along the Euphrates River and today is marked by a long stretch of ruins east of the river. Which is ninety kilometres south of Baghdad, Iraq. This was one of the main trading points of the ancient world because of its central location.
I see Charlie attempting desperately to act out of character. Adept at business he has shown ability, humility and perseverance. However, he seems to be out of touch with the manifested feelings of others his path has crossed.
In the years of the 1930s and the Great Depression, Fitzgerald saw his own physical and emotional world collapse with the decline of his literary reputation and the failure of his marriage. Fitzgerald’s last years as a writer "were truly lost . . . writing Hollywood screenplays and struggling to finish his novel The Last Tycoon" (Charters 489). Fitzgerald wrote approximately 160 stories during his career (Charters 489). "Babylon Revisited," written in 1931, is one of his later works. It is considered "more complicated emotionally" than his earlier works because he shows "less regret for the past and more dignity in the face of real sorrow" (Charters 489).