Babylon Revisited Modernism Essay

902 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: An essay on American capitalism

The modernist style of writing is one of disillusionment, frustration and loss of hope. The modernist writers did not try to point out silver linings or brighter futures, instead they explored the depths of the sorrows of life in the time of the great depression and the long road to recovery from it. Most of these writers blamed the modernization of America for the stock market crash that brought on the great depression. Likewise, modern politics drew America into not only one, but two world wars. At the same time, modern intellectual advancements challenged or usurped traditional beliefs and values. Darwinism and Marxism both showed themselves and clashed with current American ideals. These things caused writers to take notice of the changing …show more content…

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 returns to find a very different city than the one he left such a short time ago. As Charlie travels the city visiting old haunts and meeting old friends, he finds just how much things have changed. Fitzgerald wrote, “All the catering to vice and waste was on an utterly childish scale, and he suddenly realized the meaning of the word dissipate.” (Baym, 2013, p. 2167) Fitzgerald is capturing the disappointment Charlie felt at the realization that the old Paris was no more. The traditions of exorbitant waste and debauchery gone with it. Charlie felt as though he was witnessing the death of a part of his life, of a part of himself. Charlie tries to make amends with some of the people he hurt in the past, and tried to connect with his daughter and become a part of her life. In the end, his best efforts fall short and the new life he envisioned escapes him, even while his old life is still dying before him. Charlie ends up alone without either of the lives he has known or dreamt

Show More
Related

  • Case Study: Babylon Revisited As An Allegory

    1927 Words  | 4 Pages

    Charlie Wales focuses on his visit to Paris as an extended allegory, imposing a moral value on every place that he visits and incident that occurs. He is hoping to redeem himself from the period of drunken debauchery that led to the death of his wife and loss of his daughter to relatives’care. Whether he is driving through the streets of Montmartre, the site of many past revels, or trying to find a restaurant without past negative associations where he can have lunch with his daughter, the evils of the past form pictures in his mind. He wants to be worthy of custody of Honoria,

    Read More

  • F. S. Fitzgerald's Fighting the Past and Self-loathing in Babylon Revisited

    1730 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Transcendentalism In The Perks To Being A Wallflower

    1222 Words  | 3 Pages

    Growing up, Charlie faced two difficult loses that changed his life by getting him admitted in the hospital. As a young boy, he lost his aunt in a car accident, and in middle school, he lost his best friend who shot himself. That Fall, Charlie walks through the doors his first day of highschool, and he sees how all the people he used to talk to and hang out with treat him like he’s not there. While in English class, Mr. Anderson, Charlie’s English teacher, notices that Charlie knew the correct answer, but he did not want to speak up and let his voice be heard. As his first day went on, Charlie met two people that would change named Sam and Patrick who took Charlie in and helped him find himself. When his friends were leaving for college, they took one last ride together in the tunnel and played their favorite song. The movie ends with Charlie reading aloud his final letter to his friend, “This one moment when you know you’re not a sad story, you are alive. And you stand up and see the lights on buildings and everything that makes you wonder, when you were listening to that song” (Chbosky). Ever since the first day, Charlie realized that his old friends and classmates conformed into the average high schooler and paid no attention to him. Sam and Patrick along with Mr. Anderson, changed his views on life and helped him come out of his shell. Charlie found a

    Read More

  • Babylon Revisited

    406 Words  | 1 Pages

    Fitzgerald never relates the history of Charlie's circumstances out right. It is inferred through his present situation and through his interaction with those around him. The reader enters the story seemingly in the middle of a conversation between Charlie and a Parisian bartender. From his thoughts and conversation one is able to infer that he is returning to Paris after a long period of absence. He states, "He was not really disappointed to find Paris was so empty. But the stillness in the Ritz bar was strange and portentous. It was not an American bar anymore he felt polite in it, and not as if he owned it." We then see that he is returning to a Paris very different from the one he had known. We also see that he himself has changed. He is no longer the same hedonistic individual that he apparently once was even refusing a second drink when it was offered.

    Read More

  • Babylon Revisited Quotes

    690 Words  | 2 Pages

    The reader feels on edge about whether Charlie will resort to his old ways or remain living his life carefully. It is a very slippery slope for those who have made a drastic change in lifestyles, for “old habits die hard.” Prior to 1929, during the roaring 20’s, Americans like Charlie had loads of money to spend on what they pleased. Before the crash, Charlie lived haphazardly. He lived with no worries and worldly pleasures. Charlie would enjoy parties with Duncan and Lorraine in London. “Again the memory of those days swept over him like a nightmare … The men who locked their wives out in the snow, because the snow of twenty-nine wasn’t real snow. If you didn’t want it to be snow, you just paid some money” (Fitzgerald, 519). When Charlie looks back at his life a sense of resentment comes through though there is a touch of reminiscence towards the fact that people like him lived their lives as though they were royalty. After 1929, Charlie put forth much effort to rebuild his life. He was able to steady his financial situation and move forward with his change in

    Read More

  • Reunion by John Cheever

    821 Words  | 2 Pages

    Towards the end of the first paragraph we begin to get more of an insight into what Charlie’s father is really like. The first example of this is “I’d like to take you up to my club, but it’s in the Sixties, and if you have to catch an early train I guess we’d better get something around here”.

    Read More

  • F. Scott Fitzgerald's Babylon Revisited

    1752 Words  | 4 Pages

    Charlie knew Claude from his rambunctious days during the bull market, but now he’s “all bloated up” (BABYLON), bereft by the crash. The next day, during lunch with his daughter, Honoria, two more figures from Charlie’s past come into play - Lorraine and Duncan, who are old friends of “a crowd who had helped them make months into days in the lavish times of three years ago” (BABYLON). They are instantly drawn to Charlie, and force him to remember the years he so vehemently tries to forget; questioning in amazement the sober man standing before them. Charlie shoos the two along as best as he can without insult, as he knows these people are not good for him or his daughter to be around. They are the living embodiment of the events of his past, and in order to be a new person, his old friends cannot be a part of his life.

    Read More

  • What Impact does Jasper Jones have on the Reader?

    1590 Words  | 4 Pages

    ... reader. Throughout the book, Charlie unfolds secrets and truths about the world and the society that he lives in; secrets and truths that cause him to grow up and transition into adulthood. He also makes a life changing decision and rebelled against was he thought was the right thing. This reflects his maturity and bravery throughout the journey he travels that summer. Charlie eyes suddenly become open to the injustice that the town of Corrigan demonstrates. He also comes to face the issue of racism; not only shown towards his best friend Jeffrey and the Lu family but to Jasper Jones as well. He realises the town of Corrigan is unwilling to accept outsiders. Charlie not only finds out things that summer about the people that surround him, but he also finds out who he is personally.

    Read More

  • Babylon Revisited Thesis

    774 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Babylon Revisited” occurred after the stock market crashed and this set the tone of the story. The message that Fitzgerald portrayed was that one can change their life around for the better even after something as divesting as financial ruin. These changes in circumstances motivated the

    Read More

  • Modernism

    3194 Words  | 7 Pages

    One attribute of Modernist writing is Experimentation. This called for using new techniques and disregarding the old. Previous writing was often even considered "stereotyped and inadequate" (Holcombe and Torres). Modern writers thrived on originality and honesty to themselves and their tenets. They wrote of things that had never been advanced before and their subjects were far from those of the past eras. It could be observed that the Modernist writing completely contradicted its predecessors. The past was rejected with vigor and...

    Read More

  • Split Identity and Change in F. Scott Fitzgerald's Babylon Revisited

    696 Words  | 2 Pages

    In F. Scott Fitzgerald's "Babylon Revisited," there are several major themes that are prevalent throughout the story. One of these themes is that of split identity the other is the sense of solidity and change. Both of these themes are something most readers can identify with. Fitzgerald also makes the reader sympathize with the protagonist Charlie Wales. Throughout the story the reader must decide whether Charlie is reformed or whether he is indeed "the old Wales" (10). Some readers may empathize with Charlie, as I did the first time I read "Babylon Revisited." Although, after I reread the piece I began to feel differently about "poor" Charlie, and came to the realization that he may not be what he appears to be at all.

    Read More

  • Babylon Revisited In Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

    1593 Words  | 4 Pages

    Typically when someone hears the name F. Scott Fitzgerald, his most famous piece of work comes to mind, The Great Gatsby. This piece of work was published in 1925 and is his best-known and most successful writing. Fitzgerald was well-known as an author and a celebrity in the 1920’s and the 1930’s. Imitating the lifestyle of one of the main characters in The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby, Fitzgerald’s life reflected extensive drinking, late parties, and following the pursuit of pleasure (Fitzgerald, 2012, p. 658). The next century of his life was spent sulking in the gloomy aftermath of the stock market crash like most of the nation. Fitzgerald wrote Babylon Revisited immediately after the crash. Many critics agree that Babylon Revisited and The

    Read More

  • How Did Shakespeare Formulate An American Culture

    1781 Words  | 4 Pages

    The first generation of American authors after the revolution believed that American, as a newborn nation, was the best candidate to embrace and develop the universal taste, which consisted largely of the English literary style. Thus, as argued by Spencer, the American literature at the time was largely “a reordering of European ideas, a purification of Old World genres, or a realization of the literary dreams of ancient cultures in the ideal atmosphere of the New World” (39). Some of the common literary themes at this time, the depiction of the American manners and the American landscape, were therefore to a large extend the realization of the accommodation of American experiences to traditional genres and principles. Spencer did however, also spots an “undercurrent of confidence” (70) for America’s ultimate literary glory among the post-revolutionary generation, which was partially brought about by the belief in the Berkeleyan principle of the westward cycle of culture and the Scottish philosophers’ correlation of poetry and civilization. Nature and liberty were considered to be the invaluable literary resources that could inspire the American authors to write works that surpass the European masterpieces.

    Read More

  • The Influence of History on American Literature

    1542 Words  | 4 Pages

    History, current events, and social events have really influenced American Literature. Authors have been influenced by the world around them and that has reflected in their works. This can be seen throughout the many eras studied in this class. It can also be seen in all types of literature such as playwrights, fiction, non-fiction, and poems. It can also be seen in all of the different writing styles such as, realism, modernism, and post modernism. It is important that American Literature has been influenced this way because Authors have shown us their personal views and insight to situations one would not get out of a history textbook.

    Read More

  • Character Analysis: The Perks Of Being A Wallflowers

    1089 Words  | 3 Pages

    Because of the parties he attends with his new friends he has tried using some drugs. These new friends help Charlie see things with a positive perspective, and to be confident in himself. When his friends move away, Charlie experience isolation and has a mental crisis that leads him to be internalized in a clinic.

    Read More

More about Babylon Revisited Modernism Essay

Open Document