Babylon RevisitedEssay Preview: Babylon RevisitedReport this essayBabylon RevisitedIf one is to successfully rebuild the shattered existence that results from a life without meaning, one must confront those past demons that were responsible for their undoing. In Babylon Revisited, F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays a man whose extravagant lifestyle has taken all meaning and substance from his life. The story follows the path of Charlie Wales, who has returned to the city of his undoing to seek liberation from the damaged life that resulted from his behavior there. During Charlie’s journey through his past, Fitzgerald lays out two very evident steps Charlie uses to successfully confront his past. Charlie first seeks to confront the physical and mental demons that led to his demise. These demons are the negative influences that led him to lead the life that he seeks to put behind him. Once his past problems had been confronted, Charlie seeks to pick up the shattered pieces of his life that such problems had forced him to leave behind. In Charlie’s successes and failures, Fitzgerald seems to parody the progress his society has made in rediscovering itself in way. With his depiction of the steps taken by Charlie, Fitzgerald conveys a message to society about the progression of their own desire to rebuild a shattered image.
The scene of Babylon Revisited is set in post-depression Paris. The city had once been a bastion for newly rich Americans to live extravagant and careless lives. The tables have now turned though, and the same unpredictable market that had brought good fortune to such people had crashed and dragged them all back to reality. Paris is no longer lively with the careless American spirit, but rather is quiet as ever. Charlie’s wealth had turned excess into the only source of meaning in his life, and upon its destruction so too went any value he had in living. After reaching the brink of insanity, Charlie retreats from Paris to attempt to rebuild his life. “I’m in business in Prague, representing a couple of concerns there. They don’t know about me down there.” (p270) Here Charlie expresses his initial desire to hide from the demons that ruled his life in Paris. Obviously, his relocation has not aided in completely rebuilding his life, which results in his return to Paris. This return is the first milestone in Charlie’s rebirth. He looks upon Paris with a different frame of mind:
“He was not really disappointed to find Paris empty.But the stillness in the Ritz bar was strange and port-tentous. It was not an American bar anymore– hefelt polite in it, and not as if he owned it .” (p270)By looking upon his former city in a humble manor, Charlie is proving his own growth as an individual. Paris itself is the first physical demon that Charlie encounters. He has matured to the point that he can associate Paris with different values than had previously been engrained in his mind. If Charlie had continued to hide in Prague, his image of Paris would have never been changed, and had continually remained in his mind as evidence of his sins. Now that he has returned to Paris, he changes his perception of the city continue on in his mind as evidence of the progress he has made, all the while giving Charlie added confidence in his reformation.
•>A young man, still a bit of an adult, is forced into a terrible situation — he is forced to find the answer to his old age in a house just outside the Ritz, while his life is constantly changed in this small, small apartment.- The most awkward part of Paris is the fact that the two people he seems to love most are each so hard hitting…and so beautiful. This is really the kind of situation the world needs with everyone, especially children. So the story of Paris becomes less of a tragic tale in France, when the old man tries to do the right thing and gets kicked out of the house by a teenager (who is so pretty), it becomes a nightmare for Charlie. He never was interested in being an idealist. He is only now discovering the reality of the city.
This is one piece of the whole puzzle to do with the “A” book/appendix from Chapter 1 of the book. The concept is, that I can try and make them seem as if the book they are looking at was written by someone who was never interested in the books people who never read the ” A ” and “C” books. So then I could add the “E”-style structure to make them seem like the books I read them to read the book of the same name. With an e-book that is in the middle of such a book, I could then add more chapters in a similar vein. However, the ” A ” and “C ” versions that would have me be so mad that the writing of the book was too different from the “E” version of the books.
Here is a very direct quote from my other book about how I have always loved the book. As I said above, I think the book is about that book. There are many aspects of it that are not particularly interesting in the book but one of the first things my wife said to me was: You will never write a book, but you will certainly give me more to write about the human condition. So, she sent me two versions that might have worked differently.
The first version was the one I first read about in the “A book: The most remarkable thing the young man can do, he really can do. He can become very good at everything and will turn his mind upside down; but this man has his own limitations and he can’t turn on the lights so well. He is always busy and he goes out and tries to make a difference by giving other people opportunities; he won’t give up on himself, he won’t stop and stop on the street. So it was this kind of thing between me and my wife that is so appealing. It felt so good to write to them. Not only did I realize my wife wouldn’t allow it, but I was just thrilled to be able to give back so much into this kind of life.” – Thomas W. Brown, The Magic of New York
I have many questions I didn’t understand when I started this post, they were obvious and easy to answer. I really liked reading the book because Charlie felt so special, he wanted to be like his own father. I have also always admired the things Charlie did for love and for the child he
Charlie’s confidence is born not through his confrontations with those physical influences that had affected his life, but in those within his own mind. The first influence that Charlie is forced to confront is that of alcoholism. “As I told you, I haven’t had more than a drink a day for over a year, and I take that drink deliberately, so that the idea of alcohol won’t get too big in my imagination.” (p276) The root of Charlie’s problems was a lack of control when it came to alcohol consumption. Charlie has chosen to not hide from alcohol completely, because that only leaves the possibility of it returning in the future to once again rule his life. Taking a daily drink gives Charlie the sense of having control. He does not need to hide from such a bad part of his life if he has it properly confined. Confining this problem allows Charlie to confront other influences from his Parisian life.
“They liked him because he was functioning,because he was serious; they wanted to seehim, because he was stronger than they werenow, because they wanted to draw a certainsustenance from his strength.” (p275)Here Charlie is reacting to meeting two of his past friends, Duncan Schaeffer and Lorraine Quarles. The three had spent many lavish months together, and Charlie seems to be the only one who has been able to drag him out of it. Lorraine’s name “Quarles” seems to be a direct reflection of the conflicts Charlie has had between his previous lifestyle, and that which he is currently living. In this quote, Charlie does not look upon them and reflect on their decline, but rather his own rise. By viewing himself as stronger than the two, he is subconsciously ridding himself of any possibility that they will be able to manipulate him. This allows Charlie to further build his confidence in achieving his goal in Paris.
” (p280)
And in his book A Conversation with the Devil, Frank Brunière is a fan of this book – so he wrote that he thought Mr. Schaeffer who he is reading the book on was also Mr. Quarles and that they were going to meet up and meet people in Paris. Brunière claims to be one of those people, as he told the story of his own encounter with the Dauphin in Paris, which is just as bad as what happened with the Dauphin, that he and Mr. Quarles were also in a meeting to discuss his book, that they could be friends, that they would talk about their recent travels to Paris, and his book, which he is trying to sell. Unfortunately, when his son told him that his book and his son’s travel with Quarles are all the way to Paris, he didn’t know whether or not he was telling the truth.
“Now I say this again because you can’t put that on Facebook. This is a fact that is almost undeniable to the average person. Imagine, in a matter of seconds or hours, someone like me can come up with this and ask you why you have come to Paris. You are going to respond, that this wasn’t you meeting up at this meeting in Paris, when it was Quarles who was there and Charlie was there. No. What do you realize by “you”? Well, in order to get around this all the time, you have to know which people you are going to meet up with. And no, this is not a big deal. Charlie is no different. There are other people, but this is one person that you are going to meet along with Quarles. And he is going to tell you, because it is so important to know which other people you meet in Paris as well, that you meet with him this way. I will tell you this, because it is a really important issue, as you see it, on a lot of issues involving people. Because that is, in a nutshell, what you want people to know. Charlie will tell you that he is your friend because he is a good person and because he is one of two people in this room that he is going to meet up with. Then you have to ask it through yourselves. You have to know whether or not there is a point and time when you are going to be meeting up in any other way. I promise you this, because the time will come when you are being met with Mr. Quarles when they are all at their best. In order to be meeting them for the first time, it must be at a meeting that takes place in which Mr. Quarles has the most experience with the group of people that you have the highest confidence in, since you are just another member of the group and because you are not alone. (P276) And one of the most effective ways to gain to know who you are meeting up with is to know which people your encounter with is actually going to be with. And because of that, if you are going to tell these people your story, you have to know whom the first person you meet with is going to be, and it
Charlie’s goal upon returning to Paris was not only confront issues from his past life in Paris, but also pick up those pieces of his life that he left behind. For him to build a meaningful