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BABYLON, from page 5
Dr. Janney's humanitarian qualities are reflected in his benevolence toward Helen, a young girl that lives near his brother's house. The reader glimpses this kindness early in the story, and it reaches its climax when her father is killed in the tornado. The doctor is very concerned for the girl, and by the story's end has decided he will take care of the orphaned child. In both stories Fitzgerald casts a young girl and her acceptance of a flawed man in the face of adult rejection as the motivator for each man to turn around his life. The concluding lines of "Family in the Wind" clearly illustrate this. "…He (Dr. Janney) began thinking of Helen. 'She hasn't got any kin. I guess she's my little girl now.' He patted the bottle, then looked down at it as if in surprise. 'Well, we'll have to put you aside for awhile, old friend.'(Reader, p.368).
Both characters are alienated from the adults of society. The only person that either character can truly connect to is a child. Fitzgerald's contrast between how children accept the struggling main character of each story and the rejection and judgement of other adults, even relatives, reiterates the nature of children to accept people and love unconditionally. Both Honoria and Helen are able to accept the men as they are, and so both children become the points of goodness for which to strive.
Aspects of F. Scott Fitzgerald's life can be seen in both of these stories, as Fitzgerald would have been very familiar with alcoholism and the way people responded to those so afflicted. Fitzgerald and his wife were swept up in the wildness of the era, sometimes engaging in outrageous public behavior while under the influence of alcohol. In another short story, "Echoes of the Jazz Age," Fitzgerald describes the twenties as "an age excess."
Fellow expatriate, Ernest Hemingway, detailed Fitzgerald's problems with alcohol.
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You could not be angry with Scott anymore than you could be angry with someone who was crazy. . .but it was hard to accept him as a drunkard, since he was affected by such small quantities of alcohol. . . . . .(alcohol) could cause changes in Scott that would turn him
into a fool. . . . . .no matter what Scott did, nor how he behaved, I must know it was like a sickness to him and try to be a good friend . . . . . .if he could write a book as fine as The Great Gatsby I was
sure he could write an even better one. I did not know Zelda yet, and so I did not know the terrible odds that were against him. But we were to find them out soon enough. (Hemingway, p.123, 132-133)
Although Fitzgerald's battle with alcoholism lasted for most of his life, it is important
to note that Fitzgerald would not drink while writing. In the preface to The Great Gatsby, Matthew Bruccoli, noted Fitzgerald biographer, wrote that "(Fitzgerald) was an alcoholic--as were other major American writers-- but he was a serious writer and a hard worker. He did not scribble The Great Gatsby drunk."
Perhaps, what most closely parallels Scott Fitzgerald's life to "Babylon Revisted"
and "Family in the Wind" is the role of the young girls in each. Fitzgerald's own daughter, Scottie, seems the obvious model for Honoria and Helen. Fitzgerald was not able to care for Scottie, so she remained with relatives and in boarding schools. His own feelings of regret and the need for family seem to be Charlie's. "Babylon Revisited" can also be viewed as Fitzgerald's apology for his part in the terrible nature of his own marriage.
Both stories also reflect how society reacted to the Fitzgeralds. While Scott and Zelda were in style as a writer and a flapper, they were socially acceptable. Lorraine and Dunc in "Babylon Revisited" are acceptable to Charlie until he begins his transformation; then their wild partying is not any more acceptable to him than his past behavior is to his sister-in-law. Similarly, when Scott becomes a known alcoholic, and Zelda a known neurotic, they
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"He was alone in the white section of the day coach; presently he felt for a bottle on his hip and drew it forth. 'After all, a man of 45 is entitled to more artificial courage when he starts over again.' He began thinking of Helen….
He patted the bottle, then looked down at it as if in surprise. 'Well, we'll have to put you aside for a while, old friend…'" (Reader, p. 368)
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