F. Scott Fitzgerald "Babylon Revisited" 1931

Concept of Time
1. Form
  1. Short story
    1. Does not allow for full development - means that reader is active in filling in details
      1. immediacy of dialogue creates an instantly personal tone & connection with reader
  2. Structure is created through chapters
    1. Suggestion of conventional story
2. Time is constantly referred to
  1. huge difference between past and present
    1. Lorraine & Duncan
  2. Charlie is becoming aware that he is running out of time - his daughter is growing up & losing innocence
    1. Nevertheless, time is still stagnated and Charlie attempts to postpone reality
      1. "he would send her lots of things tomorrow"
        "they couldn't make him pay forever"
Loss of childhood innocence
1. "She was already an individual with a code of her own, and charlie was more and more absorbed by the desire of putting a little of himself into her
  1. before she crystallized utterly"
2. "Well you brought me this doll...And I've got lots of things. and we're not rich any more."
3. Represents the distortion of time & the consequences of his actions are highlighted
4. links to post-war (WW!&WW2) images of child deaths & combat
  1. Children loosing innocence too soon
Depiction of America
1. Past
  1. 1. representative of Charlie's past
      1. past is still hindering him from fully being able to grasp the present/future (Honoria)
        "Sudden ghosts out of the past"
        Haunting & unwelcome
        "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."
        distortion of reality
        financial gain was in parallel with emotional loss
        refers to "twenty-nine" - beginning of the depression
        very different view to most depression era texts
    2. letter is signed: "Always devotedly, Lorraine"
      1. past will "always" be an obstacle for Charlie
2. Future
  1. Honoria
    1. Children as the future - need for the next generation
Compatible contrast with My Antonia for exam question
1. My Antonia is a relatively long novel which slowly introduces characters & settings
2. My Antonia view the past as a happier, more innocent time
  1. Charlie is constantly haunted by his past.
3. Both assert personal tones
  1. Jim Burden's memoirs in "My Antonia"
  2. Omniscient narrator in "Babylon Revisited" but becomes very personal through heavy dialogue content

Next up

F. Scott Fitzgerald "Babylon Revisited" 1931

Description

Resource summary

Similar

	Created by meg.weal over 11 years ago