The Turning Over of a Leaf: Babylon Revisited

I must say that this short story is by far my favorite read of the semester. I loved it because I felt like many of us could relate to it in one way or the other. Most of us are guilty of actions which we are not proud of; whether at a certain instance or over a period of time. I also found it highly interesting that this story is based upon real life events in F. Scott Fitzgerald's life. This story begs the question of whether humans are truly able to turn over a new leaf and start a new life for themselves. The main character, Charlie, had suffered from alcoholism and had many skeletons in his past that he seems to be trying to forget/overcome- and run away from (such as his old friends, like Lorainne). However, Charlie is trying his best in a difficult situation. He has to deal with a sister in law who is raising his daughter and blames him for the death of her sister(Helen), visiting a city where he spent this "previous life" of partying and drunken shananigans and the memories that haunt him, the guilt he has towards his previous situation and the horrible circumstances, as well as other factors. I noticed a couple of interesting things throughout his fight for his daughter in the story. Firstly, when he is at lunch with her, he puts on this sharade as if they have never met, and they begin this cute and witty introduction. I found this interesting because he seems to be worried that if he does not get custody of her, her views on him will be distorted. To me, this brief dialogue between them meant a lot more then just a silly sharade. It was as if this was a new beginning for them, a re-introduction for this new life they were going to live together. From the background ifnormation the author provides, I felt as though the daughter loved her father, and they were close, but they didn't know eachother too well. Secondly, I noticed that all the places he sees in town have changed drastically. His life has changed as well, and I feel that this was a message that things don't stay constant or the same; in time things change. In sum, I thought this was a marvelous read. I was very shocked by the ending because I thought that he was going to go back to drinking. I felt as though that was the set up of the story- we hear so much about how he doesn't drink except one drink a day (and we see that at the beginning), so at the end, with the loss of his daughter temporarily, the reader might automatically assume that this is going to be the fall of Charlie, yet again. However, it was not! It just further proves that with will, individuals can change their lives for the better and unlike his horrid sister in law, we should not make assumptions of others character.