What is the main idea of "Babylon Revisited"?

“Babylon Revisited” tells the story of Charlie Wales. Charlie spends the story working diligently to make up for the sins of his past so that he can have custody of his daughter. The novel deals with the concept of loss—in particular, the loss that Charlie feels at not having his family.

One of the comparisons made at the end of the story contrasts the loss of things in the stock market crash with the loss of family during the Jazz Age. Charlie and his wife, Helen, lived a raucous party lifestyle during the 1920s. complete with dancing, money, and booze. However, Helen died as a result of their lifestyle, and her sister Marion blames Charlie for the death. She withholds their daughter, Honoria, from him because she doesn’t trust that he has changed. Charlie sums up his loss in comparison to the depression in a conversation with a bartender:

"I heard that you lost a lot in the crash."
"I did," and he added grimly, "but I lost everything I wanted in the boom."
"Selling short."
"Something like that."

One of the main ideas of the text is how the value of things in life changes with perspective. Charlie, at one point, saw the value of his life as parties and fun, but he has since grown. The stock market crash happened—but the cost of losing every penny hurts him less than the loss of his family. He realizes that he lost much more than just his money and things: he sold short the love of his family and didn’t realize its worth until it was too late. The main idea of the story is that things that “cost” the least can be the most important things in our lives. For Charlie, it's his daughter and family.

One way to interpret the main idea or theme of the story is in the title itself. The reference to "Babylon" is to the biblical city that was known for sin and debauchery. This refers to Charles's previous life in which his alcoholism contributed to his irresponsible and self-destructive behavior, as well as the tragedy of his wife's accidental death.

The idea of "revisiting" the location and conditions of his previous life of decadence and bad behavior is a structural element of the story that allows the reader to witness Charles's deep grief, regret and self-doubt as he reflects upon his past misdeeds, and speculates about his future. One idea that comes through is that a person can really never leave their past behind, and judgments made about us can linger a lifetime, even if our behavior has changed. Charles's desire to have full custody if his daughter is compromised when he is seen in the company of old friends who were once part of the social circle that characterized his downfall.

The end of the story sees Charles contemplating ordering a second drink at the bar, even though he has specifically said he only has one drink i order to show he has control over his addiction. This suggests Charles's despondent state may in fact lead him to backslide into his earlier behavior. The takeaway could be that people trying to transform their lives cannot escape the opinions or perspectives of others, and that these opinions can affect an individual's ability to move forward, despite their best efforts.

The central idea of this short story is that of transformation and change. The basic premise of the tale is that a father has returned to Paris to try and regain custody o fhis daughter after his financial ruin, the death of his wife and his own struggles with alcoholism. Charlie is a character who is desperately trying to present an image to those around him of somebody who has transformed his character, but the overall change in his character is somewhat undercut by the various details that Fitzgerald gives that suggest that this reform is not entirely completed.

These hints are made through various temptations that Charlie experiences to return to the "utter irresponsibility" of his previous life. On the one hand, the story begins with Charlie resolutely refusing a drink from the bartender and proudly saying that he has "stuck to it for over a year and a half now." On the other hand, we see how straight after this he makes us doubt his resolute nature by giving the bartender the address of the Peters so that he can pass it on to Duncan Schaeffer, who was an old drinking partner of Charlie's. These kind of examples abound throughout the text and again and again we are made to think that the transformation of Charlie from a dissipated alcoholic to a fine upstanding individual in business is not entirely complete yet.

What is the theme of "Babylon Revisited"?

It seems to me that two of the strongest themes of this story are self-doubt and victimhood. Charles appears to be very intent on gaining control of his life. His past misdeeds had drastic impacts on his life, including the death of his wife when he locked her out in the cold after a fight. He seems be in a position of constantly being judged, especially by his sister-in-law who, with her husband, is currently caring for his daughter. Charles feels that any small misstep could jeopardize his goals and all he has worked for, and he desperately wants to have his daughter living with him again. Because he is under such intense scrutiny, Charles feels some small measure of frustration and resentment, and when stress arises, it is hard to keep these emotions at bay. When he accidentally runs into old friends who he used to drink and socialize with during his more wild days, he is judged harshly, even though has has not seen them in many months. He sees his position as something that happens to him, as opposed to something he has created. His tendency to blame others for not allowing him to reinvent himself creates a barrier to his real growth, because he cannot process his feelings of grief, loss, and regret until he acknowledges his own fault in causing his life to explode.

I think one element that comes out strongly in this tale is the sense of being unable to escape our past. Charlie has worked hard to reform himself and has tried to move away from his heady, decadent and hedonistic days in Paris. He returns to the symbolically entitled "Babylon," but he finds that his past is still there to haunt him, and in the end prevents him from gaining what he has come to recover - his daughter. The story makes us ask some hard questions about our ability to move on and not let our past mistakes hinder our present lives.

In "Babylon Revisited," there is also another theme that prevails throughout the novel:  Guilt vs. Innocence. 

Charlie Wales returns to Paris to prove to his sister-in-law that he is no longer guilty of dissipation and neglect.  He strives to prove to the sister-in-law that he is no longer guilty, and that he has turned his life around by avoiding heavy drinking, and by not squandering his money as he did before the Crash.  He desires to show how he will raise Honoria if allowed to take her with him.

There are several themes intertwined that are closely related.  Change and transformation are certainly involved in this story of a recovering alcoholic who is desperate to get his daughter back from his dead wife's sister and her husband. But there is also guilt, and money at the heart of the story.

Charles is dealing with several crises at one time, the death of his wife, his guilt and feelings of responsibility for her death, the loss of his financial stability due to the crash of 1929.  He is also mourning his lost life, the life he had before the crash, the irresponsible, wild life of drinking, not worrying about tomorrow.  He actually feels guilty about how much money he was able to make during the stock market boom.   

Charlie struggles with his conscience over Helen's death. They had argued about her behavior, her kissing another man in front of him, flaunting her ability to make him jealous.  He went home and locked her out of the apartment.  Helen walked all the way to her sister's house in a driving snowstorm, soaking her to the skin. Helen dies as a result of heart trouble, not pneumonia.

Charlie also has to resist the temptation to return to his old life, his friends are still drinking and partying, buy he must remain sober so that he can satisfy the court's requirement for him to get Honoria back from Marion Peters, her legal guardian.