My Favorite Work

I really enjoyed Edith Wharton’s works.  I had never read her before, and I really enjoyed her ability to tackle and look at messy, real-world issues.  She does not shy away from topics like divorce and the awkwardness accompanying remarriages.  I found her short story “The Other Two” very comical. 

While I enjoyed all her work, my favorite would be Summer.  I liked that the story was not a traditional love story where guy and girl meet, fall in love, and end up together.  I thought that it provided good insights into real life, where everything may not be a fairy tale, but things usually end up working out.  In my opinion, the drastically tragic and the drastically romantic views often found in literature or movies are interesting and perhaps even enjoyable to read or watch, but they do not provide a realistic look at life.  Rarely in life does everything work out perfectly, yet at the same time, life rarely ends in absolute tragedy.  Even in the midst of bad times, there are bright spots.  To me, Summer captures this truth of reality really well.  While Charity falls for a man who appears to use her for sex without much intention to marry her and winds up pregnant, her life does not fall completely apart.  Mr. Royall marries her and gives her security and a home for her and her child.  She may not end up with the love of her life, but a man who loves her and wants to protect her marries her.  She and her child will have a comfortable life with Mr. Royall.  It all worked out.  The semblance of a happy ending – the real-life happy ending – makes Summer an intriguing work because it examines real relationships and real truths applicable to daily life.

Self-Sabotage

In “Babylon Revisited,” Charlie is surprised when Duncan Schaeffer and Lorraine Quarrles arrive at the Peters’ home, wondering how they found the address.  He also tells Marion and Lincoln that “they wormed your name out of somebody” (339).  However, in the very opening of the story he gives the bartender his brother-in-law’s address to give to Schaeffer.  This discrepancy could be unintentional.  After all, Lorraine’s note comes to him at his hotel – the address he had left at the bar “for the purpose of finding a certain man” (336).  This suggests that perhaps the hotel address rather than the Peters’ address was given out in the beginning.  Yet, this seems like a rather blatant error for Fitzgerald and his editors to overlook.

Thus, there must be some reason behind it.  Perhaps Charlie simply forgot that he had left the Peters’ address for Schaeffer.  Perhaps he is initially surprised when they arrive, momentarily forgetting he left the Peters’ address, but then his protestation that he had not given them the address was a defensive mechanism in order to ensure he could get his little girl. 

However, even when he runs into Duncan and Lorraine at the restaurant with Honoria, he hesitates to give out his hotel.  Again, this suggests that he does not want them to know where he is at, which contradicts his leaving the Peters’ address for Schaeffer in the beginning.  Charlie also appears hesitant throughout to spend time with Duncan and Lorraine, so it seems odd that he would leave his address, let alone his brother-in-law’s address, for them.  He appears to understand that his association with them could damage his chances to get back his daughter, so why would he leave his brother-in-law’s address for Schaeffer?  Perhaps, he doesn’t believe he deserves his daughter back.  Or perhaps, he thinks she’ll be better off without him.