Return to Babylon vs. Ice Palaces

As we learned today in class, Fitzgerald's life had an extreme high and an extreme low, which was transposed into his writing. When he was happy and high on life, his characters were too and when depression destroyed his happiness, his characters became a lot more realistic and pragmatic. In Ice Palaces, the contrasts in the North and South are giant and lead Sally Carrol through some unhappy and highly depressing events. Some examples that led to her depression are the lack of respect for women and being removed into a merely trophy position in Harry's life. At the end though, she is able to recognize that her happiness is not dependent on monetary funds, but the people and environment around her. The people in the South may be more relaxed and less motivated to grow and become industrial, but in living a slower life are able to appreciate the little things and have the time to actual enjoy themselves and their lives. She leaves the North and returns to her home and in doing that achieves a mostly happy ending. Return to Babylon in truth does not end wholly sad, as Ethan Frome did, but does not reflect the ability to return to the past either. Sally Carrol is able to fit into her life, while Charlie is forced to accept the consequences of his early actions and must reconcile to redeem himself each day just to get his daughter back. If Ice Palaces was written later in Fitzgerald's life and thus influenced by the sad events he was forced to endure, would Sally Carrol be able to return to her haven? Would she still be able to be happy? For my opinion, I would say no, that Sally would have to answer for forsaking the South and would realize that even though the South was her happiness before, she could never truly return to it. Much like Frodo in Lord of the Rings or Margret in North and South, no matter how hard she wished it, she could never go back.