Children in Fitzgerald: The forgotten, the ignored

A few observations about F. Scott Fitzgerald's "Tender is the Night," such as: is it odd to you that he introduces the theme of incest right at the outset, Nicole Warren's various breakdowns that land her, as a teenager, in a psychiatric clinic in Switzerland, evidently the result of her incestuous relation with her father. Then, after Dick Diver and Nicole marry and Dick meets and is smitten by young ingenue American actress Rosemary, we learn that the movie in which R. has just made her debut is called Daddy's Girl. What to make of that? It's a book in a sense about perverse parenting: The Diver's have two children, but are children ever more ignored in a book than in this one? I have already made the comparison between Fitzgerald and Henry James, in that both write about Americans in Europe who have too much money and too few responsibilities and to a great extent are wasting their lives and talents - but in James, at least, there is some sense of responsibility for and caring for children. Yes, the adults ignore them and are cruel to them - but James does not, he cares about them and understands them and sympathizes with the way they are mistreated - see What Maisie Knew and Turn of the Screw, two examples - but in Fitzgerald the children get less attention that the plants by the side of the road, they're not even described, barely even named - in Tender is the Night the daughter comes out to sing a little lullaby, how sweet, and then is heard no more. There's a certain glamor to Fitzgerald characters, at least when they're younger, but a certain awfulness to them as they mature, or as they don't. They not only have no responsibilities, they are irresponsible.