Alas Babylon, by Pat Frank

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Recommended: Threat of nuclear wars

The threat of nuclear warfare has been a fear tactic used multiple times to settle issues between countries. In Pat Frank’s Alas Babylon, Frank focuses on Fort Repose, a small community in rural Florida. Frank centers the time frame on the height of the Cold War between Soviet Russia and the United States. Opening on how connections can save lives and change lives. Randy Bragg and the town of Fort Repose is dealt a lucky hand when Randy’s brother, Mark, a military man tips Randy off to the threat of a nuclear strike. Mark disguises the warning through a telegram telling Randy that Mark’s wife, Helen, and two children, Peyton and Ben Franklin, will be coming down to visit also asking Randy to meet him at the Base Ops McCoy in Orlando at noon that day. Mark closes the telegram with Alas Babylon. Hearing these words strikes fear in Randy and makes his heart ache. To some people Alas Babylon would be gibberish, or of no importance, but to Randy it meant something far more. Alas Babylon is a code that Mark and Randy agreed to use if the likely hood of a nuclear strike was high Randy, in the concern that a nuclear war was close, had his house maid, Missouri, prepare room for Helen and her children. Randy then made his way to the Base Ops McCoy, a two hour trip. (Frank 8, 9, 14)
Once Mark and Randy were safely in Randy’s car, Mark informed Randy on the dangerous situation arising. The Russians, for three hundred years, have been trying to control the Mediterranean. At the time of the Cold War the idea was thought to be control space. But, things changed for some reason. Now the Russians are placing bridgeheads in the Mediterranean. Mark is concerned because many Soviet subs and ships are appearing where there were one few or none. The ...

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...re were so many people killed and mutated from the blast and the radioactive chemicals. As a country we (the United States) say that nuclear weapons should not be used, yet we are the only country to have ever used nuclear warfare. Think if the United States was the country hit instead of Japan. Everything would be different and the United States would not be the country it is today. Frank shows the scenario of the U.S getting hit in the Cold War. Frank also shows the struggle that would ensue to survive and rebuild from what is left.

Works Cited editors, Spark notes. Spark notes on alas babylon. 31 october 2013. 6 november 2013 .
FEMA. "Protection in the nuclear age." The federal civil defense act of 1950, as amended public law 920-81st congress (1950): 3.
Frank, Pat. Alas Babylon. New York: HarperColliins Publisher Inc., 1959.

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