In the story “By the Waters of Babylon” written by Stephen Vincent Benet, the author reveal to us what could happen to society in the future. This alarmed us to look around and think twice about our actions today. Especially with the events that have been going on, we are much alarmed now than ever before. In this era, we have discovered many scientific findings but we are only taking them for granted. In the story, it was mentioned that the dead place was destroyed by the “gods” themselves. It is reflected the actions we humans are doing to our planet today and the possible outcome if we don’t stop. This story is told in the first person point of view of a boy and his journey to gain knowledge. As the story progress, we are able to get a glimpse of his thoughts and feelings along the way. His adventure as he searches the Dead Place was shared with us. Along with his findings, we are able to see his reactions, feelings, and thoughts through his eyes. In the story, we were able to see his dream about the Dead Place before it turned into ancient ruins. With this point of view, we were able to put the puzzle together and figure out where and what was happening in the story. The story “By the Waters of Babylon” written by Stephen Vincent Benet. In the point of view of the protagonist of the …show more content…
story, a boy named John who tells his journey and adventure to expand his knowledge about the “Dead Place”. Throughout the story, his determination to successfully arrive at the place of the gods were successful as he searches the place to share with the hill people. The “hill people” are the people in Johns community who are unknowledgeable about the place of the gods, therefore, the hill people need someone to learn the primitive world to fully understand what has happened before their age. There they assign a priest to whoever touches the metal in the dead place. John is a priest and the son of a priest so his life was already set on becoming a priest himself. He is determined to go to the dead place to acquire more knowledge. But even priest have their limits, they must not travel East to the dead place for it is forbidden but John got too curious which the story then builds from there. When the narrator set foot to his journey, he went to the “Dead place” where the gods used to live although it was forbidden to set foot to the place of the gods, curiosity struck John. It was described as apocalyptic and was in ruins. The story did not specially mention where the story took place but it does give clues. It was mentioned that it was torn apart by ‘the great burning’ which was caused by the gods themselves. One of the clues mentioned was about John finding a statue of a god named “ASHING” which from my knowledge could also be known as George Washington. The houses that John went was described as the houses we know today. It is possible that it's describing New York or Washington D.C. John is a curious boy which can be a problem for himself for he is desired to learn more about the Place of the Gods. He is determined to learn as much as he can even if it means breaking the rules and risking his life. Throughout the journey, John gained more knowledge about the gods which lead to a conflict between John and himself. He fears that he will find an information that he might not want to accept. But the society was also a problem for John for he had to avoid the hill people.After exploring the dead place John realized that the gods were just men like him. When John got home he told his dad his experience and the rules he disobeyed and will accept the consequences of his actions. In the story it says, “That is all of my story, for then I knew he was a man—I knew then that they had been men, neither gods nor demons. It is a great knowledge, hard to tell and believe.” John tried to accept what he has discovered but knew that it mustn't be all share to the hill people all at ones. The story is told in a suspense, mysterious and terrifying way.
The way the story was told makes you curious for it does not mention specific details a story would mention the settings. In the eyes of John, we got to see his experience in his journey to the dead place. Felt the frightening experiences when he crossed the bridge or when he was being chased by the pack of wolves. Or the terrifying image of John's dream about the dead place before the great burning. “Then I saw the dead god. He was sitting in his chair, by the window, in a room I had not entered before and, for the first moment, I thought that he was alive.”This gets the whole mood enlightened and
terrifying. By the Waters of Babylon focuses on the title which is a clear allusion to Psalm 137 of the Bible. It started with John, a priest and a son of a priest. Living in a society of people who are ignorant and unknowledgeable. Priest has the privilege to go to the dead place where John will be going on his journey to become a priest. He set foot to his journey to the Place of the Gods where he gained knowledge to share with the hill people. When he arrived there he learned many from when the gods were still alive. He had a dream where it showed the life of the gods before the apocalypse. It has shown that the gods were men just like him and John tried to accept. He went home and told his father what he had seen but knew that it would be too much for the hill people to take in all at ones. Knowledge truly does come with a prize.
Budge, E. A. Babylonian Story of the Deluge and the Epic of Gilgamesh. Montana, USA: Kessinger Publishing Co., n.d.
What is the you thoroughly understand the term “allegory” and that you can discuss “Babylon Revisited” as an allegory?—This question is garbled and does not make sense.
In the short story “By the Waters of Babylon” by Stephen Vincent Benet, the theme of truth is revealed by Johns father when he said, "Truth is a hard deer to hunt. If you eat too much truth at once, you may die of the truth” (Benet 326). “By the Waters of Babylon” focuses on the thought that man is capable of anything and everything, including diminishing itself. The author establishes the theme of truth throughout the story by the futuristic setting, the first person narrator point of view, and the archetypal quest throughout the story.
He centers his travels and experiences on nature and what he saw. Scott Momaday also uses multiple voices to portray a sense of past and present to give the reading a different dimension. He includes tales of folklore, self-experience and a poetic twist. To dissect a bit of the nature of the story, the very first sentence in the story has a deeper meaning than what it seems.... ... middle of paper ...
When drastic times occur and sweep one of everything they own, do they have a plan of action? Will they be prepared for a life without power, resources, and stability? Many times when people are faced with this situation they find themselves unprepared and unable to live in such conditions. They lose the connections with the world, the water they drink is likely to get contaminated, and the scarcity of goods is a threat to themselves and anyone left alive. Everywhere around them there is death and destruction leaving them isolated in their own dystopia. Pat Frank’s Alas, Babylon illustrates a nuclear bomb simulation. In such a way, he gives the readers a taste of isolation and survival needs when facing such drastic times. So the question is: how does one survive in the isolation left behind from a nuclear war?
Alas Babylon, by Pat frank, is a story that revolves round the actions of a single idea, survival. This is reflected in his choice of the title in itself. It is a phrase that is repeated several times in the book, and brings a sense of uneasiness each time. These words come from a part of the “Revelations of St. John, which describes the decadence of Babylon and the evils that surrounded it at the time (Pg.14-15).” The characters in this book, Mark, and Randy Bragg, began using this phrase from a preacher that they used to listen to as kids. “Randy and Mark never forgot preacher Henry’s thundering, and from it, they borrowed their private synonym for disaster, real or comic, past or future (Pg.15).”
The short story by the waters of Babylon and the movie planet of the apes were both futuristic stories. They also both showed the evil sides of today’s man and the chaos and mass destruction that we are capable of accomplishing. They portrayed today’s man as selfish, violent, and full of hate and rage. By the waters of Babylon was written from the point of view of a boy close to becoming a man who knew nothing of his past civilization. Whereas in the movie planet of the apes it was from the point of view of a man that had come nearly directly from that past civilization. The main people in charge keep knowledge from the public so they do not know the evils that they are capable of as to protect them from making the same mistake.
"He would come back some day; they couldn’t make him pay forever. But he wanted his child, and nothing was much good now, beside that fact. He wasn’t young any more, with a lot of nice thoughts and dreams to have by himself. He was absolutely sure Helen wouldn’t have wanted him to be so alone."
A person who realizes his life's mistakes and has a desire for change, can change the course of his life in the other direction, leaving behind their bad dependencies and habits.
Charlie's Attempt to Overcome the Past in Fitzgerald's Babylon Revisited Babylon Revisited is made up of different characters with different ideologies in life. The Protagonist, Charlie is a reformed alcoholic who had come back to take his daughter. Marion is Charlie's sister- in - law who dislikes him because she thinks he caused her sister's death. I think Marion is emotionally disturbed. She overacts to things that happen in everyday life.
In life, one must realize that it is impossible to be perfect and so there are always going to be things that one will regret. Modernist author, F. Scott Fitzgerald, in his short story, "Babylon Revisited", tells the story of a man who has made many mistakes in his life and is living with these regrets and trying desperately to bring his life back together. In the story, Fitzgerald draws heavily upon the current events of the world he is living in and uses the present to depict the past.
In the short story Babylon Revisited, F. Scott Fitzgerald reveals Charlie Wales’ struggles to regain his pride alongside dealing with internal conflicts after coming to terms with his alcoholism and the death of his wife. When Charlie begins to put his life back together he is in constant remembrance of all the negative things he did in his past. Fitzgerald characterizes Charlie through diction, imagery and syntax to convey his impact of the overall theme of the past cannot be escaped through constant struggle.
Truth is constantly sought out in Fountain and Tomb. Our young narrator is often like a detective, listening attentively to conversations, making keen observations of situations, and seeking out answers to questions he doesn’t know. “The day is lovely but redolent with mystery,” our narrator says, identifying all the unknowns in the world around him (Mahfouz, 15).
The story begins as the boy describes his neighborhood. Immediately feelings of isolation and hopelessness begin to set in. The street that the boy lives on is a dead end, right from the beginning he is trapped. In addition, he feels ignored by the houses on his street. Their brown imperturbable faces make him feel excluded from the decent lives within them. The street becomes a representation of the boy’s self, uninhabited and detached, with the houses personified, and arguably more alive than the residents (Gray). Every detail of his neighborhood seems designed to inflict him with the feeling of isolation. The boy's house, like the street he lives on, is filled with decay. It is suffocating and “musty from being long enclosed.” It is difficult for him to establish any sort of connection to it. Even the history of the house feels unkind. The house's previous tenant, a priest, had died while living there. He “left all his money to institutions and the furniture of the house to his sister (Norton Anthology 2236).” It was as if he was trying to insure the boy's boredom and solitude. The only thing of interest that the boy can find is a bicycle pump, which is rusty and rendered unfit to play with. Even the “wild” garden is gloomy and desolate, containing but a lone apple tree and a few straggling bushes. It is hardly the sort of yard that a young boy would want. Like most boys, he has no voice in choosing where he lives, yet his surroundings have a powerful effect on him.
The tone and allusions are important for John to portray how death is insignificant and irrelevant and that after death one moves on to a better place: heaven.