By the Waters of Babylon by Stephen Vincen Benet

In literature, one of the most curious events is the spontaneous decisiveness of mood. For example, in some stories, the mood always remains cheery, while, in others, it is unchangeable and will always be lonely and sad so that the author can not bring warmth and solace to the story despite their attempts to portray their world softly? When reading short stories such as “The Fog Horn” by Ray Bradbury, “By the Waters of Babylon” by Stephen Vincent Benet, and especially “The Dangerous One” by Madeline Sunshine, the reader may experience the peculiar sensation of this vacuum of feeling. Perhaps it is an unknown literary technique that determines this style of writing. With a direct approach, we can decide that future settings in a utilitarian environment, along with themes focussed more on the do not’s than the do’s evoke moods that command the emotions of fear and sadness, and siphons hate and desperation from their reader.

In an effort to support this idea, we can carefully dissect and examine “By the Waters of Babylon” by Stephen Vincent Benet. It is placed in a fairly definitive time, the future (post 1930’s). It is centered around the long abandoned and decrepit New York City. Several references can be discerned by the allusions to the “UBTREAS” (SubTreasury) and “ASHING” (George Washington). The setting is incredibly vivid and strikes the box, and the theme also resonates with this concept of setting and theme adjusting plot. The father explains towards the end of the story “If you eat too much truth at once, you may die of truth.” This theme can be interpreted to iterate that knowledge is not what hurts the world, it is abuse of knowledge that hurts it. The theme follows this rule of saying what not to do instead of what to d...

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...uote “‘Beware! A Dangerous One is on the loose. He is roaming the city and may be armed.’” (1). The voice uses technical terms, but the reader is still able to grasp the meaning and, like “By the Waters of Babylon,” the tone is very upright to produce a distant, somber feeling.

To conclude, it should be evident that a faded, future setting and a theme relating to the do not’s of something seemingly innocent will leave a sad mood so carefully described previously. If someone decides to write or read a story taking place in the future when no one else can read, and your mind is controlled by the machine that destroyed the world, it is inevitable that the reader will be left feeling stranded and alone. If this reader itself is reading this on a cold November evening when all else feels cold and dead, it should enjoy its company, and curl a little closer to the heater.