Leadership In Alas Babylon

Leadership can be defined as the action of leading a group of people or an organization. In the novel “Alas Babylon” Pat Frank, provides many themes throughout the book, including the theme of leadership. Leadership was crucial for the people in the novel because without leaders their society would collapse. “Alas Babylon,” a post-apocalyptic novel based on the time of the Cold war in the early 1940’s. Leadership is considered the most influential theme of the novel. “Alas Babylon” takes place in Fort Repose. Near a small river town in central Florida. At that time, there was a nuclear holocaust that was set in motion which lead to the death of tens of millions of citizens. That was just the beginning; the event referred to as ‘The Day.’ “Everybody remembered exactly what they did, saw, and said on ‘The Day’. People unconsciously were inclined to split time into two new periods, before ‘The Day,’

Their only connection to the outside world was cut off. Life at that time had been very dependent on electricity, making life so much more difficult, having electricity and power one day, just to have it stripped away from you in an instant. “...The struggle was not against a human enemy, or for victory. The struggle, for those who survived "The Day", was to survive the next.” (Frank, P. 123)

We are able to draw many similarities between the struggles of the characters that “Alas Babylon,” must face in our own day and time. Considering recent natural disasters, all around the world people are rising up and taking charge in order to provide the safety for others. The novel ‘Alas, Babylon,’ brings fear of life in a world that lived under the danger of nuclear war. This is something many young people in today’s world still may not understand. “The novel vividly brings to life the fears of today’s generation of the world.” (https://www.prestwickhouse.com/book/id-203281/Alas_Babylon