Pat Frank's Alas, Babylon

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"You see, all their lives, ever since they've known anything, they've lived under the shadow of war—atomic war. For them the abnormal has become normal. All their lives they have heard nothing else, and they expect it” (Frank 85). Alas, Babylon is a book written by Pat Frank about the post-apocalyptic society of Fort Repose, Florida. The story follows Randy Bragg as he finds out what it really means to take care of the people around him in a nuclear war. Loosely based off of Alas, Babylon, the television series Jericho follows the community of Jericho, Kansas. The plot follows Jake Green and his companions as the learn to cope with the recent nuclear attacks. Even though the novel Alas Babylon and the television series Jericho are different in their settings, their biblical titles, their major plot points, and their characters are major similarities between the two works. …show more content…

The phrase “Alas, Babylon” is used in the novel as a warning for an approaching nuclear attack. The origin of the phrase in from scripture, Revelation 18:10. The verse describes Babylon, a city of sin, being destroyed by God. This is relevant to the novel because many major cities were destroyed by the nuclear blasts. Similarly, the city in the television series is Jericho is Jericho, Kansas. The name Jericho also comes from the Bible in Joshua 6:1-27. In the passage, the Israelites march around the walls of Jericho for seven days. On the seventh day, the walls fall and the city of Jericho is destroyed. Given these points, there obvious similarities between the biblical titles of the television series Jericho and the novel Alas,

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