Alas, Babylon By Pat Frank: Paragraph Analysis

          In the story, “by the waters of babylon”, the character John is a protagonist. He is the son of a priest and wants john to become a priest too. The reason  that the character  John is a protagonist because his thoughts and emotions are expressed throughout the story. In the story the author states, “so i learned the ways of those houses-and if i saw bones, i was no longer afraid.”

While we have seen examples in history from the grueling and manipulative reign of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime in the early 20th century. We also see the current conflict in Syria and North Korea on how they use fear and illusion on its people. These realities conquer the idea of that of 1984 and Fahrenheit 451 as the masses are being controlled or either rebelling to a war on strict government. In the end, this film and novel only further conveys the struggle of—men and women--who are under the harsh reality of

Did you know “it is strictly forbidden to cross the river and look upon the place of the gods”-By The Waters Of Babylon. Stephen Vincent Benet wrote “By The Waters Of Babylon”. He introduces the priest and the son of the priest John. In “The Waters Of Babylon” there was a quest to be fulfilled, but no one was brave enough to fulfill that. John felt an internal passion to go on the quest. So at the end he gained knowledge that everyone was afraid of. The author “By The Waters Of Babylon” uses modern society as textual symbols which are spirits and demons, deer, and a door with a broken lock.

Which would you value more-knowledge, or truth? Stephen Vincent Benét explores this question in his short story “By the Waters of Babylon”. However, Benét doesn’t answer this question exactly, instead “By the Waters of Babylon” focuses more on a singular theme that knowledge and truth are intertwined. Benét brings the reader into a post-apocalyptic world where humans have resorted to a more primitive state after the “Great Burning”(310). Now the only humans left with any knowledge are the Priests, and John happens to be the son of one. John has been exposed to the only remaining knowledge that he’s been told his society has at that the time and now quest for more. This burning desire that John has to know more of

In modern day society, we revolve our lives around technology with our constant need to have the newest gadgets. Little do we know that this new technology is taking over our world in big ways. In the story, By The Waters Of Babylon, it tells the tale of a young priest who travels to a forbidden place to find out the truth of what happened before the “Great Burning.” The more he explored, the more he uncovered the shocking truth behind the life in the “old days.” This is portrayed by the author, Stephen Vincent Benet, who conveys a theme of technological advancements can set us back, using the literary techniques of exposition, imagery, and symbols.

Pre warned by Mark Bragg, Randy’s brother, Randy prepares for the arrival of his sister-in-law, niece, and nephew; along

What is the most important thing to know about knowledge you are given? The answer is simple, the truth. In the story “By the Waters of Babylon” the main character John is on a quest for knowledge. In his civilization the priests are the wisest and most knowledgeable people. John is the son of a priest and wants to become one himself. John is obsessed with finding more knowledge. John says, “My knowledge made me happy--it was like a fire in my heart” (Benet 312). He dreams of going to on a journey to the The Dead Place, a place that is forbidden for any of his people to go to.

Knowing the historical context of a work is crucial to understanding both its general meaning and its deeper essence. Often times, authors use their works as outlets to freely express their personal feelings toward a social trend or issue. As such, the time in which a story is written can have a strong influence on the message the author is trying to convey to his or her reader. Their personal reflections can be asserted in many ways; among the most common being through the characters themselves and their development throughout the work, the setting, and the implied themes.

“Alas, Babylon”, the book written by Pat Frank, takes place during the Cold War. Randy Bragg is the main character in this story, and he has to take up the responsibility of a town leader, and the “father” of his brother’s family. Over time, Randy becomes very tough and strict, but at the beginning of the book, he seems very lazy and bachelor-like. On page 4, the quote “As she wrestled with her girdle, Florence’s thoughts gravitated to the equally prying behavior of Randy Bragg. There he was, brazenly immodest in checked red and black pajamas, sitting on his front steps, knees akimbo and binoculars pressed to his eyes… She ducked back against the bedroom wall, hands protecting her breasts,” uses imagery to describe the childish and immature

“Is there, then an evil that is innate, that is the little piece of monster in all of us.” (Cusatis). Every person has two sides, no one is completely good or completely evil. In the East of Eden, John Steinbeck uses a biblical metaphor to illustrate the innate good and evil that humans encounter. The novel includes several characters that are purely evil or do evil deeds. The Trask family is directly correlated to the Garden of Eden and other biblical narratives. “Steinbeck puts more into his stories than Genesis 4” (Fontenrose). Steinbeck illustrates the concepts of good and evil, family, and love to describe the frailties of the human experience.

Living in worlds of racial and societal oppression had the effect on 4 different characters in 3 different books. Each character was impacted differently, and as a result, sought for a solution through different adventures. For Janie, she went through 3 different husbands in an attempt to find love and to please her Grandmother and the society. For Huck and Jim, they ran away from their problems. Huck wanted to get away from his society, and feel free to think in his own way and grow on his own, and not from the help of the law or people around him. Jim wanted to be free and so he ran away from slavery. For Maya, her oppression helped her grow as a human being, and all of the experiences that she went through while growing up had helped to

Our parents always told us that we should have goals and dreams in our life, and through them we will gain happiness. There are some things in life that get in the way of our dreams and goals. In the Declaration of Independence, It states that we have the right to pursue happiness. For example having everybody in the world be equal, and not be shamed upon or looked at differently due to the color of their skin. The poem ¨The Negro Mother,¨ the play A Raisin in the Sun, and the article Innocence Is Irrelevant, all show how our society and they way people can get in the way of our happiness.

“To realize the American Dream, the most important thing to understand is that it belongs to everybody. It is a human dream. If you understand this and work very hard it is possible.” However it is not always guaranteed. A Raisin in The Sun by Lorraine Hansberry is a story about a family who continues to struggle while reaching towards The American Dream. The American Dream is described as “The ideal that every US citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative.” The Youngers are a hard-working family who all have different interpretations of the American Dream. Mama, Walter, and Beneatha’s shared powerful dreams that give the a look into The American Dream. Despite

The main theme in the short story “Babylon Revisited” is that you can’t repeat the past. Charlie has a lot of hope for the future, but his guilt from the past catches up with him. He tries to forget about the Paris he used to know, but memories from the past haunts him throughout the story. His past is inescapable and he has to pay great debts when the party comes to an end. “Babylon Revisited”, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald was published in 1931. The story is greatly affected by the time period it was written in, and by what was going on in Fitzgerald’s life.

Babylonian civilization is considered as one of the most important civilizations in the ancient world. The Babylonians took and developed everything after the Sumerians civilization especially in the spiritual realm and in the field of building an integrated civilization. The earlier civilizations had big role in the Babylonians civilization period when Babylonians took all the cuneiform writing, mathematical and astronomical knowledge, in addition to that the method of building cities, dams and etc. they improved all of them. The development of knowledge continued by Babylonian where the Sumerians stop, and the Babylonian built an empire for themselves on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in the southern part of Sumer (Iraq). "The first Amuriyahian family has ruled over Babylon in the period (1830- 1530 BC), when Babylon was a mini-states at the time." Then the greatest king of Babylonian Hammurabi appeared in the seventeenth century BC. He established a famous group of laws known by (Hammurabi code).Also he was the king who united this petty States and achieved an important architectural movement in the city of Babylon.