By The Waters Of Babylon 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.”

Technology can be too smart for our own good. Nuclear bombs have killed innocent people and technology will too. In the Waters of Babylon by Stephen Vincent Benét there was a nuclear bomb that went off and destroyed everything but some people did survive. In There Will Come Soft Rains by Ray Bradbury there was a nuclear bomb that destroyed everything but a smart house. There Will Come Soft Rains was more disturbing than The Waters of Babylon because of the fact that it is about a house that has a brain type computer chip.

The story “There Will Come Soft Rains” by Ray Bradbury and the story “By the Waters of Babylon” by Stephen Vincent Benét seem very different at first glance but with a deeper look have many of the same elements. “...Babylon” was written during the time when the possibility of a second world war hung over Europe. The future was unknown. This of not knowing what the future would be like plays out in “...Babylon” where Benet paints a picture of how it might be and what our world may look like after an apocalypse. Bradbury is known for writing science fiction and fantasy. His story “...Rains”, like “...Babylon”, creates a picture of an apocalypse that could be in our future. Although the

were here before us. We must build again." They will learn the ways of the old

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

“‘I am not afraid,’ I said and looked at him with both eyes.” (Benét 458) The son told his father before going on his journey. By the Waters of Babylon is a thrilling story that was written by Stephen Vincent Benét about the son of a priest going to forbidden land. The story provides substantial details of the son’s journey and shows how a man when provided with an opportunity and an idea follows his instinct. The theme of this short story is that knowledge is eaten too fast without the thought of consequences.

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.

Two very good stories are The Chrysalids by John Wyndham and “By The Waters Of Babylon” by Stephen Vincent Benet. Both these stories are sci-fi and depict what human civilizations will be like after a nuclear holocaust. The result of the holocaust has altered the Hill People and Waknuk people’s morals and religious beliefs. The main difference between the stories is one is viewing the future as positive the other is portraying the future negatively. The Chrysalids was a better story. It portrayed what humans act like. In the following paragraphs many points will be looked upon to prove that The Chrysalids is a better story.

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.

“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

The contrast of the two settings in ‘By the Waters of Babylon’ helps to reveals the story’s purpose. John’s home is less advanced than the Gods. While John was on his quest to receive purification, he goes to the Place of the Gods. With in one of the houses he finds, “there was a washing place but no water…” (Benét 64).

In the story F. Scotts Fitzgerald dubbed, "Babylon Revisited" a story about a man named Charlie Wales who goes on a quest to go to Paris and bring back his daughter, Honoria, back home to live with him instead of his sister and brother-in-law. Charlie was a man who had a drinking problem when him and his wife were still together even when they had Honoria. Eventually, Charlie 's bad temperment led him to lock his wife out of his house which indirectly led to her untimely death and Honoria being taken away from him and put into the care of his sister/brother-in-law in Paris. Charlie tries to convince his brother and sister-in-law, Lincoln and Marion, to release Honoria into his custody to return back home in Prague. Charlie eventually convinces the both of them to give him back Honoria, but in the end after reflecting on the things that Charlie has done in the past and is current state the couple change their mind and tell him to first completely fix his drinking problem. Before diving into the analysis, a little background context for this time era is neccessary before going any further. This story occurs towards the end of the Great Depression where Charlie returns to Paris from a sanitarium because of his alcholism problem. The Great Depression was a time where the stock market crashed in 1929 and as a result, Charlie 's money crashed along with it which could have been the cause of his severe alcholism. Now that Charlie has returned to Paris though after a few years, he

“Araby” by James Joyce and “Babylon Revisited” are both stories written to convey everyday reality and truths of the narrator’s life. William Faulkner said during his Nobel Prize acceptance speech that an author “must not leave any room in his workshop for anything but the verities and truths of the heart”. How do these particular authors write embracing Faulkner’s opinion to convey everyday life truths and realities?

Written in 1930, Babylon Revisited is a story set in the Great Depression era, however the narrative represents American culture from across several years. F. Scott Fitzgerald, author of Babylon Revisited, succeeds in framing what American culture was in the 1920s as well as the early 1930s. The story exposes the two cultures through the protagonist Charlie Wales, a business man who “got lucky in the market.” In the story, Charlie’s lifestyle is shown as one of luxury and excess which defines the era before the Great Depression known as the “Roaring Twenties”. As Fitzgerald unravels the narrative, he creates a setting more representative of the time the story was written in. The underlying feeling of depression and loneliness contrasts with Charlie’s lifestyle creating an interesting clash of 1920s consumerism and the conservative culture Americans shifted towards as a result of the economic downturn. Babylon Revisited is a strong culturally relevant piece which explores American culture from the “Roaring Twenties” to the Great Depression era of the 1930s.

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.