The Dangers of the Truth 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 …show more content…
At the realization of the truth, John breaks down and sobs, not only from seeing how his race had been devastated before, but also at the realization that all the knowledge he had gathered as a child was false. In his unyielding desire to learn more, he never thought of what would happen once he gained the knowledge that he wanted, and if he would be satisfied if it revealed something he didn’t want to learn. As both the reader and John begin to understand what this realization on John’s part means Benét’s lesson about truth and knowledge begins to manifest. With the truth of John’s ancestors revealed and how it was discovered that the priests in John’s culture have been proclaiming their knowledge without evidence, the relationship that one cannot have truth without knowledge begins to visualize. Benét doesn’t let this lesson stay one sided though, as if he was trying to portray the priests as only in the wrong, instead Benét writes John’s father to give insight as to why the priests may have lied about what they really knew and didn’t know, and why their ancestors didn’t want the truth to be revealed. John’s father says “Truth is a hard deer to hunt….you may die of the truth” and “He was right-it is better that the truth should come little by little” because John’s father is trying to say that the truth is a dangerous thing (Benét 321). While the truth is important, it can also be damaging if it shouldn’t be taught at the right
John was terrified of discovering the truth about his father. O’Brien explained that for John, “[Knowing] is to be disappointed. To understand is to be betrayed.” (242) While hiding the truth was convenient for John, the secrets piled up and ultimately proved to be too much of a burden. For as hard as John tried to cover up the truth, he always knew about his father’s drinking. “That was the worst part. The secret drinking that wasn’t secret,” O’Brien explained. (66) When Paul hanged himself, however, John was finally able to face the truth. He was still a child, and at the funeral he continually screamed in front of the entire procession, finally relieving himself of the burden of years of secrecy. While the truth of Paul’s alcoholism was not pretty, and was certainly less convenient to face than simply ignoring it, it was a significant relief for John. His mother explained: “I hate to say it, but it was a relief to have him out of the house. John and I, we both adored the man, but suddenly all the tension was gone and we could have supper without sitting there on the edge of our seats.” (97) Throughout the rest of John’s life, a similar process of hiding the truth and ultimately accepting it would repeat. As he progressed to the next stage of his life, as a young adult serving in the Vietnam War, John would bear a secret much heavier than his father’s
To find the truth, one may need to go against their beliefs. For example, when Lindsay needed to find information on Alfred Beach, architect of the Downside, she turned her friends away to discover the truth and veracity of the Downside. To illustrate,
ere is one major thing that people desire most. Knowledge. The similarities between John from “By the waters of Babylon” and Guy Montag from “F451” are impressive, and they are worthy of thorough assessment. In this paper I will compare John and Montag’s motivation, struggle, and outcome for their quest for knowledge. Careful review of their motivation, struggle, and outcome are worthy of thorough assessment.
“When you know the truth it will drive you insane”. The quote by Aldous Huxley perfectly encapsulates what happened to the character John throughout Brave New World. John idolizes the World State and always has wanted to go there. Since he has lived on a savage reservation his whole life he’s never known the luxuries such as “soma” and “feelies”. John has evolved a great deal throughout Brave New World, he started naive and hopeful, became skeptical of the World State’s greatness, and ended depressed and angry.
After a national tragedy has struck the United States, a group of survivors now has to learn how to survive on their own. In Alas, Babylon a nuclear war has just started that has majorly decreased the population in countries around the world leaving nuclear fallout in its path. Alas, Babylon takes place in the United States, Florida in a small town called Fort Repose. Frank writes, in his book Alas, Babylon, about Randy Bragg and a small group of survivors from River road that band together to take on all the changes that face them without the help from the government. The three methods of survival that Randy and his band of survivors use are making ways to process items and recharge batteries; reinventing old ways of transportation and replacing
Theme: Refusing to accept the truth is not new to John, he has been doing it since he was a boy, and once again these decisions will affect his later life in politics and in marriage.
John is a priest and the son of a priest and has a strong desire for knowledge, the reader can see this when he said, “My knowledge made me happy--it was like a fire in my heart” (Benet 312). From this thought, the reader can tell that John’s knowledge was an everyday necessity that he needed to have in order to function, like food or water. This also helps the reader understand how important knowledge is to John and the rest of society. The knowledge John receives is so important to him that it ultimately takes him on his quest and drives him to do certain things along the way. This is strongly shown when he commented, “Nevertheless, my knowledge and my lack of knowledge burned in me-I wished to know more” (Benet 312). With that statement, the reader notices that knowledge drove him to go on his quest because he wanted to learn more, because at this point he
were here before us. We must build again." They will learn the ways of the old
In the short “By the Waters of Babylon” By Stephen Vincent Benet the protagonist John. The son of an elite priest who travels to the forbidden place of the Gods where no one is allowed to go. The Major theme John’s father introduced was “Truth is a hard deer to Hunt. If you eat too much truth at once, you may die of the truth” (Benet 255). John’s father is telling him not to reveal too much truth because of the fear it will hurt peoples’ faith and will contradict it. In addition, if people are believing in one religion and have faith in it, if they discover too much of the truth about that religion which they are not supposed to know it will hurt their belief. The truth can also be harmful to people whose faith challenges those truths. To begin with, in the story John is portrayed as a very unique individual and different from average priests because when he touches metal he does not die, also John and his dad have learned and read from the books so they are very educated which a lot of people in their era at that time were not.
The path from ignorance to knowledge can look different for each individual. The pursuit of truth emerges as a fundamental aspect that guides our journey towards enlightenment. This pursuit not only leads people to truth, but to a broader understanding of how things work. This involves an individual to pursue the truth, question authority, and transform once one has finally broken from ignorance. These themes are explored through Sophocle’s play Antigone, Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, and the biblical passage Sermon on the Mount.
In the story “ By the Waters of Babylon” the narrator, John, is a priest who values knowledge greatly. In the story John states: “My knowledge made me happy--it was like a fire in my heart.” (312). Through the interpretation of this line the reader can infer that knowledge is very important to the narrator's culture and society. It is what inspires these quests and drives all of his actions. The narrator assumes that all of the knowledge that has been gained throughout a lifetime is true because he has yet to learn otherwise. In relation to John’s strong feelings about knowledge, He also feels as though he can never get enough. His need and desire for knowledge is described by the following quote: “Nevertheless, my knowledge and my lack of knowledge burned in me – I wished to know more.” (312). John
In “By the water of Babylon” by Stephen Vincent Benet the significance of knowledge is it creates power, which only the priest possess. Only the priests withhold the knowledge because they desire to hold the power in their society. At the end of page one John, the narrator, says he wished to gain more knowledge. The priest are the ones with the power and knowledge in his tribe so the reader can infer that John aspires for more power. Since the narrator is a priest’s son he can strive for higher knowledge; therefore, he also can attempt to gain higher power in his tribe. At the end of the story when John gains the knowledge of the Gods being men he says that he can not tell his tribe everything. John says he has to tell the truth little by little.
able to get to the truth. This play stands as an example to let people into the ideas that these
Wallace elaborates by stating that most individuals know these truths on a certain level. These truths have been continuously ingrained in us through old wives tales and cliches. These truths are the "skeletons" of these pieces of literature. The reason for which the ingrained stories seem to not be performed in the real world is due to the fact that the truths behind these codified versions of the truth are not kept at the forefront of our minds. The truths hidden within these stories are what must be kept at he top of our conscious instead of the codified truths.
When civilizations were learning to think clearly and trying to come out of the darkness of ignorance, the ancient Masters of Bharat(India) were enquiring on the nature of Truth. The enquiry started with