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.
The Chrysalids takes place in an eastern part of Canada called Labrador. It is set in the future after a nuclear
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Petra, David’s little sister starts communicating with a lady from a place called Sealand. The people from Sealand then come to save them. Near the end of the novel the Sealand people arrive and save them. When they finally arrive in Sealand David realizes that the dream he had was of Sealand.
The story “By the Waters of Babylon” is about a young man named John. He is the son of a priest in his community. He ventures off into the dead places. While sleeping in an old building from the old people, he has a dream. It is about a city with bright lights and funny looking objects. He then seeks out this city of the gods. On his quest he finds the truth, about the old people. They did not have magic but they had technology instead. John brings back the news and tells his father. His father accepts the truth and they slowly tell their community.
The Chrysalids and “By The Waters Of Babylon” also have many similarities in plot. The main character in both stories travels to forbidden lands. Also the main characters were both sons of highly respected men in their communities. Both of the characters end up with a better life in the end. Both characters have dreams about the truth which makes them go on quests.
These novels had some differences in plot as well, but not too many. One main difference is that the societies view dead places differently. Waknuk views dead places as a place of the devil in comparison to
Like I said before, there are major differences between these two. Some are very visible; the names of the characters. There are others that even though are minor, they are completely unnecessary. This minor differences are small details that we remember from the book, and we were expecting to
“By The Waters of Babylon” is a short story written by Stephen Vincent Benet that explores the innate behaviors of human beings and describes the aftermath of a nuclear war. In the beginning of the story, the narrator, John, introduces a taboo that is normal amongst his tribe,“The Hill People.” This indigenous law states that it is forbidden to cross the great river and to look upon the Place of the Gods, for it was greatly populated with spirits and demons. As a manifestation of John’s step towards adulthood or priesthood, John embarks on his curiosity voyage to the Place of the Gods, defying the well established rule within their tribe. Upon his arrival, he stumbles on an elusive and isolated setting with advanced technologies, which he deemed magical. Due to John’s expedition, he accumulated a plethora of knowledge and soon realized that the Place of the Gods was only a superstition and it was, in fact, a city of men.
The first similarity is that both of the novels are written by Negro slave. They described the cruel experience in southern plantation and escape from the southern slavery to northern freedom.
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
In this essay, I am going to compare and constrast the two stories. One is "By the Waters of Babylon" by Stephen Vincent Benet and the other is "Anthem" by Ayn Rand. In "By the Waters of Babylon", the author basically compares and the house of the gods and the Dead Place. In "Anthem", the characters in the story finds an underground place where no one should go.
“‘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.
The book I read was Never To Forget The Jews of the Holocaust by Milton Meltzer. The book is written by Meltzer’s true story of the. It tells the story of when over five million Jewish people were massacred. The book has no characters. From beginning to end the book takes place in Germany. It only tells the straight forward account of the Jewish Holocaust. He writes the story in an interesting view point because he is an old American Jew, watching events of the war from newspapers and radios. Writing the book in informational facts. The first chapter is entitled “History of Hatred.” It describes the horrible conditions Jews had to endure prior to the date January of 1933, Hitler comes to power. It also explains how the Jews were enslaved
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.
John continued his journey the Place of the Gods, continuously he found out more truths. Spirits drew his spirit from his body, he could see his own body lying on the ground asleep. The spirits showed John what it was like when the gods lived. They did not sleep when the sun went down, for they made their own light. Their chariots blocked the streets, it was
Newfound knowledge without understanding the consequences can bring about more damage that may outweigh any good believed to of been caused by the discovery. In the book By the Waters of Babylon the protagonist John lives in a society unlike any that exists today. His people are deeply religious and believe very strongly in a past world inhabited by Gods. This story takes the reader on a journey of uncovering the truth about the Place of the Gods while showing the reader how new discoveries can drastically change entire civilizations. Understanding the epic hero journey archetype allows the reader to follow the protagonist on his discovery of the past and the realization of the power that comes with it.
The story “By The Water Of Babylon”, written by Stephen Vincent Benet, has a plethora of aspects of literary elements that depict the story. The following analyzes the story using the seven elements of fiction.
his father and dead mother. David's father has an idealized vision of his son as
Both of these works have very similar narrators. By just reading the works, they seem very different because of who they killed and why, where and with whom they lived, and how they murdered their victims. But, by analyzing the two men, they become more and more alike. They both tell their stories in the first person and write from their jail cells. Each chose to reference an animal in their stories. The two men, both hide the corpses in the structures of the homes. Likewise, the narrators try to defend their sanity by logically justifying their horrific actions based on their mental states throughout the flashbacks of the events.
Another similarity would be the characters in both stories. They are faced with the hard reality as they come to find out they weren't living in