Literary Analysis Of 'By The Waters Of Babylon'

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.

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

In “By the Waters of Babylon” and “Harrison Bergeron”, the future is portrayed in a distant and dystopian world, where there is a significant difference in the way they live compared to the past due to a catastrophic disaster or a change and government. “By the Waters of Babylon” takes place in the far future, where society has started over from scratch due to a major event. A tribe banded together, regarding their priests at the top of the social hierarchy. They relied on priests to acquire metal from the Dead Places, an act that would kill an ordinary citizen, and to complete tasks like healing the injured and teaching the general population. Jon, a son of a priest and a priest in training, requested to travel to find answers about his strong dreams and to increase his knowledge: “My knowledge and my lack of knowledge burned in me- I wished to know more” (43-44). He was sent out on a journey, the final step to becoming a priest, and was given a warning to not travel into the Place of the Gods. After getting a

Imagine going through life learning and following what is believed to be the true , just to find out that it is a lie. In the story “ By the Waters of Babylon” by Stephen Vincent Benet the narrator, John is on a quest to find more knowledge, however he ends up discovering unexpected truths on his journey that affects his lifelong beliefs. The story leads the reader to an interesting question: what is the relationship between knowledge and truth? Knowledge is the education or information that is gained about a subject, idea, or experience. Gaining knowledge is often helpful and rewarding to a person, however the information or facts that is received is not always 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

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.

In the beginning of the story, John is trapped inside the cave with the rest of his village. The cave prevents people from seeing the truth of their worlds in both stories. Their society “In by the Waters of Babylon,” has very strict rules. They can’t go to the east, go to the Dead Places, or go across the Great River, “These things are forbidden- they have been forbidden since the beginning of time,” John says (Benet, 109).

“‘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.

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.

John Cheever and F. Scott Fitzgerald are both 20th century writers whose story’s thematically reflected the despair and the emptiness of life. In both story’s “The Swimmer” and “Babylon Revisited” the main characters undergo similar problems, although they are presented differently in each story. The subject matter of both stories, pertain to the ultimate downfall of a man. “The Swimmer”, conveys the story of a man who swims his way into reality. He at first is very ignorant to his situation; however with the passing of time he becomes cognizant to the idea that he has lost everything. In “Babylon Revisited” the key character is a “recovering alcoholic”, who return to his homeland in hope to get his daughter back. However, problems from

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.