Pat Frank's Alas Babylon

presented with the atom bomb and the history of what Roosevelt had been trying to

Hydrogen bombs are an exceedingly controversial subject; they enable humans to act as a pseudo god, giving us the ability to destroy all life in a matter of hours. In May 1982 in St.John’s cathedral Kurt Vonnegut gave a unique speech on hydrogen bombs explaining America needs them to protect from fates worse than death. Instead of a traditional and delicate speech about the atrocities of hydrogen bombs Kurt breaks formal etiquette almost immediately with jokes, humor and lightheartedness. By analyzing the diction and syntax Kurt uses in his speech a reader can see how Kurt overcomes controversy, gains his audience’s respect through ethos, and persuades them with logos and pathos.

The threat of nuclear warfare has been a fear tactic used multiple times to settle issues between countries. In Pat Frank’s Alas Babylon, Frank focuses on Fort Repose, a small community in rural Florida. Frank centers the time frame on the height of the Cold War between Soviet Russia and the United States. Opening on how connections can save lives and change lives. Randy Bragg and the town of Fort Repose is dealt a lucky hand when Randy’s brother, Mark, a military man tips Randy off to the threat of a nuclear strike. Mark disguises the warning through a telegram telling Randy that Mark’s wife, Helen, and two children, Peyton and Ben Franklin, will be coming down to visit also asking Randy to meet him at the Base Ops McCoy in Orlando at

These ventures into atomic agriculture and medicine were primarily fueled by organizations like the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) and were used to justify a reason for atomic research that did not revolve around atomic weapons. This concern about the uses of atomic energy is further reflected in Eisenhower’s “Atom’s Peace” speech when he says, “Against the dark background of the atomic bomb, the United States does not wish merely to present strength, but also the desire and the hope for peace.” This quotation shows the need for peaceful applications of atomic energy.

After World War II, especially in the aftermath of the deployment of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, people were irrationally fearful of the deadly and destructive forces of nuclear warfare. In a section of the book Technology entitled “The Race for Space”, the author examines the psychological effects of fear of nuclear weapons.

“To the world you may be just another person, but to one person you may just be the world (Snyder, ThinkExist.com). In Pat Frank’s book, Alas Babylon, Randy Bragg is no one of importance. He is failed politician that lives off his family’s land in a small town, Fort Repose, in Florida. But For this small town lawyer everything was about to change. The United States had been on edge of Nuclear Warfare with Russia for years. Frank writes on about how one man, Randy Bragg, redeems himself from a failed politician to a somewhat of a town hero (Frank).

On September 14, 1982 President Reagan and Dr. Edward Teller (father of the hydrogen bomb) held a meeting to discuss how to develop the most effective method of defense against intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). Teller wrote Reagan a two-page letter in which he called his research “the most important one in strategic military affairs since

Even today, 71 years after the first use of the atomic bomb, people praise Oppenheimer’s many contributions to science but also question his ethics in the development of the atomic bomb. However, I believe J. Robert Oppenheimer was a visionary leader and ethical leader as his contributions advanced science and put an end to a great war.

The novel I did was Alas,Babylon. In the story it talks about a nuclear attack and how their lives are while it's going on. Alas,Babylon was a code that Randolph Bragg and his brother a air force colonel Mark Bragg used when there was an emergency and they needed to talk to each other. Some objects that make the novel appropriate for the time period of 1959 was some of the things that Helen Bragg and Randy used. They used vacuums, radios, phones, and cars which all were made before the year of 1959. The location of the novel was in Fort Repose on the Timucuan River in central Florida which was appropriate for the time period because Fort Repose was a place that the war affected. When Randy heard about the nuclear attack coming soon from Mark

1. The main conflict in the novel is ‘man vs. society.’ Randy was constantly put against the highwaymen. Randy really wanted and was trying to create peace and order in Fort Repose post nuclear attacks while the highwaymen was using violence to get everything they needed.

was not the truth. This book showed the harsh reality of war that most people

Father Wilhelm Kleinsorge’s journey in the book Hiroshima was extremely exciting and touched me personally. His acts of heroism even in bad conditions and constant xenophobia by the locals show how he was truly selfless. Even though he was brave and a hero his journey did not have that much of an effect on my views on the use of atomic bombs in Japan in World War II.

The nature of the Atomic Bomb created a global and theoretical set of stakeholders that few other ethical dilemmas reach. In many ways this use of nuclear technology created the Cold War and the global fear of a nuclear Armageddon. At that time every citizen of the globe feared how the use of nuclear weapons would harm them and their world. The future is also a stakeholder in this conversation. The effects of nuclear fallout were not well understood at the time. Nuclear aftermath could last for decades and even longer, effecting the health and livelihood of all living things for generations to come. The information that could be collected and research opportunities created after a nuclear weapon detonation would be studied for centuries and will change medicine and research forever. Future citizens and scientists were also stakeholders in this decision.

War is a hard genre to write a novel on. Except this does not seem to be the case for two authors. Khaled Hosseini and Charles Dickens both write best-selling novels with their book’s universe entangled in a war and the protagonist to cope in live amongst this (a) chaotic scene. Furthermore, both their most remarkable novels, Great Expectations by Charles Dickens and the Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini have comparable themes in the misted of their treacherous climaxes such as: the exploration of social class, redemption and self-improvement explored throughout the novel largely through the characters, as well as friendship being disowned by both protagonists.

When President Harry S. Truman ordered the nuclear attack on Hiroshima on the 6th of August, 1945, most people were supportive of it because it ended the war before an invasion became necessary. Seventy two years since the first and last nuclear attacks, many 'traditionalist' historians still believe that Truman made the best possible decision in the given circumstances. However, in the 1960's, Truman's critics, who reinterpreted history began to believe that the bomb played no significant role in ending the war and was thus unnecessarily used. These revisionist historians have gone so far as to characterize the use of nuclear weapons as “the single greatest acts of terrorism in human history” (Awan, 16). On the other hand, traditionalists argue that the bomb was an important