Short Story '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.

Did you know “it is strictly forbidden to cross the river and look upon the place of the gods”-By The Waters Of Babylon. Stephen Vincent Benet wrote “By The Waters Of Babylon”. He introduces the priest and the son of the priest John. In “The Waters Of Babylon” there was a quest to be fulfilled, but no one was brave enough to fulfill that. John felt an internal passion to go on the quest. So at the end he gained knowledge that everyone was afraid of. The author “By The Waters Of Babylon” uses modern society as textual symbols which are spirits and demons, deer, and a door with a broken lock.

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

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

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

In modern day society, we revolve our lives around technology with our constant need to have the newest gadgets. Little do we know that this new technology is taking over our world in big ways. In the story, By The Waters Of Babylon, it tells the tale of a young priest who travels to a forbidden place to find out the truth of what happened before the “Great Burning.” The more he explored, the more he uncovered the shocking truth behind the life in the “old days.” This is portrayed by the author, Stephen Vincent Benet, who conveys a theme of technological advancements can set us back, using the literary techniques of exposition, imagery, and symbols.

Knowledge is the beginning of wisdom. Knowledge is a gift from God. Knowledge is God, God is a someone, not a something. Full knowledge concerning God can’t be explained.

The desire to grow and become that someone you have always wanted is what drives oneself to seek knowledge. Without desire why would you seek knowledge? That’s the typical mind set, however, throughtout Beowulf, Frankenstein and The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde one can see how that is not the case for most of the characters. It strangely portrays the opposite, as it is knowledge what drives desire to such extent that if analyzed one can predict what their desire will be.

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.

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.

In both I Am Legend and “By the Waters of Babylon,” the author and the director have very comparable styles when it comes to certain aspects of their work. The theme of both the film and the story revolve around the idea of humanity destroying itself due to the misuse of power and misunderstanding of the knowledge they had acquired. On the contrary, the mood in I Am Legend and “By the Waters of Babylon” are vastly different. In the film, the viewer feels the pain and loss embodied by Robert Neville himself; while in the story, John didn’t have any personal losses related to the catastrophic event that overtook those before him. Therefore the reader doesn’t connect to John in the same empathetic

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.

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.