Using Knowledge with an Open Mind In the short story “By the Waters of Babylon” by Stephen Vincent Benét, the reader follows a character named John on a journey to the place of the gods where he discovers many things about himself, his people, and his role in this huge play call life. Benét takes the reader through his journey and teaches about the harmful effects of truth and what it can do to people if not dealt with properly. After John’s inspiring travels, he becomes more open minded, realizing
"By the Waters of Babylon" I. Describe the story's exposition. During the exposition you learn that it is forbidden to go to any of the Dead Places except to search for metal, and he who touches the metal must be a priest of the son of the priest. You also learn that John is the son of a priest and is training to become a priest. II. Describe the story's conflict. The conflict of the story is that John must over come his fears and go to the city. This is needed for him to become
by the waters of Babylon. He becomes a priest after his father takes him and goes to the Dead Places to make John touch the metal. Throughout the story, John has shown courage and ambition in his character. He is always looking for thrilling adventure. His tribe believes that going to the forbidden place is a bad thing. John wants to know why he can't go there.In the story there is also the character of the dead god. 2. Theme I believe the theme of the story “By The Waters Of Babylon” is knowledge
wants to go through with the procedure or stay with her friends and stay ugly forever. In “By The Waters of Babylon” by Steven Vincent Benét, John visits the “forbidden place of the Gods” in his search for the truth. He soon realizes there are no gods and that the city was made by men, and their collapse was caused by nuclear warfare. In the Uglies by Scott Westerfield and “By the Waters of Babylon” by Steven Vincent Benét, they both critique the rapid pace of development in society which is relevant
By the Waters of Babylon takes place in a post-apocalyptic New York. John is priest who collects metal from “Dead Places” homes. The author hints the location of the places by describing some monumental objects. John’s observation of “Ashing” (George Washington) and “Ubtreas” (Subtreasury building), suggestion that it may have been a modern city. These clues are subtle, but noticeable, allowing the reader to infer that the location is not the past, but future of someplace we are familiar with. “I
In the story “By the Waters Of Babylon” the main Character John needs to go on a journey to find himself and become a priest. On this journey he isn't supposed to go to the Place Of The Gods but he still ends up going . In my opinion he is a hard-headed person but then again he is also audacious. He was just supposed to take a journey and was told that the “Place Of The Gods” is forbidden but he ends up still going there. This situation also shows that he’s audacious because he goes to a place that
The Village and By the Waters of Babylon Compare Contrast At a glance, The Village and By The Waters of Babylon seem to have more differences than similarities, yet that is proven untrue upon further analyzation. Both take place in a seemingly archaic society which uses scare tactics to prevent the gain of “forbidden knowledge,” while utilizing time period as a major plot twist. Both protagonists are in some way prevented from informing others of what they witnessed. They also share a theme; “Things
By The Waters Of Babylon is a story that for the audience can be very confusing at first and, it shows no signs of direct guidance towards where the story is heading but, as it continues we seem to notice that the main character, John who is the son of a priest, seems to find himself in a estranged place where we later find out is what will apparently be the future of New York City. The theme of ‘By The Waters Of Babylon’ is taking knowledge for granted which throughout the story we get hints like
By The Waters of Babylon: is Knowledge really that important? In the short story “By the Water of Babylon” a young man is a son of a priest who yearns for knowledge and wants to learn more and more. He is then sent out on a quest through a vision and finds something he was definitely not expecting. In the society he lives in idolizes priests, allowing them to omit knowledge, as they have all the knowledge and they are the only ones allowed to go to the “Dead Places”. What he finds out is an incredible
By the Waters of Babylon was written by Stephen Vincent Benet and it introduces a world where humans had destroyed civilization as we know it. Humans created extremely powerful weapons that could erase the planet. However, those weapons were used in war and destroyed the modern world. It caused people to live in the forest and hills rather than a city. The book takes place in the future explaining the aftermath of a damaging war. The Hill is where John lived, and it was west from New York.
One might wonder, what is the difference between knowledge and truth? In the story, “By the Waters of Babylon”, John, the narrator, is on a quest for knowledge and discovers unexpected truths that change his beliefs. The knowledge that he gathers makes him feel satisfied because he has a burning passion for it. On the other hand, the truth that he uncovers makes him unsure about how his society will take it. Along the way, John realizes that truth is a requirement for obtaining knowledge and that
In the story “By the Waters of Babylon” written by Stephen Vincent Benet, the author reveal to us what could happen to society in the future. This alarmed us to look around and think twice about our actions today. Especially with the events that have been going on, we are much alarmed now than ever before. In this era, we have discovered many scientific findings but we are only taking them for granted. In the story, it was mentioned that the dead place was destroyed by the “gods” themselves. It is
By the Waters of Babylon – Nuclear Dystopian Setting In this essay I will be writing about the environmental setting of “By the Waters of Babylon” by Stephen Vincent Benét. The setting of this story is unequivocally important, as it fuels much of the plot. Without this story taking place in a dystopian society, after most life in New York had been struck down by a powerful nuclear weapon, this story could simply not have taken place. For when the surviving group of people touch any metal, which
In the story “By the Waters of Babylon” written by Stephen Vincent Benét, the culture of the world they live in has changed due to a huge disaster. This catastrophic event can be closely related to things that have happened in real life, such as the United States dropping the atomic bomb on Japan. Two other things it can relate to is the radiation leak in Chernobyl, Ukraine and the Fukushima accident involving a radiation leak as well. When these historic disasters happened, much of the culture
The main character of the story “By the Waters of Babylon”, is John, who is known to be the son of the Priest, and his character in the story is defiant and ignorant. He’s defiant because in the story, when his father, the Priest, warns him not to travel East since it’s forbidden, his curiosity got the best of him and he disobeyed his father and went anyways. He’s also ignorant because he’s unaware of why the Place of the Gods was forbidden to enter. John’s father is the Priest that watches over
The past is a secret many ponder upon. Either born into riches or rags, no one knows the complete truth of the olden days. The modern short story “By the Waters of Babylon” portrays both archetypes of an epic hero and an epic journey through the perspective of the main character, John. Throughout the story, John is on an adventure, hoping to achieve the level of success he believes his father has. But, learns something that contradicts what his relatives tell him all his life. Knowing both the characteristics
situations. There are many similarities between literary elements found in post-apocalyptic works that all relate to the overarching theme shared throughout the genre. Post-apocalyptic authors such as Stephen Vincent Benet, author of ¨By the Waters of Babylon”, and E.M. Forster author of ¨The Machine Stops¨ use literary elements to define the universal theme of finding your
By the Waters of Babylon and Planet of the Apes Comparitive Essay The short story by the waters of Babylon and the movie planet of the apes were both futuristic stories. They also both showed the evil sides of today’s man and the chaos and mass destruction that we are capable of accomplishing. They portrayed today’s man as selfish, violent, and full of hate and rage. By the waters of Babylon was written from the point of view of a boy close to becoming a man who knew nothing of his past civilization
In the short story “By the Waters of Babylon” by Stephen Vincent Benet, the theme of truth is revealed by Johns father when he said, "Truth is a hard deer to hunt. If you eat too much truth at once, you may die of the truth” (Benet 326). “By the Waters of Babylon” focuses on the thought that man is capable of anything and everything, including diminishing itself. The author establishes the theme of truth throughout the story by the futuristic setting, the first person narrator point of view, and
fire to ignorant humanity and by doing so he only dooms himself. Even though Zeus tells Prometheus that giving fire to the peasants will make the peasants wiser than themselves, Prometheus does so anyways. This same theme appears in “By the Waters of Babylon” by Stephen Vincent Benèt. In that story, John, the descendent of a long line of priests, sets out on a quest to become a priest himself. While travelling across the land, he gains new knowledge that doesn’t agree with his society’s past beliefs