By The Waters Of Babylon Sparknotes

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. They lived as if they were in the past. People had knowledge of fire and many other tricks, but there technology wasn’t as modern as it was before the war. One example of this is John walking all those miles to New York city and to the dead places.

The story revolves around John and his journey to New York, which is considered god’s land. John being curious just had to see what lies beyond the river. Considering that John is the first of his people to go east that tells us that his curious nature is what makes him daring. This makes John is developing character. Learning that the gods he worshiped were actually human and getting to see New York made him even more curious. Throughout the story he would get ideas of how he wanted to change society or approach any situation a different way. For example, instead of fighting the dogs he hid inside a god’s house until morning, and when he got back to the hill he wanted to rebuild the lost

It was made clear that he would travel east to gain more information. The great river that John had crossed to get to New York was the Hudson river. In the title it says,”By the River of Babylon.” What this is translating into is that John lived in a city like Babylon. Babylon was a kingdom that relied on the river for its survival. After arriving to the demolished city of New York, John took a look around. He noticed lavished materials that he had no idea how to use or what they did. The story would reach its climax when he found out that the gods were actually humans. In the end we would see John’s plans for the future to try and rebuild the lost civilization.

The narrator is John and we didn’t know his name until he sang a song about himself. We know what he thinks and what are his ideas. In the story it says,”When my father went into the house to search for the metal, I stood by the door, and my heart felt small and weak.” Understanding the feelings he felt then proves that it is first person point of view. First point of view means we will get to hear his ideas and feelings and see the world through his