What is the story of By the Waters of Babylon?
“By the Waters of Babylon” is set in a post-apocalyptic, post-technological world where people hunt for their food with bows and arrows and their priests scavenge the “Dead Places” for metal. John, the protagonist and first-person narrator, belongs to the tribe of the Hill People and is the son of a priest.
What is the symbolism in By the Waters of Babylon?
The metal that the priests of John’s tribe gather from the Dead Places symbolizes both the tribe’s developing understanding of technology and its reliance on superstitions.
What is the thesis of By the Waters of Babylon?
Thesis Statement: In Stephen Vincent Benet’s short story “By the Waters of Babylon”, the narrator helps to establish that knowledge and truth are what impacts the future the most.
How many pages is By the Waters of Babylon?
38
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781517031244 |
|---|---|
| Publication date: | 08/24/2015 |
| Pages: | 38 |
| Sales rank: | 401,387 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.08(d) |
What time period is By the Waters of Babylon?
The first verse of the Psalm reads, “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.” The Psalm recalls the Babylonian Captivity, a period between 598 and 538 BCE, when the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar II conquered Jerusalem and transported enslaved Israelites to the city of …
What is the great burning in By the Waters of Babylon?
In “By the Waters of Babylon,” the Great Burning refers to an apparent nuclear holocaust.
What did John see in his vision By the Waters of Babylon?
John prays before the river, then looks south and sees the Place of the Gods, an island filled with “mighty and ruined” towers “too big to be houses.” Afraid that the gods will see him, he returns to the edge of the forest and spends the night there.
What is the conflict of By the Waters of Babylon?
The main character, John, struggles against his own fears (internal conflict) and against real or imagined outside threats (external conflict), such as a pack of wild dogs and the Hudson River (which almost sweeps him away).
What is the bitter water in By the Waters of Babylon?
The “bitter water” named “Ou-dis-sun” is the Hudson River, bitter because of its salt water. “Ou-dis-sun” would be a futuristic corruption of “Hudson.”
What was the great burning in By the Waters of Babylon?
What does John discover in the place of the gods?
Q. What does John discover to be untrue about the Place of the Gods? He discovers that there is only water magic and no fire magic in the Place of the Gods. He discovers that the Place of the Gods was never truly destroyed.
What is the climax of By the Waters of Babylon?
In Benet’s “By the Waters of Babylon”, the climax is John’s vision of the past and his subsequent discovery that the “dead god” he…