Thursday, April 15, 2021

Analysis on a Short Story By Stephen Vincent Benét

 By the Waters of Babylon



Conflict: John is a member of the Hill people and as he is of legal age he will begin his life as a priest, one of the laws of the tribe is that it is forbidden to go to the Place of the Gods since according to the tribe it is full of demons and spirits .

Climax: John has also had several visions about that place and with which the description that they give him of that place scares him but decides to go see if it was true.When John arrives he learns that what they had told him was not true and that the elements of the city were not magical objects of the gods, but modern gadgets and machines.

Resolution:  When he returns from his trip, he tells his father all about that place and decides to help his people start over, recovering the lost knowledge of the destroyed city in order to build again.

New Ending: When John arrives at the Place of the Gods, he realizes that what he had been told was true and decides to leave immediately, but when he left the demons and spirits that lived there grabbed him and from that day on, nothing was heard from John.

5 Questions

  1. What did they say about the Place of the Gods?

That there were demons and spirits

  1. What material were the priests looking for at the Place of the Gods?

Metals

  1. What did John have to cross to get to The Place of the Gods?

A river

  1. What animals lived in the Place of the Gods?

Dogs

  1. Is it true what the tribe said about the Place of the Gods? Yes or No? Why?

No, because there were no spirits or demons and it wasn't scary.