By the Waters of Babylon
Stephen Vincent
Plot Analysis
- John, the protagonist of the story, recalls the laws of his tribe (Hill tribe) Which are: No one can go to the east, only priests and sons of a priest. They are the only ones allowed to go to the Dead Places to take metal, but after they have to purify themselves.
- John tells us that the first time he grabbed a metal, he was afraid he was going to die, but he didn't. Also, he was afraid of Dead Places but eventually, he was no longer afraid.
- He learns everything a priest should know, including the old languages, but he wants more knowledge.
- John mentions how proud he is of his tribe and how the Forest People are nothing compared to them.
- John is no longer a boy, he is a man. He undergoes a purification ritual and tells his father the vision he has about the "Place of the Gods"
- Johns’s Father tells him that he might die because it was a strong dream. John says that it doesn't matter, he wants to go anyway.
- John begins his journey fasting, searching for signals. He sees a panther going east, he kills it and sees this as a sign to go to the east.
- John travels for 8 days and arrives at the sacred Ou-dis-san river. Looks at the south and sees big towers. Believing is the Place of the Gods, returns to the edge of the forest and prays.
- Hungry for knowledge crosses the river singing funeral songs.
- During the trip, he almost dies but arrives at the Place of the Gods.
Climax
- He arrives at the Place of the Gods but is nothing like he was told. The ground does not burn, and the island is not inhabited by evil spirits. He only sees ruin towers, god-roads and there is no God on the island.
- Exploring more he founds a statue of a man or a god. In cracked letters says that the figure’s name is ASHING.
- He finds "God-food" which is preserved, food and alcohol. He eats and falls asleep.
- When he wakes up, a pack of wild dogs are hunting him. He saves himself by entering one of the god's houses, or a tower.
- Inside one of the apartments, he sees various modern things such as coffee machines and sinks, but to John, are just metal stuff he does not recognize.
- He realizes he has to sleep inside the apartment and prays. He wakes up in the middle of the night and starts to hear noises, he also feels his soul is out of his body. He believes that are the Gods trying to communicate with him but is kind of a prophecy. He hears the car noises, the noise of busy people, and sees the city lights of New York.
- He also saw a vision, where Gods were destructing each other, like a war. Everything is terror and death. He sees all the Gods die.
- When he wakes up, he doesn't understand the vision he had. He encounters a dead body, that after analyzing well, is a human.
Resolution
- He finds out that the cities were inhabited by humans, not Gods. All his fears vanish.
- He goes back home and tells his father all he saw. John wants to tell everyone about his discovery, but his father tells him that is better to realize something little by little.
- He listens to his father but starts sending people to study the Dead Places and the "God" ashing. Also, John calls the Place of the Gods newyork.
Changed resolution
I knew, that, if I touched him, he would fall into dust-- and yet, there was something unconquered in the face. But suddenly he turned towards me, grabbed my neck, and looked me in the eye. He couldn't move his lips, but I knew what that meant. It was the beginning of judgment day for me.
Write 5 questions to challenge any of your peers.
1. What is the hidden purpose of this story?
2. Do you think this is a What is the importance of the title: By the Waters of Babylon?
3. What is the setting of the story?
4. What does the vision John had in the story mean?
5. What is the great river in the story?
Theme: Search of knowledge
Voice: protagonist/ firm/ suspense
Mood: Fable-like mood. Simple language and magical references.
Tone: Wonder and horror
Conflicts
Inner conflict
The main character, John, struggles against his fears. He highly believes in all the things that his father told him. In the Dead places, and the Gods. He was afraid of basically everything during the trip. He prayed all the time and thought that if he didn't, the gods will kill him. He also has trouble trying to understand everything about the Dead Places and himself, he knows that is forbidden to go to the east, but his heart tells him to go. This trip helped him to make purification of his soul and a way to search for knowledge.
External conflicts
Man vs Man
I think it can be considered the conflict that was mentioned in the vision. All the "wise" humans, destroyed each other by using arms and nuclear weapons that ended the civilization.
Man vs Society
The conflict portrayed is the fact that he cannot share his findings with the rest of the tribe because it will change their way of living and the perception they have about life, just as his father said: Truth is a hard deer to hunt. If you eat too much truth at once, you may die of the truth
Man vs Nature
He encounters a pack of wild dogs that try to kill him and the Hudson River almost sweeps him away.
Man vs Super-power
Throughout the story, he highly believes in the magic that metals have, and he thinks that if he doesn't pray, the gods will kill him. But in the end, he realizes that the ones living there weren't gods but humans.
Guide for responding
Literature in your life
Readers response
In my opinion, nowadays we live in a world full of technology where most people do not swallow completely, and they go search for the truth. But they're also the ones that want to believe a beautiful lie.
Thematic focus
Maybe that we're losing our value as human beings. Even if we're advancing in technology, the same technology might destroy us.
What is the relationship between the song and the story?
The title of the story first of the Bible specifically ( is an allusion to Psalm 137) which talks about a loss of the promised land, and the same topic is employed in the story.
Check your comprehension
1. He had a dream that made him feel the urge to acquire knowledge so he went looking for it even if it was forbidden by the law.
2. The building, the Hudson River, and the statue of Washington.
Signs that show that the author was talking about New York
Toward the setting of the eighth sun, I came to the banks of the great river. It was halfa-day's journey after I had left the god-road—we do not use the god-roads now for they are falling apart into great blocks of stone, and the forest is safer going. A long way off, I had seen the water through trees but the trees were thick. At last, I came out upon an open place at the top of a cliff. There was the great river below, like a giant in the sun. It is very long, very wide. It could eat all the streams we know and still be thirsty. Its name is Ou-dis-sun, the Sacred, the Long. No man of my tribe had seen it, not even my father, the priest. It was magic and I prayed.
It felt like ground underfoot; it did not burn me. It is not true what some of the tales say, that the ground there burns forever, for I have been there. Here and there were the marks and stains of the Great Burning, on the ruins, that is true. But they were old marks and old stains. It is not true either, what some of our priests say, that it is an island covered with fogs and enchantments. It is not. It is a great Dead Place—greater than any Dead Place we know. Everywhere in it there are god-roads, though most are cracked and broken. Everywhere there are the ruins of the high towers of the gods.
How shall I tell what I saw? The towers are not all broken—here and there one still stands, like a great tree in a forest, and the birds nest high. But the towers themselves look blind, for the gods are gone. I saw a fishhawk, catching fish in the river. I saw a little dance of white butterflies over a great heap of broken stones and columns. I went there and looked about me—there was a carved stone with cut—letters, broken in half. I can read letters but I could not understand these. They said UBTREAS. There was also the shattered image of a man or a god. It had been made of white stone and he wore his hair tied back like a woman's. His name was ASHING, as I read on the cracked half of a stone. I thought it wise to pray to ASHING, though I do not know that god.
