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    A Study Guide for Stephen Vincent Benet's "By the Waters of Babylon"
    A Study Guide for Stephen Vincent Benet's "By the Waters of Babylon"
    A Study Guide for Stephen Vincent Benet's "By the Waters of Babylon"
    Ebook36 pages37 minutes

    A Study Guide for Stephen Vincent Benet's "By the Waters of Babylon"

    By Gale and Cengage

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    About this ebook

    A Study Guide for Stephen Vincent Benet's "By the Waters of Babylon," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Short Stories for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Short Stories for Students for all of your research needs.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCengage Learning - Gale
    Release dateJul 27, 2016
    ISBN9781535820349
    A Study Guide for Stephen Vincent Benet's "By the Waters of Babylon"

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      A Study Guide for Stephen Vincent Benet's "By the Waters of Babylon" - Gale

      10

      By the Waters of Babylon

      Stephen Vincent Benét

      1937

      Introduction

      By the Waters of Babylon (1937) by Stephen Vincent Benét is a tale about the relatively primitive culture that survives after humans destroy modern civilization with technologically advanced weaponry. It has been noted by scholars that the story is a response to the horrors of war, particularly the bombing of the village of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. Set at an unspecified time in the future, this science fiction tale is further classified as post-apocalyptic fiction. The narrator and protagonist of the story is John, the son of a priest for the Hill People. His people forbid interactions with places and things destroyed in the Great Burning, believing them to be dangerous. However, priests may visit Dead Places—buildings that once housed members of the old race, believed to be gods—to obtain metal and books of ancient knowledge. When John approaches manhood, he embarks on a journey to the most forbidden of all the Dead Places: the Place of the Gods, where it is believed that even the ground itself has the power to kill.

      The story was originally published in the Saturday Evening Post under the title The Place of the Gods. Benét changed the title when the story was printed in his collection Thirteen O'Clock (1938). The phrase By the waters of Babylon is taken from Psalm 137 of the Bible, in which exiled Jews long for a return to their homeland. In the story, this reflects the main character John's quest to return his people to their ancestral home.

      The story was chosen by Donald A. Wollheim for The Pocket Book of Science Fiction (1943), the first significant science fiction book anthology. The story is currently available in the collection Beyond Armageddon (1985), edited by Walter M. Miller Jr. and Martin H. Greenberg. By the Waters of Babylon is notable for depicting the lingering aftermath of large-scale devastation from war even though the concept of the atomic bomb and nuclear fallout was still years away when it was written.

      Author Biography

      Benét was born on July 22, 1898, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. His father was a U.S.

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