By The Waters Of Babylon Literary Analysis

To what extent does self-preservation address the practical issues and necessary changes in society? After times of war and horror, self-preservation is one of the natural laws that states in order to survive, man must first seek peace and relief. Such themes appear in “By the Waters of Babylon” by Stephen Benét, who wrote his story in a post-apocalyptic society where the society controls the idea of ‘providing’ relief and control, that is, self-preservation by bounding its peoples with superstitions and laws , so that are anyone hardly made aware of the devastating past of the ‘Great Burning’. “These things are forbidden—they have been forbidden since the beginning of time.” (Benét 416) The main protagonist John is a young man, the son of a priest, whose mind is motivated and fueled of “fire in [his] bowels, a fire in [his] mind” (420) , and wants to find the whole truth about the devastating past. Benét’s post apocalyptic short-story describes the eye-opening realization of the young man, as he defies his society’s way of self-preservation and embarks on a perilous journey to satisfy his curiosity for truth.

This story takes place in a future civilization that “has been nearly destroyed by a war”(415). The society, since

Albeit, the society’s ways of self-preservation is placed with the intention of preventing disaster and contacts, but was it a realistic and practical approach? The lawmakers do not realize, as John does, that change must be made if there is to be learning and progress. Ignorance is no avail to any situations, as is an analogy of being reactive rather than proactive. John, with his truth, wins the battle against self-preservation; just like John’s eye-opening realization, the ultimate reward for the truth is the rebirth of an even better