Waters Of Babylon

The excerpt “By the waters of Babylon” is about a young boy, named John, who is turning into man. For him to turn him into a man, he has to could go on a journey anywhere he pleases except to the east and the Place of the Gods. John defines his father who told him not to go there and John goes there in the end. The Place of Gods we later found out is like New York and that this story is set place in the future. John calls the people who used to live there as gods except they were just like John and John later figures that out. He figures out that they were just men and not gods. When John comes back from his trip, he tells his father that he went there and told him about his new findings.

The main character of this story is John. I can characterize

This is because we know that there is no one in New York and there are still tall buildings. We know that it wasn’t in the past so it must be in the future. The internal conflict for John is trying to figure out if he should go to the Place of gods or not. His father told him that it is a forbidden place and John decides if he should go there or not.

The theme of “By the waters of Babylon” is coming of age and understanding of new knowledge. It is coming of age because John in the story is slowly turning into a man. By going on this trip, John is turning into a man. John overcomes obstacles that are hard for even a teenager right now. These obstacles consist of hunting food on his own, crossing a river, making a boat to cross that river, and escaping dogs. This takes courage and John did all this. This all shows John coming of age

The other theme is understanding of new knowledge because as John is at the Place of gods he learns that the gods aren’t what he thinks they are. John finds out that they are just like him,human. He learns this by going into a building and finding a “god” sitting on a chair that is overlooking the city. Realization then hits him and he figures out that the gods are not god 's that he was told about. After John realizes this, he goes back and tells his father. John later tells this story to many people. With this new knowledge, he rebuilds the life of the humans before they all