Emily Reynolds

Looking Forward to the Past

            “We must build again” (Benet 30).  This quote happens to be the last line of Stephen Vincent Benet’s short story “By the Waters of Babylon”.  This short story is about John the son of a priest who goes into the forbidden lands for his initiation of becoming a priest. Through his journey to the forbidden lands, the Place of the Gods, John learns more knowledge about the past than he ever wants to know.  This short story alludes back to the Bible numerous times, and essentially helps develop the theme of the story.

            This short story alludes to the story of Babylon in the Bible countless times.  In the short story, when John makes the raft “tears [run] out of [his] eyes” (21) because he thinks that if he crosses the river into the Place of the Gods, he will surely die.  Similarly in Psalm 137, the people cried over Babylon because they think they will to die also.  Additionally in the Bible, God sends messages to Jeremiah about how “Babylon will become a deserted wasteland…”, and all who pass it will “gasp at the destruction” (Jer 50:13); likewise, in the short story, the forbidden Place of the Gods becomes ruined because of what John’s people call the “Great Burning and the Destruction” (28),   Furthermore, the Bible states that Babylon “will lie desolate forever…” (Jer 50:39), and people will never live there again.  The author absolutely foreshadows how the short story ends.  Benet without a doubt places the last line “We must build again” (30) into the short story to warn them not to build again, or they will have the same fate as the city of Babylon : uninhabited and desolate.

            One of the most important themes in the short story is too mush arrogance can kill a society.  The people of Babylon build the Tower of Babel because they want to be known for building the greatest tower ever built; undoubtedly, arrogance needs to become their middle names.  God deals with their arrogance by confusing their language which prevents them from working together to finish the tower.  In the short story, John makes a profound statement about how truth, like catching a profusely large amount of deer and trying to eat them all, but “If you eat too mush truth at once, you may die of the truth” (29).  John is saying that the men that built the city knew too mush truth, and therefore they die because they think they know everything; however, they did not even realize what would happen to their lives or any of the other innocent peoples’ lives.  The almost exact situation occurs in the short story as well as the Bible story. Also, John states that “…they were men who built the city, not gods or demons” (30) because he thinks that if regular modern-day men can build a great city, why can’t his people build one?  In contrast, John could mean that because they did turn out to be men, his people should not follow the “gods” example because John’s people could possibly have the same outcome as the gods, dead.  Arrogance can destroy a society as displayed in both stories.

            In summary, Stephen Vincent Benet, the author of “By the Waters of Babylon”, uses allusions from the biblical story of Babylon to influence the theme of the short story. “We must build again” (30).  A statement of revived hope? A warning from God’s book?  A disaster waiting to happen.