In the short story "By the Waters of Babylon," by Stephen Vincent Benet, a futuristic form of life and living is presented. The story deals with the cruel realization that man is capable of accomplishing anything, including its own destruction. It portrays today's man as selfish, violent, worried with the materialistic aspects of the world, and full of hate and rage. "By the Waters of Babylon" is the personal recollection of a boy becoming a man who knows nothing of his ancestors. His father is a priest, or high ruler, which the young man, John, aspires to be like. John's father, one of the people in charge of their tribe want to keep the truth of what happened to the civilization before them a secret, so that they do not commit the same mistake again. However, when John starts on his journey to become a priest, the truth seems inevitable.

In the story our present civilization has destroyed the earth, as we know it, and nearly wiped out all human beings. The cause of such a great catastrophe seems to be nuclear war. The places where these nuclear bombs landed are referred throughout as the forbidden places or Dead Places. The selfish nature of our society to take more than wha

This great civilization created by these so-called gods, full of knowledge and wisdom, in the end can be reduced to nothing but stones and rubble. Such hate and rage walk amongst us everyday that it can topple even the highest of buildings and strongest security systems in the world. In the end it does not matter how much money a person had, what kind of clothes they wore, or where they lived, for everyone is headed for the same fate. Just as John described the man in the building, "His age was neither young nor old-I could not tell his age. But there was wisdom in his face and great sadness," hate knows no age, and rage glances over emotions.

t we need, or want more than what we have, are the motives behind countries going to war over such unimportant things as oil and land. As in the story, "When gods war with gods, they use weapons we do not know," our world has commenced a stupid race to have the best at everything devouring anything in the way. However, these awful acts are forever forgotten about, and the few that know what really happened stay quiet forever. Some do it out of fear it might happen again, others out of respect, but whatever the reason some things are better left unsaid. This brings to mind what John's father tells him when he wants to let everyone know the truth behind their past. He tells him, "Truth is a

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Approximate Word count = 909
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)