By The Waters Of Babylon Theme Essay

Themes are what make a story interesting. In “”By the Waters of Babylon” by Stephen Vincent Benet, the themes are what make this story interesting. There are many interesting storylines and themes throughout this book. But three important themes are overcoming fear, when a place becomes a wasteland people rebuild, and advancement of through exploration are all central themes throughout this story. John is a very scared child. Throughout the book John is constantly expressing his fears. His father is a priest and because of that John has a lot of responsibilities. Those responsibilities are sometimes frightful. John must go the the Places of God. To go there he must go through “on the forbidden river.” (253) While on that river, his raft breaks and he has to save himself. After the gods supposedly save him, he must hide in the forest so the “gods” don't see him because if they do he could die. Once he enters the Place of the Gods, he says “when I came to the Place of the Gods, I was afraid, afraid” (249). This shows how he was afraid of such “higher powers.” He eventually overcomes his fears through using his powers and by praying to multiple gods. …show more content…
The only way this won't happen is that human beings learn to live with one another without resorting to violence to resolve their differences. Humans tend to fall back to violence to solve their problems. But, when people use peaceful methods to solve their problems it becomes more civil and less violent. Peace is the only answer to solving big conflicts. And at the end of “By the Waters of Babylon” peace is finally found by John. Because he finds the dead “god” staring out the window, he finds out that the “gods” are actually men. John also says the dead “god” had “wisdom in his face and great sadness” (261). His sadness was probably caused by the way the city has