By the Waters of Babylon-Theme Tracker

Choose the correct theme(s) that apply to the summary below for By the Waters of Babylon:

In the story’s opening paragraph, the protagonist and first-person narrator, John, recounts the laws of his tribe. It has been forbidden since the beginning of time, he says, to travel east, to cross the great river, or to visit or look at the Place of the Gods, which was destroyed in the Great Burning and is now populated by spirits and demons. Only priests and the sons of priests are allowed to visit the Dead Places, and even then, they only go to collect metal. After the metal is removed from the dead places, the priests and the metal must be ritually purified.

• The pursuit of knowledge

• The coming of age quest

• Superstition, Magic, and Technology

• Rivalry, War, and Destruction

Answer explanation

John lists tribal taboos but he does not explain why it is forbidden to visit certain places, why only the priests can collect metal, or what the Dead Places, the Great Burning, or the Place of the Gods are. As a result, readers are immediately intended to see these laws as superstitious, and are likely to view John and his society as culturally “primitive” and perhaps pre-modern

Choose the correct theme(s) that apply to the summary below for By the Waters of Babylon:

John tells us about the first time his father, a priest (and also named John), took him to collect metal from the Dead Places. John tells us that they went into an abandoned house where there were bones in a corner, and that though he felt afraid, John tried to hide his fear and act the way the son of a priest is supposed to act. John discovered that he could handle the metal without being harmed, and his father took this as a sign that John would become a priest one day.

• The pursuit of knowledge

• Coming of age quest

• Superstition, Magic, and Technology

• Rivalry, War, and Destruction

Answer explanation

Though the tribe’s beliefs about metal are superstitious, collecting the metal represents John’s first steps towards adulthood and priesthood. Whether or not the metal poses a real danger to most people, John’s choice to face his fear foreshadows his future choices to do things that frighten him in order to gain practical and spiritual knowledge.

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John continued to visit the Dead Places and learned more about them, and eventually, he was no longer afraid of them.

• The pursuit of knowledge

• Coming of age quest

• Superstition, Magic, and Technology

• Rivalry, War, and Destruction

Answer explanation

John discovers that knowledge of a once frightening thing can diminish his fear of that thing.

Choose the correct theme(s) that apply to the summary below for By the Waters of Babylon:

When John is no longer a boy, he tells his father that he is ready to go on his journey, a quest that will mark his initiation as a man and a priest within the tribe. John first undergoes a purification ritual. As part of the ritual, his father asks him about his dreams, and John describes a vision of the Place of the Gods. John tells the reader that he has always seen this vision.

• The pursuit of knowledge

• Coming of age quest

• Superstition, Magic, and Technology

• Rivalry, War, and Destruction

Answer explanation

The purification ritual symbolically transforms John from unclean to clean; the quest will transform John from boy to man and from layman to priest. The quest is ritual but also personal, guided by John’s “dreams”—both his visions and his ambition for knowledge.

Choose the correct theme(s) that apply to the summary below for By the Waters of Babylon:

John travels east for eight days, first along the godroads and then through the forest, avoiding hunting parties of the Forest People. One night, when he camps near a Dead Place, he finds a knife in a dead house. Eventually, he reaches the sacred Ou-dis-san river, which no one in his tribe has ever seen before.

• The pursuit of knowledge

• Coming of age quest

• Superstition, Magic, and Technology

• Rivalry, War, and Destruction

Answer explanation

The presence of the Forest People is a reminder that that John is not entirely safe. The “godroads” John walks along appear to be abandoned highways, and the Ou-dissan river may be the Hudson River in New York.

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John weeps as he builds the raft he will use to cross the river to the Place of the Gods, paints his body for death, and says funerary prayers. He feels cold and clammy, but his ambition and desire for knowledge burns like a fire within him.

• The pursuit of knowledge

• Coming of age quest

• Superstition, Magic, and Technology

• Rivalry, War, and Destruction

Answer explanation

The death rituals reveal to us the depth of John’s fears, but also emphasize the comparison between body and spirit. John is prepared to face bodily death in order to satisfy his spirit’s desire for knowledge.

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John has trouble steering the raft across the river. Just before he reaches the shores of the Place of the Gods, the raft overturns, but John manages to save his weapons, including the knife he found in the dead house, and his bow and arrows.

• The pursuit of knowledge

• Coming of age quest

• Superstition, Magic, and Technology

• Rivalry, War, and Destruction

Answer explanation

John’s near death is a reminder that the forces of the natural world (and perhaps the spirit world) are stronger than John’s own technical knowledge; alone, he is at their mercy.

Choose the correct theme(s) that apply to the summary below for By the Waters of Babylon:

John explains that the gods did not hunt; instead, they ate food from magical jars. As a child, John once found some of this food in one of the Dead Places and tried it, but his father punished him, warning that the gods’ food can be poisonous to humans. Now, John decides that he will look for this kind of food rather than hunt since he has already done many things that were forbidden and come to no harm. Eventually, he finds fruits and an alcoholic drink that have been preserved glass jars, and after eating, he falls asleep.

• The pursuit of knowledge

• Coming of age quest

• Superstition, Magic, and Technology

• Rivalry, War, and Destruction

Answer explanation

Readers may begin to suspect that the gods were in fact humans; the “magic” food is likely canned or otherwise preserved and pre-prepared, and is another example of John’s conflation of “magic” and technology. We can also see the logic of the tribe’s ban on consuming such food: even preserved food does eventually go bad, so eating it likely poses a health risk (echoing many ancient religions’ bans on certain foods).

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The building itself is strange and fascinating. John describes a narrow room with bronze doors without handles and, apparently, no way of being opened. After climbing many flights of stairs, he finds a door that he can open (the lock has been broken). It leads into an apartment. Before he explores the rooms, John stands in the “anteroom” by the entrance and tells the spirits who he believes live in this place that he is not a robber.

• The pursuit of knowledge

• Coming of age quest

• Superstition, Magic, and Technology

• Rivalry, War, and Destruction

Answer explanation

Readers can recognize the “god-house” as an apartment building; the “narrow room” is a hallway or lobby, and the mysterious doors are elevator doors. The “anteroom” where John prays is the entryway of the apartment. All of these spaces, though recognizable to the contemporary reader, are completely unfamiliar to John.

Choose the correct theme(s) that apply to the summary below for By the Waters of Babylon:

Looking out through the windows, John is amazed to see that the City of the Gods is not dark, even though it is night. There are so many lights in the city—some of them blurred by motion—that John can barely see the stars. John is terrified and overwhelmed by the brightness of the lights, and by a strange roaring sound. Looking out on the city, John realizes that through some kind of powerful magic, he is seeing the city as it was in the Time of the Gods. John tells us that, if his spirit had been in his body when he had this vision, he believes that he would have died of shock. John watches as the gods and their chariots fill the streets, and he is amazed to see that they travel in every direction, even to the other side of the earth, building roads and tunnels —even flying!

• The pursuit of knowledge

• Coming of age quest

• Superstition, Magic, and Technology

• Rivalry, War, and Destruction

Answer explanation

Readers understand that John is witnessing New York city lit up at night by electric light—an astounding sight for a person from a society without electricity. The ocean-like “roar” is the sound of traffic; the “chariots” are cars, and the “gods,” we understand, must be humans, who fly around the world in planes and ride trains and subways that travel underground. Though John does not fully understand what he sees, readers understand that modern humans possess powers that once were only ascribed to gods.