26 pages • 52 minutes read
Stephen Vincent BenétBy the Waters of Babylon
Fiction | Short Story | YA | Published in 1937A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Literary Devices
Setting
Setting refers to the location and time period where a story takes place. “By the Waters of Babylon” is set in a postapocalyptic version of New York City as well as the rural hills and forests that surround it. Benét alludes to the fact that the Place of the Gods is New York by describing famous and familiar landmarks, such as the starry ceiling of Grand Central Station, the crumbling statue of George Washington that reads “ASHING,” and the broken-down Sub Treasury building, which John reads as “UBTREAS” (5). Even the Hill People’s name for the great river, Ou-dis-sun, represents an attempt to sound out the name of the Hudson River. John gets to experience New York both as it is in his present as he explores it and as it was in the past through his visions. The tension between the famous city of the real world and the ruined fictional version plays an essential role in the story’s overall meaning and impact. By capturing both the real New York his readers would have been familiar with and the fictional dystopian version, Benét paints a grim picture of the destruction humans are capable of and the possible consequences if this devastating power and knowledge are not tempered with wisdom.
Allusion
When writers use allusion, they reference a subject that exists outside of the text, such as other texts, authors, characters, time periods, places, and events. Allusions activate readers’ prior knowledge and associations to enhance emotion or clarify significance. While the protagonist’s culture worships many gods, Benét’s narrative is steeped in biblical allusions. The short story’s title comes from Psalm 137: “By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion.” The psalm refers to the Babylonian exile in the sixth century BC when Nebuchadnezzar II took thousands of captives from Jerusalem. Thus, the title creates an atmosphere of loss and destruction. Just as the exiles in the psalm yearn to reclaim their home, John resolves to rebuild a lost society at the story’s end. The protagonist’s name is also a biblical allusion. The author of the Book of Revelation refers to himself as John in the text. The final book in the New Testament contains prophecies about the apocalypse, and the short story portrays a postapocalyptic world. In Chapter 17 of the Book of Revelation, a woman called Babylon the Great appears, who is often interpreted as the personification of immoral worldly leaders and corrupt cities. Like Benét’s New York, Babylon the Great sows her own destruction.
Another parallel between the two Johns is their mystical visions. In the Book of Revelations, the author writes, “I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband” (Revelation 21:2). Similarly, Benét’s John has a prophetic dream about New York City’s former glory:
I had stepped out of my body […] I was drawn to look out upon the city of the gods. It should have been dark, for it was night, but it was not dark. Everywhere there were lights—lines of light—circles and blurs of light—ten thousand torches would not have been the same (8).
The visions diverge in that the heavenly Jerusalem’s beauty endures forever, whereas Benét’s John witnesses New York fall to fiery ruin. Invoking biblical imagery adds to the emotional impact of what is lost in the story. The writer’s use of allusions enhances the story’s emotions and adds another layer of meaning to its exploration of spirituality and mysticism.
Point of View
In literature, point of view describes the narrator or speaker from whose perspective the events of the story are told. Benét employs a first-person point of view in “By the Waters of Babylon,” which allows readers to gain access to new information at the same pace as the protagonist. John, the son of a priest, narrates the story as he grows from a child into a man. The readers understand the fictional world only through John’s eyes. Therefore, his opinions, ideas, and beliefs about the events of the story color the reader’s perception of them. Despite its limitations, first-person point of view provides intimate, personal insight into the feelings and changes that the narrator goes through and experiences throughout the course of the story. As John recounts his journey, he shares his emotions of fear, confusion, apprehension, and hope.
Parallelism
Parallelism is a grammatical and rhetorical term for creating a sense of linguistic balance by repeating elements within a sentence, over the course of several sentences, or in a longer work or speech. John mostly narrates in simple, straightforward sentences, and he often uses passive voice to describe what he sees. However, as he prepares to travel on the great river, John uses parallelism in each line of his death song: “I go into the Dead Places but I am not slain. I take the metal from the Dead Places but I am not blasted” (4). The parallel structure of these sentences contrasts the risks John continues to take and the strength with which he prevails each time. By repeating this structure throughout his song, John builds up his confidence in himself and reveals the fragility of the beliefs he carried throughout his life. Finally, John ends his song by saying, “My body is painted for death and my limbs weak, but my heart is big as I go to the Place of the Gods!” (4). Though this sentence is slightly longer and more complex, it still employs parallel structure to contrast what John thinks he knows and what he is experiencing on his journey.
