Summary Of By The Waters Of Babylon By Stephen Vincent Benet

By the Waters of Babylon” was written by Stephen Vincent Benet in July of 1937. That same year, just months before, a bombing happened on April 28, 1937. Both of these works of writing dealing with great destruction, destruction of whole cities. One is a true story and one is a fictional story but, they both have some similarities between them.
“By the Waters of Babylon” deal with a Priest son who is making his journey to become a priest himself. The dead lands are places no one goes except for the priest and his son to collect metals. John went in to find metals, but what he found was so much more than that. He had found a city covered in ash and completely destroyed. It was the city of New York after a bombing. It is a post-apocalyptic short story that is not true, but it does share events and details with an event that had happened a few months earlier. April 28, 1937
Even though one is fact and one is fiction they both deal with the same events. Bombing and destruction. In “By the Waters of Babylon”, the city of New York is in absolute ruins. You cannot tell much by looking at it. The death count was many, as the character John could see bodies on the pavement walking through the streets. The bombing of Guernica however, was a true story about a town that was bombed, machine-gunned, and set on fire because they wouldn’t surrender. The death count was never added up, but there were burned, shot, and dismantled bodies as far as the eye can see. You would have been able to tell that there was once a Basque capital once standing where it once was. The bombing was on April 28, 1937 and “By the Waters of Babylon” was written in July of 1937. Just months after the bombing occurred. Many believe that it is not coincidence that these two works of writing came out months apart. Many believe that “By the Waters of Babylon was written to showcase the bombing that happened just a few months