Waters Of Babylon Pessimism

In the course of time, technology will soon take over if it is not controlled. “By the Waters of Babylon”, written by Stephen Vincent Benét, tells the story of a young member of the Hill People who has been curious about the ancient civilization before him. Benét is trying to get the message out to his readers that mankind is becoming so dependent on technology and machines that they will soon destroy themselves, It also creates a disturbing view on what was going to happen to mankind if they continued to let technology run their lives. With his pessimistic view on what he thinks will happen in the future, he believes that with doing the little things here and there, it is what will end humanity. In “By the Waters of Babylon,” technology destroys all of, what Benet explains to be, New
York City. The leading character, John, goes on what he calls a “spiritual journey” to the “Palace of the Gods” and he discovers that everything was destroyed. It isn’t until later in his journey that he realizes that “ there was no smell of man left, on stone or metal” and it becomes clearer that the “gods” were no longer residing there and there was hardly any signs left of humanity. Benet also describes that though there were no human life living there anymore, the “towers… the god’s must have loved...” were still standing as tall as they were when they were first built. Technology most likely destroyed everything in the city of New York, until there was nothing left but the ruins of the skyscrapers. Benet shows his pessimistic view when he tells the story of the city (New York City) and the reader gets another hint that the people who once lived in New York had destroyed themselves.
According to ENotes.com, war had taken place before John and his people were even born. The city was destroyed by a bomb used in the war that the people invented with the new technology they had discovered. Legend told it as the “Palace of the Gods” and “it is there that there are the ashes of the Great Burning.” However, it was just an average city that may had been on fire at one point in time, but it never continued to burn. Benet then brings forward the facts that drives the reader to think that it was just human nature that drove them to do this, but with their pristine technology, it shows that the Hill People and the Forest people are still trying to kill each other and John explained that even after the “gods” had left the city, the “Forest People could have killed me without fight.” This explains that even though John believes he and his people are going to rebuild and make themselves great like the past civilization, they would only destroy themselves again because it is human
nature. It can be argued that the author could have written the story with more of an optimistic view and the reader sees the “happily ever after.” At the end of the story, John is fervent with passion and energy saying twice, “we make a beginning,” and he then ends the story by saying, “we must build again.” The reader can then see the evidence that this could be an optimistic story, and that Benet was trying to show the positive side of a tragedy. John and his people are basically living in a Stone Age, yet John is thinking of the big picture and wanting to follow his dreams. John had realized that it was people, not gods, who built the city and made it to what it was, and he truly believes that his people could do the same.