Survivor; By the Waters of Babylon

Question 1: How does the character search for solace, purpose, and/or redemption?

John from "By The Waters of Babylon", lives in the future in a village with his father. His purpose in life was to become a priest like his father but that was before he became a man and went on his journey to the place of the gods. Before he left, the place of the gods was said to be forbidden and if walked upon you would surely die. When John reached the place of the gods he found redemption by knowing the truth of the gods and what really happened. He found that the gods were people just like him but of a different time. Now his purpose changed and he wanted to tell everyone about the truth of the place of the gods and maybe someday rebuild what was destroyed. John finally finds solace when he journeys to the place of the gods discovering about how they lived and what happened to them.

Question 2: How does the character's experiences reflect the historical period in which his/her story is told?

In "By the Waters of Babylon" the character John does not say anything about what time era he is in or where he is. He tells in the beginning of the story that he lives in a village with his father and that he eats by the fire and hunts for food. This would probably give a clue that John lives in the past like cavemen but when John goes to the place of the Gods he discovers the place to be once a civilized city, thus obviously showing that the story is not set in the past. The clues to show of being in the future are for example John called the river he crossed the "Ou-dis-sun" the real name for this river is known as the Hudson River. Another is that there was a statue John saw that was shattered and it was of a man that had his hair tied up like a women's that had a broken part of a name that said "ASHING" which can give that the statue was of George Washington. This shows that the story took place in the future as an aftermath of a nuclear Holocaust in New York City and there were survivors who started a new life which John lives now.

Question 3: How does the character's experience in the story symbolize the theme of survival and the human spirit?

The character, John, goes on a journey but on his journey he has many obstacles to get through before he gets to his destination. For example on his way he did not get killed by the Forrest people and he survived the very long and very wide river he had to cross in order to get the place of the gods. At the place of the gods he did not die like he was told would happen when he walked on the grounds, instead he lived and started to wander the area. This shows that John has gone through a lot just to get to his destination and he has survived doing it. John's survival symbolizes how the people survived in the aftermath of the nuclear Holocaust and how there were many obstacles the people had to go through to reach their destination which was to live and start a new life style but they survived.