Name ______Period ______Date ______

“By the Waters of Babylon” by Stephen Vincent Benét (p. 42) Study Guide

Fill in the blanks:

  1. The narrator is the ______of a priest.
  1. The priest search for ______in the Dead Places.
  1. It is not fitting that a priest’s son should show ______.
  1. When John, the narrator, becomes a man, he goes on a ______to the Places of the Gods.
  1. In the ruined city, John is attacked by ______.
  1. John realizes that the dead gods were ______.

Short Answers:

  1. In John’s community three things are forbidden. What are they?

______

______

  1. What signs tell John to travel east?

______

______

  1. What appliances does John find in the dead house?

______

______

  1. What does John see in his dream when he is sleeping?

______

______

  1. After he sees the well-preserved dead man sitting in the chair by the window, why is John no longer afraid?

______

______

  1. How does John plan to avoid the mistakes of the past when he begins to rebuild?

______

______

Recognizing Time in Setting

The setting of a story is the time and place in which the story takes place. In “By the Waters of Babylon,” time is the most important part of the setting. There are objects and places in the story that mean different things to the people before the Great Burning and after the Great Burning. For example, the Place of the Gods is the place where Jon and his people believe their gods live; before the Great Burning, the Place of the Gods was New York City.

Complete the following chart. Describe what each object or place meant before the Great Burning and what is means in John’s world.

Object or Place / What it meant in the world before the Great Burning / What it means in John’s world
Example:
The Place of the Gods / New York City / Where the gods live
1. pieces of metal
2. the great river,
Ou-dis-sun
3. buildings too big to be houses
4. a great spike of rusted metal sticking out of the river
5. ASHING
6. a mighty temple in the mid-city with a roof painted like the sky at night with its stars and that goes down into great caves and tunnels
4. the objects marked “hot” and “cold”

How long after the Great Burning do you think this story takes place? Explain your answer.

______

______