Babylon+OPE+Jay

Jay Jeong 9F

Modern Warfare

Question : What does "The Place of the Gods" being in ruins symobolize in today's world?

In Stephen Vincent Benet's "By the Waters of Bayblon", the Place of the Gods in ruins symbolizes what our world, probably Washington D.C. or New York in particular, would look like in the future if humans cannot control all the knowledge and power they come to possess. Set in the distant future, the story revolves around places in ruins. There, we find a statue that "had been made of white stone and he wore his hair tied back like a woman's. His name was ASHING, as I read on the cracked half of a stone." This refers to the George Washington statue, proving this story is set some time after the statue was created. What this is telling us is that the city has been bombed, due to advances in technology in the modern world. The author wrote this story around the time the first advances in nuclear technology were made, so he may be referring to that. The city has been destroyed by the "fire falling out of the sky and a mist that poisoned," which probably refers to missiles and poison mist or tear gas. These weapons, created by us humans, have backfired on us and destroyed the setting in this story and may eventually destroy the real world in the future. I think this story is similar to the other story we read, "The Feeling of Power": they both talk about the negative influences of advanced technology and power on humans.