Babylon+OPE+Sarah

Sarah Bock E Question: How do you think this environment came to be? Title: Back to the Past **As atomic bombs fell onto the cities, the people started to flee into the woods where they would be shielded from the harmful chemicals, but as generations passed, the advanced technology was forgotten, and the primitive ways of living had returned.** From the setting at the beginning of the story, we are given the impression of an older time period when there were only priests who could read and heal, hunters who hunted for food with arrows, and a sacred, forbidden place, the Place of the Gods. When John, the main character, starts on his journey, he decides to go to the Place of the Gods. Careful and ready to die, John searches the mysterious place, wondering in between towers and statues. Near the end, he soon realizes that this place was not built by gods, but by men, after seeing a skeleton of a man. It was the city of New York. From this description of the Place of the Gods, “It is there that spirits live, and demons—it is there that there are the ashes of the Great Burning. These things are forbidden—they have been forbidden since the beginning of time”, we can guess that an atomic bomb, or a large explosion had destroyed the city many years ago, forcing the population out into the wild, where they found ways to survive with the natural materials, like the old days.