By the Waters of Babylon

by

Stephen Vincent Benét

By the Waters of Babylon Symbols

Metal

The metal that the priests of John’s tribe gather from the Dead Places symbolizes both the tribe’s developing understanding of technology and its reliance on superstitions. John never states outright why the tribe gathers…

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Towers

Towers, which readers will recognize as skyscrapers, are the defining feature of the Place of the Gods, making it remarkably different from any landscape that John has ever seen before. As architectural marvels, the…

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