"By the Waters of Babylon"
Post a comment in which you answer (three to four sentences each) the following questions. Remember to use the following format when you type your name: dconlay p#.
1. John, the narrator of By the Waters of Babylon, is witness to a ruined civilization. What do you think happened to this civilization? What evidence (use a quote) do you have to support your opinion?
2. What lesson might John learn from the destruction of this once great civilization?
3. On page 509, when John says, "We must rebuild again," does he sound like he has learned this lesson. Why, or why not?
4. In what ways is our society like John's in how we deal with history and the lessons of the past?
posted by dconlay @ 10:31 AM
22 comments
22 Comments:
roy ortiz
per.1
9/27/05
1. The civilization probably had a war against each other because of something.
2. That it wasn't a place of the gods that ot was of man.
3. yes, he wants to start a new civilization.
4. We learn it by books too. We don't see it first hand.
John Dubon p#1
1)There was war in the city. for example in a sentence it says that it was fire falling out of the skyand a mist that poisoned it means that there were either planes shooting missiles or throwing bombs.
2) John might learn that is good to have great knowledge but use it wisely. He might also learn that war is goig to lead them to extinction and his culture would no longer be in the planet.
3)I think john sounds like he learned this lesson because he wants to keep the place runnig like it was. I also think that he has learned this lesson because he knows that Lincon, Biltmore and Moses built the city of new york and john and all the people must learn how to use the tools in order to built the city again.
4)We know about people from the past by reading texts about the what they did and what they had learned about life.
d.lettieri per4
1. The civilization might have annoyed the gods so the destroyed them.
2. He might have learned that he was lower life-form then tha gods.
3.Yes he does he wants to fix and rebuild the civilization.
4. we learned it from books and other people like our parents just like john did from his dad and books
KHamilton p4
1.The ruined civilization is us."Fire falling from the sky" must have been bombs that destroyed most people living at that time.
2.If John actually knew what happend he could learn that people don't have to blow up eachother to solve their problems.He could use that knowledge to ensure that nothing like this would happen again.
3.When John says "We must rebuild", he has learned his lesson. He knows that the "dead places" are still inhabitable and could make his peoples lives easier.
4.Our society is like Johns in that we are given information, and we interperet it in our own way. There is no way of knowing if what we think is right, but we do the best we can.
elagrand p4
1. In the story, "By the Waters of Babylon", I think the civilization was ruined by a natural disaster. The disaster might have been a volcano. The following suggests such a tragedy, "It was fire falling out of the sky and a mist that poisoned."
2. One lesson that I noticed was that the things that we are told are not always true. John was told that the "East" was a scared place of spirts of gods that would not allow him to live once he saw them. But, in fact he saw a "god" that turned out to be a man and lived.
3. On page 509, when John says, "We must rebuild again," it sounds like he learned his lesson. He wanted there to be truth in his civilization. He wanted his people to know about the gods.
4. Our society is like John's in many ways. Traditions and stories are passed down from one generation to the next. They are not always the truth. Few people decide to search for truth for themselves like John did, most choose to believe what they are fed.
iespada per1
The civilization had a chemical warfare and all were destroyed. "It was fire falling out from the sky and a mist that poisoned." (508). The lesson thatb he could have learned was that life as we know it can change in an instant. I don't think he learned anything because he wants to start rebuilding but all of the destruction would happen again. Nothing like that could happen the way they are living now. We look back on history like they do but not on their level. We have a little more understanding on how other civilizations worked.
HGolden Period 4
1.It sound like there was a war because it said fire fell form the sky.
2.He learned that there was no gods that lived there but people and that the storys about the god we just fables.
3.Yes, it sounds like he realized that his villeage could move into the more technolgicly advanced abandoned city.
4.We pass history through oral stories and write accounts
1.) They must of have had some type of conflict or a political dissagreement with in the city.
2.) He probably learned that no matter what that he is no less than the god's.
3.) John learned that when you are set back a couple steps, you strive and push to go further in life.
4.)For example, In the tragedy of 9/11 our country was hit hard. Even though the situation was difficult we look past the current displacement and pushed on. Just like in the story we only looked in the future and kept our heads up.
KMolter PER # 1
1)I personally think that the ruined civializaton was due to us. The reason why i figure this is because we had a lot of money for bombs and such things to be able to do these things.
2) John might learn maybe how to prepare things better or else look at things in a better perspective on the way of chosing situations. War isn't always the answer to things it may lead on for years. Also John may have learned that the gods are powerful and mean something and you cant always overtake them at times.
3) I think that John has learned his lesson and truly means and wants to re-make his town.
4)The way we deal with history today is we dont really appreciate the things we have as much as we should. A lot of people just take and take or even complain but if they think about what they have its probly more then someone else out in the world. Our way is similar to Johns for the reasoning of traditions passed down by ancestors or mothers and fathers.
1.From what I understand this civilization ia all about war and to see the God's world.
2.John might of learned not to always trust what people say because they can be wrong. For example the people said if you go to were the Gods land is you will never come back, but there were no gods there like everyone was saying.
3.In a way yes because he might start his new civilization and it may be better than before because he won't make the same mistakes.
4.We learn about our past by people writing jurnoals about their lifes. Also we learn by are mistakes and others mistakes.
D,Reeker
Per.1
9/27
1.) When it says,"I looked at the bones in the shadow and kept my voice still" on page 500 it gave me an idea of what was happening. Obviously something terrible had happened even though it doesn't clearly tell you how everything was destroyed. I think the gods didn't like what was going on so they started a big fued and demolished everything in sight.
2.) Just reading the story made me learn a lesson. I would have to say that John's lesson might be "civilization is very fragile thing and can be destroyed by the slightest misplacement".
3.) I'm pretty sure he did because it happened right in front of him. If they don't rebuild what used to be, he will have to continue his life purifying metal and being careful with everything he touches.
4.) There are so many examples in our society that I can use to answer this question. One of them is Germany after WWII. They had to rebuild their country because of all the destruction the war cost. They went broke because they spent so much on the war.
svielma
per.1
1. The quote "Fire falling from the sky" sounds like it must have been bombs and if they were it must have been what destroyed the civilization.
2. If John knew what had been going on he could have learned that war is not the answer.
3. When John says this it sounds like he did learn his lesson because he wants to rebuild the civilization and hopefully make it better.
4. Our society is like John's because we too learn about the past by reading books and telling stories and we process the information given to us in our own way.
1. I think that every one just got mad at eatch other and let loose and started a war as it says (fire fell from the sky) meaning bombs were being droped.
2. John learned that there was no gods in the town, and that all the storys were all fake.
3. I think he did because it seems like he wants to continune living in the city and have it a working community.
4. We get a lot of our knolledge from books, online, even friends, also from those boring stroys from our parents that we've all heard plenty of times to repeat the whole story as they continue to tell the story.
1) The civilization which John went must have died out or they might have moved away to another place. I found out by how he described the city. He said “if you look at the flowers closely you could see that they might have been picked up a day before.
2) The building was disserted. They were cracked. Their were wild animals roaming around the building. He learned that they have to be together so they won’t turn out like the civilization.
3) He does sound that he has learned his lesson. When he will be head priest they would go back to the civilization to read the books and learn many things as a company. He won’t go back by himself.
4) We learn our history by many ways. One way is by going to school and learning by books. Another is by our parents teaching us our past. We pass down our knowledge from generation to generations.
I think there was a war in the city. I think there was a war because they talk about the "dead places." John might learn that the land of god maybe wasnt as peaceful and as perfect as people tried to make it seem.When John says "We must rebuild again" it sounds like he did learn his lesson.I think John has an idea of what went wrong and wants to try and fix it.In our society we write down bad and good things that happen so that people can remember the good but dont repeat the bad.Thats what johns society does too.
1)"Fire falling from the sky" to me it means that there was a war because fire falling from the sky might mean bombs falling.
2)John might learn not to have a war because his civilization might indup like the other civilization.
3)I think he has because he said "they were men who biult this city, not gods or demons." SO i think he wont make the same mistake the other civilization did.
4)Our society is like John's because when a war happens we learn from it by not makeing the same mistakes as we did the first time and learning what we have to do next time the samething happens.
♥ i love this class%hearts;
gerardo ney
period.1
9/28/05
1.The city probably got hit by an astroid a big astroid and it killed everybody just like the guy that died sitting down thats what I think happened.
2.John found out that there were no gods it was just a bunch of guys.
3.Yeah I guess he wants to rebuild his civilization.
4.We learn about people from the past in books and school those people are OG's.
M Pelayo
p.4
9/28/05
1.I think that the city got hi tby bombs and missles.
2.John found out that there was no gods up there it was just a bunch ofmen.
3.I think John wanted to rebuild the ruins to give civilization another chance.
4.We learn about people from the past in books, old people and my history teacher.
1.I think what happened to the civilzation was a big war was going on.On one of the quote it said "fire falling from the sky" it kind of sounds like war to me.
2.A great lesson that John would of learned from all this is that not to always trust people all the time.
3.I think that John did learned his lesson. The reason why i think he did learned his lesson is because he kind of wants to start a new civilzation.
4.The way i learned from things from the past is reading text books. Also, you can learn it by people that are older than you and had be in the world longer than you. For example, your parents, grandparents, and ect.
1) If i witnessed what john witnessed, i would think that there probably was a nuclear explosion or something similar. "It was fire falling out of the sky and a mist that poisoned." To me, that sounds like it could of been bombs or the end of the world.
2) John might learn how important it is to control the peace in his own civilization.
3) It seems like john has hope for what hes found. He doesnt want the civilization to just be thrown away. he wants to try to find way to help.
4) The way our society is like John's is because were always trying to find new ways to improve our society. Everyday, there is people working on how to make this a better atmosphere.
1. Something bad must have occured at the time. Maybe a war of somekind, or a riot, or maybe even a huge bomb.
2. There were no gods, well there may have been but ones he couldnt see. There were only men.
3. Si Senior,he wants to start a brand spankin'new civilization.
4. We can't see what has happened, but we hear about it as he did too. We also have left over artifacts like he did in the story.
the questions were really fun conlay. hah cant wait to do more of them. peace out trout.
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