Student Question
What are examples of foreshadowing in "By the Waters of Babylon"?
Quick answer:
There are a number of examples of foreshadowing in "By the Waters of Babylon," some of which are the fact that metal cannot be touched, which is indicative of a nuclear disaster that has taken place, and the fact that John comes across ruined buildings, which tells him that there was once a civilization there.
First things first: let us define foreshadowing. In a nutshell, foreshadowing refers to parts of a book that give you an indication of what is to follow later or to prepare you for something that will happen later in the story. These may be a lot more obvious the second time you read a book, once you know how the story ends.
In "By the Waters of Babylon," foreshadowing can be seen early on in the story when John talks about metal not being able to be touched without permission. This is the first indication that we are given that some kind of nuclear disaster has taken place. John's decision to collect metal foreshadows his future choices to be brave and pursue leadership. Further allusions to the nuclear holocaust can be found later, when John comes across bridges which have been burned.
Other clues also exist, pointing...
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to the fact that some great disaster has befallen earth and that people had existed on earth long before. John finds evidence that large roads once existed, despite the fact that they were now just huge pieces of broken stone. In addition, there were large buildings which had been ruined, which added to the realization that there had once been a city here.
Is there foreshadowing in "By the Waters of Babylon"?
Sure! If you read the text closely, there are clues all along the way. Near the beginning, he is talking about not being allowed to touch metal without permission and states, "After a time, I myself was allowed to go into the dead houses and search for metal. So I learned the ways of those houses -- and if I saw bones, I was no longer afraid. The bones are light and old -- sometimes they will fall into dust if you touch them." So from this passage we learn that there are old houses with people in them that have died. This is our first clue to some great travesty, and that they aren't the first people to exist on earth. On John's journey, he "left the god-road -- we do not use the god-roads now for they are falling apart into great blocks of stone." This is another instance of foreshadowing; great, huge roads existed that were now just massive hunks of broken up stones. Later, he sees the city: "It was there, in the red light, and they were too big to be houses. It was there with the red light upon it, mighty and ruined." This is a very straight-forward clue; the buildings were much larger than houses, and they were ruined. By now we should be getting a pretty good picture of a society that had been devastated; if we put that together with the clues about the metal-not touching it because of fear of death, we can piece together some sort of nuclear disaster. This nuclear distaster is foreshadowed a bit later when he describes how the bridges were all burned and "broken in the time of the Great Burning when the fire fell out of the sky." This great burning can be tied to the awful disaster that wiped out the civilization.
From here on out, the clues are many; the food, animals, books, statues,
subways, etc. By the time John "realizes" what has happened, we should
have known for a while, because of all of the foreshadowing.