By the Waters of Babylon

BY THE WATERS OF BABYLON PLANET OF THE APES COMPARITIVE ESSAY The short story by the waters of Babylon and the movie planet of the apes were both futuristic stories. They also both showed the evil sides of today’s man and the chaos and mass destruction that we are capable of accomplishing. They portrayed today’s man as selfish, violent, and full of hate and rage. By the waters of Babylon was written from the point of view of a boy close to becoming a man who knew nothing of his past civilization. Whereas in the movie planet of the apes it was from the point of view of a man that had come nearly directly from that past civilization. The main people in charge keep knowledge from the public so they do not know the evils that they are capable of as to protect them from making the same mistake. In both stories our present civilization had destroyed the earth, as we now know it and had killed most of the humans. The cause of these catastrophes in both stories was suspected to be from nuclear war. These places were the nuclear bombs had supposably hit could not grow food and had no signs of life and were called the forbidden zones. The main people in charge did not allow people to go into these so-called forbidden places. In the story by the waters of Babylon the people in charge were called the high priests. In the movie the planet of the apes the main people in charge were the elder apes and Dr. Zayus. In both stories their reasons for having the forbidden zones were similar they wanted to hide the past from them so they do not do it again. One last strange similarity is that they both took place in New York City or in that area. In by the waters of Babylon the main character and narrator was a boy on the verge of manhood. He was in a culture that resembled that of medieval times. Their culture had many tales, stories, good spirits, evil spirits, and magic. He was the son of a high priest, he called himself John. High priests