In the short story "By the Waters of Babylon" by Stephen Vincent Benet, the setting is a very important element in how the story is portrayed. Although readers are presented with a setting that appears to be thousands of years ago, the reader later discovers that the setting actually takes place in the future during a post-apocalyptic era in New York City. A world-destroying event reduced the remaining members of civilization to living as cavemen, and scenic descriptions emerge as a powerful means of establishing and investigating this dark destiny. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The timing of “By the Waters of Babylon” is very important to how this story progresses in the end. In the exposition of the story, it appears that the hill people with whom John lives practiced hunting and fishing skills like those of thousands of years ago. Their use of the English language is very formal and their strict religious beliefs control the way they think and do things. Their ways of obtaining food include hunting and fishing with the use of bow and arrows, and preparing meals by the fire, which is not practiced very often in modern times. John notices some buildings that have names like the one that says “UBTREAS” (581), which was part of the word subtreasury. The New York Treasury sign must have been destroyed in the event. This gives the reader a clue as to what happened. John describes a building he is in with “many stairs” that twisted “until [his] head was dizzy” (583). This informs the reader that John is in some kind of apartment or high-rise building. Although they are in good condition, there are no people or what they call “god[s] or demon[s]” (581), informing the reader that the people who lived there died in the “Great Fire” (576 ) and John is living sometime after the apocalypse. Where this story takes place is also very important to how it progresses. The distance between where John lives and the Dead Place also gives the story a mysterious atmosphere. Although the reader has no idea about the setting at first, one of the first clues in the story is the name of the river that John dares to cross. He calls it “Ou-dis-sun, the Sacred, the Long” (579), and it sounds very similar to the Hudson, which is found around New York City. John probably lives somewhere west of the river, somewhere in the Poconos, northern New Jersey, or southern New York. John passes through the “Place of the Gods” (580) and is amazed by its buildings “which [are] too large to be houses” (579). He describes the city as being dotted with skyscrapers “here and there” (581) as most were probably destroyed in the “Great Fire” (576). These buildings give the story a dangerous feel, as they could easily fall and kill him. He sees many parts of nature that have returned to the city, such as fish and butterflies, which give the setting a more vibrant atmosphere. He explains the place from his point of view which is based on religion, so he explains many buildings as temples and the statues of great American heroes as unknown deities. For example, he recognizes a statue of a god, “ASHING”(581), but it is actually a statue of George Washington in New York. The statue was destroyed by something and left abandoned by the people after the Great Fire. John passes through many strange places on his journey. He describes that he "passes many dead places" (578) and sees many "divine roads" (580) along the way, which are just a strange interpretation of modern asphalt. Dead Places are nothing more than abandoned places that probably did.