Data Bases • Custom Term Papers • Free Term Papers • Free Research Papers • Free Essays • Free Book Reports • Plagiarism? Links • Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com Free Essays • Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • My Term Papers • Get Free Essays • Essay World • Planet Papers	Search Lots of Essays Back to Subjects - Book Reports Alas babylon Alas babylon Mankind must have many traits in order to learn and survive. Three of the most important traits are self-preservation, humility and awareness of the degree of risk. The novel Alas, Babylon emphasizes the theme of man’s need to learn from history in order to prepare for and survive the present. Once bombs were dropped on the United States the laws changed. The laws of the present civilization are brought back to the laws of earlier civilization. The days before the blast were “a past period in history” (Page 97). The laws changed the day of the blast “just as Roman law gave way to atavistic barbarism” (Page 97). Written law is then changed to the basic law of self-preservation. In the ancient Neolithic Age children grew up and matured faster than children in present civilization. During the Neolithic, “a boy either grows up fast or he doesn’t grow up at all” (Page 225). In certain situations children must also mature and take responsibility in order to survive. “Alas, Babylon” is a phrase used by Randy and Mark which means that man can experience a disaster or downfall. Preacher Henry preaches a story out of the Bible about the great city of Babylon. It says in the bible that the great city of Babylon that “was clothed in fine linen,” and filled with riches, “was burned off the face of the earth in an hour” (Page 14-15). Because of their wealth, the people of Babylon thought they were indestructible. However, everything was destroyed in an hour showing that wealth without humility will not result in survival. Admiral Hazard is retired from the Navy and knows a lot about warfare. Admiral Hazard thought nuclear warheads were a huge threat, but others disagreed and did not worry about it. For a long time the Admiral thought that Russia’s most dangerous threat was the “terrible combination of submarines” carrying armed nuclear warheads (Page 138). People should take more precautions and not ignore someone when they say something could be a big threat. Admiral Hazard knew that atomic subs were more powerful than super-carriers although he had been an admiral of a carrier task force. When atomic subs and super-carriers became rivals, “Hazard had outspokenly favored the submarines” (Page 138). The United States should pay more attention to the enemy’s atomic subs than their carriers because the atomic subs can cause a lot more damage. Looking back on archaic Roman civilization and the Neolithic Age, the United States could have predicted the outcome of a nuclear attack and taken steps to avoid it. Instead, self-preservation again became a necessity. A lesson of survival can also be learned from Babylon’s emphasis of wealth over humility that led to its downfall. By not taking advantage of Admiral Hazard’s knowledge and experience the United States wasn’t aware of the risk of atomic subs and left itself open to attack. If man does not learn from history, Alas, Babylon will be the theme and man will not survive the present. Bibliography: Word Count: 516
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