Babylon_Essay

Disasters happen all over the world, affecting many people. Hurricane Katrina and the tsunami in India were both recent natural disasters. Hurricane Katrina destroyed much of New Orleans. Many people died, were hurt, or lost everything. They have to rebuild, and for many that means starting again from scratch. Many people don’t have houses and food to eat. The tsunami affected India’s southeast coast and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Lots of people died in this disaster too. There were over 100,000 houses destroyed or damaged, and over 2 million people affected by the tsunami. While Katrina and the tsunami were natural disasters, some are caused by man. 9/11 is a good example of a man-made disaster. On 9/11 the twin towers of the World Trade Center were hit by planes and few people survived who were in the buildings. Natural disasters are accidental, and man-made disasters are planned. One man-made disaster that would be really scary is a nuclear war. In the novel Alas, Babylon, by Pat Frank, the author tells about a group of people who survive a man-made disaster, which was a bomb dropped by Russia, and re-establish a “civil society” based on “faith, hope, and charity” after an all out nuclear war. In an essay written by Hal Hager about Alas, Babylon, he states that Pat Frank, the author of Alas, Babylon, “offered unmitigated hope. Randy Bragg and company not only survive the devastation that leaves vast contamination zones throughout the U.S., but apply the best in themselves to begin the re-establishment of life within a civil society. … Frank’s ‘message’ seems to be that we can survive even the worst catastrophe with every day, secularized applications of faith, hope, and charity.” This quote means that if we believe and trust we can get out of the mess or disaster we are in, with a little help. Randy and his friends survived the bomb and we could too. They thought of ways they could get their needs and solve some of their problems. Randy Bragg and his friends faced several immediate problems after the bomb hit. Three of these problems they faced were lack of water, no electricity, and Peyton, who had been blinded by the bomb. Randy remembered that they had lots of artisan water that they could pipe to their house, from the Henry’s house, which the Henry’s drank every day. Another problem they had was that they no longer had electricity. Randy had gotten candles and flashlights that would work temporarily, until the batteries ran out and there was no more wax. He also had to deal with Peyton. She had looked at the bomb at the wrong time and had been blinded. Randy had to find Dr. Gunn and ask him to take care of Peyton. Dr. Gunn gave Peyton eye drops and in a few days she was back to normal. These were a few immediate problems that happened after the bomb. Fort Repose had other problems as well; they had two major long-term problems. On the radio, it announced that the whole state of Florida was a contaminated zone. They needed to avoid the radiation. Many things contained radiation after the bomb. Some jewelry that Porky Logan found at a store was sold to some people. The jewelry had radiation in it and killed Pete Hernandez. Another long-term problem was the highway men. A group of highway men had attacked Dr. Gunn and stolen all of his supplies, broke his glasses, and beat him. Highway men would go around trying to kill people in order to steal their goods. Randy went out and killed the highway men that hurt Dr. Gunn. He took one prisoner and hung him in the local park telling people that if they robbed other people they would be hung too. This was the beginning of the road back to the “re-establishment of life within a civil society.” These were two long-term problems that Randy and everyone else had to deal with in the novel. I think that Pat Frank leaves us with “unmitigated hope.” The last scene of the book is when Randy and his friends are at his house after the U.S. Air Force came and told them they weren’t actually in a contaminated zone, but they could go with the air force to the government’s base and have some fresh food and a place to live comfortably, but Randy said no. He said no because he didn’t want to leave his town. Near the end of the book it says that Dr. Gunn delivered his first baby after the bomb that wasn’t mentally or physically disabled. This probably means that life will soon go back to “normal.” In southern California right now, large fires are burning. The winds are making the fire travel faster and harder to put out. The fire started on October 21 and is burning much of southern California. Over 400 buildings have been destroyed or damaged. The cause of this fire is unknown so we do not know yet if it is a natural disaster or man-made disaster. The worst man-made disaster, known as Alas, Babylon in this novel, has not yet happened but it could. America and the rest of the world should be prepared in case this does happen. We should act like Randy did and we could all survive if we apply the best in ourselves to “begin the re-establishment of life within a civil society” with a little “secularized applications of faith, hope, and charity.”