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38 pages 1 hour read

Pat Frank

Alas, Babylon

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1959

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Symbols & Motifs

Alas, Babylon

The words “Alas, Babylon” first appear in Mark’s telegram to Randy. It is their code announcing the onset of nuclear war. In the Bible, Babylon was a city renowned for its sin, and the debaucheries of the Babylonians grew so great that God destroyed the city. There are no suggestions in the novel that the nuclear attacks are divine vengeance for humanity’s excesses, but the destruction of cities is analogous. The invention and deployment of nuclear weapons also suggests the tipping point at which civilizations become so powerful, and so proud of their power, that they are destroyed in a cataclysmic event of seemingly godlike scope.

The Day

The Day is the name the people in Fort Repose give to the day of the first attacks, similar to the way the markers A.D. and B.C. denote the eras before and after Jesus Christ. The characters in Alas, Babylon divide their lives into the period before and after the attacks. The Day symbolizes a transition from a reliance on civilization to a more primitive way of living. Day is associated with sunlight and illumination. Ironically, The Day commences for Randy with the illusion that he sees two suns in the sky, one rising and one setting. The perverse illumination of the Day that begins the novel contrasts starkly with the conclusion, in which Randy faces the beginning of the “thousand-year night” (430).

Fort Repose

A fort is a structure fortified against enemy attacks. Repose typically connotes tranquility, peace, or even sleep. The small town of Fort Repose quickly becomes isolated from the rest of the country after the attacks. The name Repose is initially ironic, given that life in Fort Repose is as chaotic and frightening as anywhere else in the aftermath of the explosions. However, by the end of the novel the name is more accurate. The characters have bonded—some have even married each other—and their commitment to the community transforms Fort Repose into a sanctuary. They know they have probably already survived the worst that will happen, and they are fortified against the most immediate dangers. They may not exist in a state of actual tranquility, but the knowledge that the war is over, and that the real work of rebuilding can begin in earnest, is brings a new sense of buttressed calm to the town.

The Thousand-Year Night

At the conclusion of the novel, Randy learns that America won the war. The victory does not change his reality, though it alters the world forever. Randy is glad that America won the war, but there is nothing celebratory in the news, and no sign that the war was worth fighting. The victory signals only the onset of a “thousand-year night” (430). Night is not meant literally, as one thousand years of darkness. Rather, night connotes darkness as an obfuscating force that makes it difficult to see, to plan, and to make progress. Hart says that it may take centuries for contaminated cities to recover, and many major U.S. cities no longer exist. Humans must now take centuries to rebuild from a disaster that they created.

Women

Near the end of the novel Randy thinks, “The more he learned about women the more there was to learn except that he had learned this: they needed a man around” (407). Today Frank’s portrayal of women Alas, Babylon seems archaic. Women fall into three categories: frail creatures in need of male protection, promiscuous opportunists, or supports for men’s ambitions. Women repeatedly appear as props to highlight what the male characters are doing or achieving. When Dan shaves, for instance, Helen watches him. He notes: “All women…from the youngest on up, seemed fascinated by his travail and agony” (335).

Women in Alas, Babylon also fall into stereotypical roles like “the gossip,” “the prude,” and “the whore.” When Florence spies on Randy in the early pages, she abhors what she thinks of as his constant womanizing. She views the women who visit him as immoral and trashy. Her conversations with Alice, the librarian who is painted as spinsterish, rarely expand beyond gossip and condemnations of her neighbors. Rita is more independent than the other women, but Frank describes her as exploitative. She dresses to show off her body and hoards the gifts men give her: “Her hobby was men. She sampled and enjoyed men as other women collected and enjoyed African violets” (272). Her greed—which Frank ties to her promiscuity—results in exposure to radiation from contaminated jewelry, a possible indictment of her sexual independence.

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