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 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