He looked at me for a long time, stroking his beard, then he said at last, “Yes. It is time.” That night, in the house of the pr
iesthood, I asked for and received purification. My body hurt but my spirit was a cool stone. It was my father himself who questioned me about my dreams. He bade me look into the smoke of the fire and see—I saw and told what I saw. It was what I have always seen—a river, and, beyond it, a great Dead Place and in it the gods walking. I have always thought about that. His eyes were stern when I told him he was no longer my father but a priest. He said, “This is a strong dream.”
–“By the Waters of Babylon,”
Stephen Vincent Benét
Which details establish the setting in this passage? Check all that apply.
-“stroking his beard” -“in the house of the priesthood” -“my spirit was a cool stone” -“I saw and told what I saw” -“a river . . . a great Dead Place” -“his eyes were stern”
By the Waters of Babylon is a short story written by American Stephen Vincent Benét, it tells a story happening in the future, after the destruction of the industrial civilization. This story is narrated by the son of a priest.
In literature, setting refers to the time and place in which a story happens. Many things can be considered as a part of it, such as weather, historical periods, and descriptions about the place. <em>The house of the priesthood</em> is the place where purification happened, and <em>a river... a great Dead Place</em> gives details about the speaker's vision, so both are correct.
Second person point of view is when the writer uses “you” as the main character in a narrative. Example using the first line of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man: 1st person: “I am an invisible man.” 2nd person: “You are an invisible man.”
