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....