"I saw both banks of the
river—I saw that once there had been god roads across it, though now they
were broken and fallen like broken vines. Very great they were, and wonderful
and broken—broken in the time of the Great Burning when the fire fell out of
the sky. And always the current took me nearer to the Place of the Gods, and
the huge ruins rose before my eyes"(315).
The Great Burning mentioned in this quote reminded me of the Apocalypse referred to in the Bible in the Book of Revelations.
ReplyDelete"The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down upon the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and a third of the green grass was burned up" (Revelations 8:7).
This, to me, sounds like World War III where mankind fight and destroy a huge portion of the Earth and many, many people. This "fire and hail" can symbolize gunfire and weapons of mass destruction, and "blood" to me symbolizes poison, because in many places in the Bible, rivers, seas, and different bodies of waters were turned to blood to poison it and the creatures who live in it. These huge ruins are the battlegrounds of the huge war and reminds me of Armageddon. Armageddon is said to be set in the area of Mesopotamia, while the "Place of the Gods" mentioned in the story is set in the city of New York, but they have similarities. For starters, both of these places were battlegrounds for large wars that end in huge destruction. Also, both of these places are located near rivers. The river in the story is very likely the Hudson River, since it is the longest river in New York, and in the story, John describes the river as "like a giant in the sun...very long, very wide" (313). Armageddon is located near the Euphrates River in Mesopotamia.