Question

Read the passage from "By the Waters of Babylon." How shall I tell what I saw? There was no smell of man left, on stone or metal. Nor were there many trees in that wilderness of stone. There are many pigeons, nesting and dropping in the towers—the gods must have loved them, or, perhaps, they used them for sacrifices. There are wild cats that roam the god-roads, green-eyed, unafraid of man. At night they wail like demons but they are not demons. The wild dogs are more dangerous, for they hunt in a pack, but them I did not meet till later. Everywhere there are the carved stones, carved with magical numbers or words. How do details such as "stone or metal," "many pigeons," "towers," and "wild cats that roam the god-roads" help establish setting?

Answer 1

This question is missing the answer choices. I have found the complete question online. Since the passage is the same, I will omit it:

How do details such as "stone or metal,” "many pigeons,” "towers,” and "wild cats that roam the god-roads” help establish setting?

A. They create a feeling of a small mythical kingdom.

B. They build an atmosphere of a preindustrial society.

C. They give the sense that nature has taken over a once-urban area.

D. They develop the feeling of an ancient village of a polytheistic culture.

Answer:

Details such as "stone or metal,” "many pigeons,” "towers,” and "wild cats that roam the god-roads” help establish setting because:

C. They give the sense that nature has taken over a once-urban area.

Step-by-step explanation:

The narrator in the short story "By the Waters of Babylon," by Vincent Benét, lives in a futuristic setting where humankind seems to have almost destroyed itself due to the harmful use of technology and weapons. John, the narrator, is a priest who enters what once was New York city, a forbidden place. The humans that exist now are afraid of metal, seeing it as cursed, and of cities, where they think gods once lived.

In the passage we are analyzing here, details such as "stone or metal,” "many pigeons,” "towers,” and "wild cats that roam the god-roads” help show readers that the city is now a wild place. Nature has taken over, reclaimed what was initially hers. Man is gone - his legacy is left behind as stones, concrete, metal, and roads. However, all of that is now inhabited by feral animals.