Alas,+Babylon+Essay

**What would happen if the U.S. was in a nuclear war? Would people panic, or stay calm? In Alas, Babylon, by Pat Frank, one of the main characters says, “Some nations and people melt in the heat…and others meet the challenge and harden” (132). This helps answer the question, what would people do. The quote is completely true in both the book, //Alas, Babylon// and in real life situations. ** **The quote has two parts to its meaning. The first half “Some nations and people melt in the heat…”, is saying that some people and nations cannot respond confidently or calmly to a threat or stressful situation. The second portion “and others meet the challenge and harden”, is saying that others step up to the line and can deal with the situation with a calm and level head. Those people become leaders or heroes. The people who “harden” can be anybody; they could be a politician or a young man or a doctor. ** **In //Alas, Babylon//, Dan Gunn said that he thought that Randy Bragg would be one of the people that would harden in times of crisis. Randy was a failed politician and a bachelor living alone with no responsibility. However, when his older brother’s children and wife came and then the nuclear war began, he put aside his reckless behavior. Randy then became a leader for all of the people in the town of Fort Repose, and helped them survive the nuclear war and radiation fall out. ** **This quote is also true on the flip side. That some people can’t deal with situations as extreme (or not as extreme) as in the book. People like Edgar Quisenberry  could not deal with the situation. He killed himself. Edgar killed himself because he could not cope with the idea that the monetary system was useless at that point in time in the book. He is a good example of a person that “melted in the heat…” ** **I have had a personal experience of “hardening” when I was babysitting with my sister. We were babysitting our 6 year old neighbor and he fell down the stairs. When he fell his leg made the most awful sound I have ever heard. My sister and I jumped up and ran to him. He was screaming and grabbing at his leg. At that moment my sister and I could have melted or toughened; we both toughened. She called 911 telling the operator the problem and then his mom to tell her what was going on. Meanwhile, I tried to keep him from moving his leg and to calm him down. ** **This quote is proven to be true in //Alas, Babylon// on multiple occasions as well as in real life circumstances. “Some nations and people melt in the heat…and others meet the challenge and harden,” is a good way of saying some people were made for the task set before them (people who harden) and others were just thrown in front of it (people who melt), but what would happen if no one hardened? What would the world do then?? **
 * __Alas, Babylon Essay __**