Plot Summary

Alas Babylon is a book about an enemy bombing America. America gets bombed and the whole country goes into chaos. People are buying out stores and getting things they think they will need. People go on a mad rush for money, food, gasoline, and automobile equipment. Most of all they go home to their families to see if they are okay. Many people either died or were seriously injured from the bombings. America and its people were not prepared for this unthinkable occurrence. Most everything is destroyed or filled with radiation. The people who lived through the bombing went through a world of pain and trouble. Phone lines were knocked out; nobody could send any important news over radio because of the chance of the enemy listening in. This book is filled with questions that people would never think about on a normal day. Throughout the entire book, people are looking for ways to get by on the bare minimum. Many learn patience and humility. Others find that this is the time to get expensive worldly things for cheap trade for others essentials because they are more worried about what will happen in the future and not about the present. Some learn their lesson that looking towards the future is a good thing but the most important day is today. The characters in the book go through many trials. Many learn that their kids and other kids are more important than themselves because they have the longest to live and they are the future. In the end of the book, they all learn that anything can happen when working together, and that trying is better than giving up.