Essay Questions

Explain the rastaman's use of the symbol of Babylon to represent the world.

In Christian typology, Babylon is an important and oft-employed symbol. The Babylonian civilization was an ancient and powerful one in Biblical times, and at one point they conquered Israel and took their people captive. The Babylonian captivity is one of the darkest parts of Israel's history; the Babylonians were famously rich, extravagant, and morally bankrupt, engaging in all kinds of pagan luxuries and pleasures without inhibition. The symbol of Babylon to represent the corruption of man returns in the book of Revelation, where the "whore of Babylon" is an apocalyptic figure representing the infidelity and self-pleasuring grandiosity of man, a symbol of corruption.

In this book, the rastaman calls the world "Babylon." He believes that wherever man is, corruption follows, and so the entirety of the physical world has been corrupted. This world is indeed the "City of Man," wherein men serve themselves rather than God. By calling this world Babylon, moreover, the rastaman is revealing his belief in some kind of other, greater world, whether it be the heaven of Judeo-Christian belief or merely the Zion latent in every man's soul in this life that belongs to other world religions. Regardless, the rastaman uses the symbol of Babylon to portray his disillusionment with the physical world and its inhabitants.

How is the rastaman an inherently ironic character?

The rastaman, at first glance, seems to be an uneducated, superstitious man. Born and raised in Jamaica, and apparently a believer in Rastafarianism, the average Western reader will probably immediately classify him as foolish and unreasoning. Miller, however, aims to combat this subconscious presupposition: he makes this rastaman a highly educated person who has a PhD in English Literature from the prestigious University of Glasgow. This characterization is ironic in its reversal of popular tropes, but it's highly effective, and it actually reflects Miller's own life: he grew up in Jamaica, but he has since moved to Scotland and received his PhD from Glasgow as well.