Stories of Your Life and Others

In the eponymous story, the Tower of Babylon is more than the literal object that forms the center of the plot; it is also a powerful symbol of a man’s desire to reach forces beyond his comprehension. The people of ancient Babylon, as depicted in the story, deeply believe in the geocentric system, and for the purposes of the story, Chiang portrays this system as realistic. Therefore, the Tower is both a physical manifestation of the people’s desire to reach God’s seat and a symbol of man’s natural wish to conquer unfamiliar spaces to achieve the unimaginable. The Tower might even symbolize progress, as generations of men spend their whole lives working on achieving the common goal.

Additionally, as the story develops, the Tower comes to symbolize man’s arrogance in believing that he can reach the heights where Divinity dwells, just because he feels the desire to do so. This is why as Hillalum finally breaks into the Heaven’s Vault, he finds himself back on Earth: The Tower may be a prodigious achievement in human terms, but it is still a representation of human striving and not a sign of human ability to reach the same level as the Divine presence.