Alas Babylon

James Schnell        

English 1

Mr. Vernetti

April 11th, 2016

Alas, Babylon Essay

        Randolph Rowzee Bragg is the most important person in the rebuilding of Fort Repose, because he uses his military experience and leadership to help after “The Day”. In the novel Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank we are able to watch Randy use his leadership and military experience in a few different occasions. We first see this happen when he calculates the light, sound, and time of the bomb to see how far it was dropped. Next his military experience comes into play, when Mrs. Josephine Vanbruuker-Brown orders martial law, this allows Randy to become in charge of Fort Repose. We also see Randy’s leadership come into play when he starts to organize the new Fort Repose “police force”. The military experience and leadership that Randy has, allows him to step-up, take control, and lead Fort Repose after “The Day”.

        Randy is a smart military man, and this allows him to figure out the location of where the bombs are being dropped. After being woken by the first bomb, it takes Randy a minute to figure out what is happening. Peyton Bragg is blinded temporarily from the light of the explosion. After this happens, Randy starts to calculate location of the explosions. “Randy looked at his watch, marked the time, and did the flash-and-sound arithmetic in his head” (Frank 96). By doing this Randy figures out which cities are being destroyed. Knowing this allows Randy to figure out how far the radiation from the bomb will reach. It allows him to figure out how much time will be in between each bomb. And if a bomb is going to come at Fort Repose, how much time they have until it comes.

        Someone needs to step-up and take charge of all the chaos that is happening, and Randy is the man to do it. Mrs. Vanbruuker-Brown orders martial law upon all remaining cities. Under Martial Law, any Reserve officers and National Guard officers are instructed to hold authority in their city, if civil defense has broken down. For Fort Repose, Randy Bragg is the highest ranking Reserve officer. “1. In accordance with the proclamation of Mrs. Josephine Vanbruuker-Brown, Acting President of the United States, and the declaration of Martial Law, I am assuming command of the Town of Fort Repose and its environs” (256). This is the first step Randy takes in restoring Fort Repose. He now is the head authority figure, and he makes all the rules. The hard part is, he has to now enforce it. He is also in charge of everyone’s safety, both health wise and from criminal activity. The first thing he has to do is setup a police force, that will help him protect the city from crime and help rebuild the city.

        Randy can declare himself in charge, but he cannot do it without some backup. Prisoners escaped from a nearby jail when the bombs started dropping. Ever since, they have been attacking and stealing from people traveling along the roads, this is where the get their nickname, the highwaymen. “2. All Army, Navy, and Air Force reservists and all members of the National Guard, together with any others with the military experience who will volunteer will meet at the bandstand at 1200 hours, Wednesday, 20 April. I propose to form a composite company to protect this town” (256). Randy is smart by requesting anyone with military experience to join, because they are already disciplined and trained in the law. The first thing Randy plans on doing with the composite company, is tracking down and capturing the highwaymen and anyone like them. The sooner Randy is able to get them off the streets, the safer the town will be. Once they get the crime off the street, it will also be good to have a law enforcement group in place to help the town rebuild and restore order.

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