Throughout time, it is shown that many artists have been inspired by the stories that are carried in the Bible. Some of those artists are like Shakespeare, Ray Bradbury, Fritz Lang, and Alejandro González Iñárritu. These artists are some of the few that used allusions towards the stories of the Bible. An allusion is when an expression brings something to the mind without mentioning it directly. In some of the works of those artists carry the allusion to The Tower of Babel.
In Genesis 11, the story of The Tower of Babel is told. In this story the descendants of Noah are brought together to build a tower that reaches the Heavens. The reason they want to build this tower is to have power like God. So while they built the tower, God watched them and began to realize that they can someday be powerful. With that in mind, he went down with the angels to confuse the people in Shinar and separated them all over the world with different languages so they could not understand one another. That would stop them from trying to regain the possibility of having the power like God. It was called Babel because of that reason and this is how our world has come out to have many different languages.
Allusions are found in many forms of art. One of the arts that hold allusions to a biblical story is literature. Ray Bradbury published one of his most famous works in 1953, Fahrenheit 451. This novel is science fiction and holds the story of a fireman named Montag in a future like city. His job is to start fires, burn books, not put them out. The setting that Montag is placed in is not allowed to get in contact with books because they hold knowledge and their government believes that it gives power. The main character lives this way too until he meets a teenager names Clarisse and an English Professor named Faber. They show Montag the beauty of nature, knowledge, and literature. Further into the story he has second thoughts on his job and realizes that those books he is burning carries a lot of information. In the end, Montag rebels from the idea of burning books and decides to read them and enjoy the information or stories that it holds. He stayed hidden with other rebellions and together, they have the possibility of changing the way their world is.
This novel that was written by Ray Bradbury carries biblical allusions to the Tower of Babel. He includes a reference when a woman decides to burn herself with her books instead of living without them. One of the firemen, Beatty, tells the woman, “None of those books agree with each other. You’ve been locked up here for years with a regular damned Tower of Babel. Snap out of it!” (38). Beatty is confused about her feelings towards the books because they had no connection between on another. This is also like the different languages because to Beatty they do not make sense but to the woman, it makes perfect sense because she has read them and knows that they have. In this book the government is like God and the books are like the descendants of Noah creating the Tower of Babel. The government, like God, got rid of the people’s success so they would not be able to have the power to rebel against them. The reason Bradbury used this reference to the Tower of Babel was because it shows how even though knowledge is not given, some are still able to overcome that and seek their own ways of finding it if they want. Ray Bradbury is one of the many artists that used a biblical allusion into their art.
Literature is not the only art that holds biblical allusions. Films are also one of the many things that carry allusions to a story that is in the Bible. A German silent film that was directed by Fritz Lang also has a biblical allusion to the Tower of Babel. In 1927 the film Metropolis was released. Throughout the film, Lang shows many allusions to the biblical story. The film is placed in a city that is called Metropolis and is home to the Utopian society. In this film a man, Freder Frederson, sees a woman with some children appear and then quickly disappear. He then tries to follow them and ends up finding an underground factory filled with underground workers that keep the above world going. Freder’s father is one of the few people that know about it. Later on Freder finds out that the woman is named Maria and helps the workers to become “one” and try to have a better life. The founder of Metropolis, his father, hears this and has an assistant make a robot of Maria to work towards ending a supposed uprising from the workers. The outcome is that the underground city destroyed their selves just as “Maria” has told them.
Fritz Lang uses a few allusions to stories in the Bible. The upper city of Metropolis represents Heaven as the underground is like the people making the tower to reach the Heavens. The founder and owner of Metropolis is an allusion to God and how he stopped the people from becoming successful into having power. Freder Freders, like God, stopped his underground city from starting an uprising and becoming like the people in the above city of Metropolis. Fritz Lang used this allusion to the story because it shows that having power can be possible and at times we are put down and have to start from the beginning to regain it.
Another film that holds an allusion to this biblical story is Babel. This film was directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu in the year 2006. In this film it tells four different stories on four different lives and their struggles. The first story is about two brothers that carry a rifle that was sold to their family and are sent to kill jackals. While they are out there they decide to make a bet on who could hit the upcoming bus. Once they both aim for it, they think that they did not make it. Then the bus comes to a stop and someone was shot from the rifle those boys had. The second story was about a Nanny who was in charge of a boy and girl while their parents were on a trip. The woman needed to go to her son’s wedding, so while on her job she takes the children with her to Mexico and on their return, have difficulties leaving Mexico. They end up being left in the desert and having to find their way back to San Diego. The nanny decides to leave the children in the desert while she goes and looks for help. Unfortunately she was stopped by the police and arrested and deported back to Mexico while the kids were rescued and sent back home safely. The third story was about a couple, the parents of the kids that were taken to Mexico, who were on a tour and the wife was shot on the bus, by those two boys from the beginning, so the husband and wife were sent into a country that they did not know or know how to communicate with them. He had to find a way home and find help before his wife bled to death. In the end they were saved by the ambulance and taken home for some cure. The last story was about an Asian girl who was deaf and had struggle on communicating with others. She was tired of not being able to be understood and tried to cope with her feelings on it.
With these four stories, Alejandro González Iñárritu connected them and showed an allusion to the Tower of Babel. He used Babel as his film title because throughout his film the families had difficulty understanding one another. Though it was hard to communicate with one another, they managed to get through it. This showed how our different cultures have trouble communicating with one another. Even though it is difficult we can still overcome it and find away in understanding one another.
In Conclusion, biblical allusions are found in many different arts. Some are known for their creativity in using the allusions while others do not use it as much. Some of the allusions are easier to catch and understand why they are using that allusion. The artists use allusions to bible stories to show deeper meaning to what they are saying or what their theme holds.