While reading “The Tower” my brain latched onto several possible metaphors or possible themes. The first thing I thought it could be trying to instill is “the grass is always greener.” The people inside the tower either want to get higher or return to the ground or even further, tunnel into the ground. No one is completely satisfied with where they are in life or position in the tower. They are constantly seeking a greater something.
After that, I started to recognize it more as a religious metaphor or a representation of people’s pursuit of heaven, heaven of course being the top of tower. It’s something unknown and seemingly unreachable and that’s what makes it so attractive. Everyone is drawn to what could be perfection so they spend (or maybe waste) their lives climbing toward something they’ll never get (or is maybe not worth it.) But what makes this story interesting is when the tower stops being built and suddenly the top seems achievable. Only then do people stop caring. I’m not sure if I’m reading too much into it, but it seems like it could be commentary on how people only want God if he’s out of reach or maybe not available to others. Which I guess can come full circle to “the grass is greener” thing. People only want God when they can’t have him.
It’s also possible the story could be an allusion to the tower of Babel from the Old Testament. That’s a story about people who tried to build tallest tower possible to reach God. But God punished them by breaking language and forcing every worker to speak a new tongue. After that they couldn’t communicate, so they couldn’t build anymore. There is a clear connection between the myth and “The Tower” in the building to reach God respect. But the language divide is a little foggier. However in a way the people did lose ability to communicate. The tower was so tall they weren’t able to accurately convey messages up and down it. Throughout the story we see evidence of the people being unsure of what actually lies in heaven because the story gets mixed up. There’s also a divide created between those below and those in the tower, two separate peoples. Even those who live higher up in the tower can’t communicate with those lower.
I also noticed the religious elements with regard to reaching God and the Tower of Babel. I also considered the “the grass is greener on the other side.” Furthermore, I think the story has to do with the residents not wanting to wait until their time. They want to see heaven, they want to go to hell, but they don’t want to wait until they die. They also go from excitement and wonder of the Tower to boredom; it becomes too commonplace for them. Something interesting I thought about: the timeline of this story is generations of families, hundreds of years spent living beneath the tower and in the tower, and in one moment when the tower falls, those lives and, presumably the entire town, have ended.
This metaphor that “the grass is greener on the other side” caught my attention and frustration in the way that it reflects onto our own society. This human greed for having to know the impossible and wanting what they cannot have…I wrote about this in my post, and actually titled it as so!