ENG3705 Assignment 3
(COMPLETE ANSWERS)
2025 - DUE September 2025
For assistance contact
Email:
, The Impossibility of Return: A Rejection of the Past in Babel
In Chapter 32 of R.F. Kuang's deep novel named Babel, Letty Price's devastating and
mournful appeal rings so true as she laments, "I just want things to go back to the way they
were. We had a future together, all of us" (2022: 519). This line is a heart-wrenching
articulation of a universal human longing that many individuals experience in their own
lives—the desire to reverse tragedy and regain what has been lost. When we place this desire
in the context of the novel's climactic showdown, however, it becomes apparent that this wish
is revealed as a tragic impossibility, one that cannot be fulfilled. The chapter serves as a
devastating distillation of the huge ideological, emotional, and physical gulf that has grown
between the friends over time. It is a powerful illustration that the profound changes wrought
by the revolution—and the deeper injustices it has exposed—are fundamentally irreversible.
As such, a restoration of the state of things that prevailed before the revolution is not only
impossible but also morally unthinkable. Such a restoration would require forsaking the hard-
won truths that Robin and Victoire have each come to realize about their world and its
complexities.
The most essential argument that exists in contrast to any idea of going back to the past is
deeply encapsulated in the irreversible change that has taken place in Robin. Having seen
firsthand, in bald detail, the violent truths of British imperialism and having realized the
complicity of Babel in the propagation of that oppressive regime, Robin has lost the naivete
that once so clearly characterized his earlier perception of the institution. His experiences
with the Hermes Society, coupled with his exposure to the wider, more complicated world
surrounding him, have essentially changed and reconfigured his moral compass in
fundamental respects. When Letty speaks longingly of returning to their common academic
existence, Robin recognizes this as a desire to re-enter a state of ignorant bliss, one that he
can no longer afford to indulge. He forcefully declares, "The work of Babel is built on… on
plunder… It's all a part of the same monstrous system" (2022: 520). This realization he has
arrived at is as much an intellectual as it is an emotional one-way street; there is simply no
possibility of un-knowing the truth regarding the foundation on which Babel stands. The
common "future" that Letty romanticizes was, to Robin, nothing more than a gilded cage
built upon the backs of his people, an oppressive apparatus that has wrought untold agony. To
go back to it, in Robin's estimation, would represent a deep betrayal of every individual who
has suffered and died in the cause, including his beloved friend Ramy.
Victoire's viewpoint further cements the impossibility of reversal, but from a stance of
unflinching pragmatism. Where Robin's experience is one of emotional awakening and
intellectual rebellion, Victoire has always existed in the political realities of her situation as a
colonized woman. Her activities with the Hermes Society were not a sudden explosion of
rebellion but the extension of a long-existing struggle. To her, Letty's appeal is not only naive,
but a fundamental misreading of the seriousness of the situation. She is aware that their
personal connections, however valued, are secondary now to a greater historical movement.
Her biting rejoinder to Letty, "This is not about us anymore… This is about all of them"
(2022: 523), is an explicit rejection of a friendship-based worldview. Victoire is aware that
the personal sacrifices she has made—and will make—are in the interest of her people and
(COMPLETE ANSWERS)
2025 - DUE September 2025
For assistance contact
Email:
, The Impossibility of Return: A Rejection of the Past in Babel
In Chapter 32 of R.F. Kuang's deep novel named Babel, Letty Price's devastating and
mournful appeal rings so true as she laments, "I just want things to go back to the way they
were. We had a future together, all of us" (2022: 519). This line is a heart-wrenching
articulation of a universal human longing that many individuals experience in their own
lives—the desire to reverse tragedy and regain what has been lost. When we place this desire
in the context of the novel's climactic showdown, however, it becomes apparent that this wish
is revealed as a tragic impossibility, one that cannot be fulfilled. The chapter serves as a
devastating distillation of the huge ideological, emotional, and physical gulf that has grown
between the friends over time. It is a powerful illustration that the profound changes wrought
by the revolution—and the deeper injustices it has exposed—are fundamentally irreversible.
As such, a restoration of the state of things that prevailed before the revolution is not only
impossible but also morally unthinkable. Such a restoration would require forsaking the hard-
won truths that Robin and Victoire have each come to realize about their world and its
complexities.
The most essential argument that exists in contrast to any idea of going back to the past is
deeply encapsulated in the irreversible change that has taken place in Robin. Having seen
firsthand, in bald detail, the violent truths of British imperialism and having realized the
complicity of Babel in the propagation of that oppressive regime, Robin has lost the naivete
that once so clearly characterized his earlier perception of the institution. His experiences
with the Hermes Society, coupled with his exposure to the wider, more complicated world
surrounding him, have essentially changed and reconfigured his moral compass in
fundamental respects. When Letty speaks longingly of returning to their common academic
existence, Robin recognizes this as a desire to re-enter a state of ignorant bliss, one that he
can no longer afford to indulge. He forcefully declares, "The work of Babel is built on… on
plunder… It's all a part of the same monstrous system" (2022: 520). This realization he has
arrived at is as much an intellectual as it is an emotional one-way street; there is simply no
possibility of un-knowing the truth regarding the foundation on which Babel stands. The
common "future" that Letty romanticizes was, to Robin, nothing more than a gilded cage
built upon the backs of his people, an oppressive apparatus that has wrought untold agony. To
go back to it, in Robin's estimation, would represent a deep betrayal of every individual who
has suffered and died in the cause, including his beloved friend Ramy.
Victoire's viewpoint further cements the impossibility of reversal, but from a stance of
unflinching pragmatism. Where Robin's experience is one of emotional awakening and
intellectual rebellion, Victoire has always existed in the political realities of her situation as a
colonized woman. Her activities with the Hermes Society were not a sudden explosion of
rebellion but the extension of a long-existing struggle. To her, Letty's appeal is not only naive,
but a fundamental misreading of the seriousness of the situation. She is aware that their
personal connections, however valued, are secondary now to a greater historical movement.
Her biting rejoinder to Letty, "This is not about us anymore… This is about all of them"
(2022: 523), is an explicit rejection of a friendship-based worldview. Victoire is aware that
the personal sacrifices she has made—and will make—are in the interest of her people and
