Flashcards for How Many Miles to Babylon?

Alec Moore

Alec Moore is the first-person narrator and tragic protagonist of Jennifer Johnston's How Many Miles to Babylon (1974).

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Alec's Father

Alec's father is a minor yet quietly important character in Jennifer Johnston's How Many Miles to Babylon (1974).

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Alec's Mother

Alec's mother is a deeply complex and morally ambiguous character in How Many Miles to Babylon by Jennifer Johnston.

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Bennett

Bennett is a secondary but thematically important character in Jennifer Johnston's How Many Miles to Babylon (1974), a World War I novel that mainly takes place in an Irish regiment on the Western Front.

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Captain Barry

Captain Barry is a minor but thematically important authority figure in Jennifer Johnston's How Many Miles to Babylon?.

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Jerry Crowe

Jerry Crowe is a working-class Irish soldier and the emotional core of Jennifer Johnston's How Many Miles to Babylon?

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Major Glendinning

Major Glendinning is the commanding officer of the British Army unit in Jennifer Johnston's How Many Miles to Babylon?

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“He was the only person who had ever treated me as if I were a human being.”

This line is delivered by Alec Moore, the Anglo-Irish narrator and main character of Jennifer Johnston's How Many Miles to Babylon?

Alec Moore

“How many miles to Babylon? Three score miles and ten. Can I get there by candlelight? Yes, and back again.”

This haunting nursery-rhyme refrain, threaded throughout Jennifer Johnston's 1974 novel How Many Miles to Babylon?, is recited by Alec Moore, a young Anglo-Irish officer in the trenches of World War I. The old children's verse, based on a traditional English nursery rhyme, serves as a structural and thematic anchor for the novel.

Alec Moore (narrator)

“We were friends. That was all. It was enough.”

This quiet yet powerful statement comes from Alec Moore, the Anglo-Irish narrator of Jennifer Johnston's 1974 novel How Many Miles to Babylon?.

Alec Moore

“I had no country, only a house, a field, and a friend.”

This line is spoken by Alexander Moore, the narrator and main character in Jennifer Johnston's 1974 novel How Many Miles to Babylon?.

Alexander Moore (narrator)

“They will shoot me at dawn and I will not cry out. That much I can do for Jerry.”

This closing line is delivered by Alec Moore, the Anglo-Irish narrator and main character of Jennifer Johnston's 1974 novel How Many Miles to Babylon?.

Alec Moore · Final chapter (closing lines)

“I am going to be shot at dawn. I have been awake all night and I find that I am not afraid.”

This opening line is delivered by Alec Moore, the Anglo-Irish protagonist and narrator of Jennifer Johnston's How Many Miles to Babylon?

Alec Moore · Opening / Chapter 1

“The war was something that happened to other people, until it happened to us.”

This line comes from Jennifer Johnston's How Many Miles to Babylon?

Alec Moore (narrator)

“Class is something they brand you with, like cattle. You can never quite escape the mark.”

This quote is from Jennifer Johnston's How Many Miles to Babylon?

Alec Moore

“She had always wanted a son who would be a reflection of herself, and I had failed her.”

This line is spoken by Alexander Moore, the Anglo-Irish narrator and protagonist of Jennifer Johnston's How Many Miles to Babylon?

Alexander Moore (narrator)

The Big House

In Jennifer Johnston's How Many Miles to Babylon?, the Big House — the Anglo-Irish estate where Alec Moore grows up — reflects the crumbling Protestant Ascendancy and the strict class divisions that shape and ultimately ruin the novel's central friendship.

The Fishing Rod

In Jennifer Johnston's How Many Miles to Babylon, the fishing rod represents the delicate friendship between Alec Moore and Jerry Crowe, highlighting the fleeting freedoms that come with it.

The Horse

In Jennifer Johnston's How Many Miles to Babylon, horses represent the delicate yet rebellious connection between Alec Moore and Jerry Crowe — a friendship that challenges the strict class divisions of early twentieth-century Anglo-Irish society.

The Nursery Rhyme / Babylon

In Jennifer Johnston's How Many Miles to Babylon?, the nursery rhyme "How many miles to Babylon?" symbolizes false hope, entrapment, and the struggle for escape.

The Trenches

In Jennifer Johnston's How Many Miles to Babylon, the trenches of the Western Front represent the complete destruction of human identity, class, and potential.

Dramatic Monologue

The entire novella is told by Alec Moore while he sits in his prison cell, waiting for execution at dawn.

Irony

Irony permeates the novella at every level.

Juxtaposition

Johnston frequently shifts between the serene pre-war Irish landscape—the bog, the horses, and the easy camaraderie of Alec and Jerry—and the grim reality of the Flanders trenches.

Imagery

Johnston's imagery is minimal yet precise, rooted in the Irish landscape of Alec's childhood.

Symbolism

The horse stands out as the novella's key symbol.

Motif

The nursery rhyme in the title — 'How many miles to Babylon?' — recurs throughout the text, its childlike rhythm contrasting ironically with the harsh realities of war.

Extended Metaphor

The prison cell from which Alec narrates serves as a powerful metaphor for his entire life.

Understatement

Alec's narrative voice relies on understatement, a choice that reflects his class background and serves as a form of psychological self-defense.

Pathetic Fallacy

The relentless rain and mud in the Western Front chapters serve as a form of pathetic fallacy, reflecting the moral and emotional devastation of the war.

Narrative Poem

Johnston constructs the narrative using an analeptic frame, where the present tense of the prison cell often shifts to detailed flashbacks of Alec's childhood, his bond with Jerry, and the unfolding war.

Allusion

The title references the nursery rhyme "How many miles to Babylon?", which evokes the biblical Babylon — a place associated with exile, captivity, and destruction.

Conceit

Johnston subtly weaves a central idea throughout the novella: the friendship between Alec, an Anglo-Irish Protestant from the gentry, and Jerry, a Catholic from the tenant class, symbolizes both the potential and the ultimate futility of achieving a reconciled Ireland.

incapable

Completely unable to do or feel something, no matter how hard one might try. Here it means Alec's mother simply did not have the inner capacity for love at all.

adjective · Chapter 1

indifferent

Having no interest in or concern for something; not caring one way or the other. The day goes on as normal, completely unmoved by Alec's fate.

adjective · Chapter 1

distasteful

Causing a feeling of mild disgust or strong dislike. Alec's mother found even his physical presence unpleasant and something to be avoided.

adjective · Chapter 2

Big House

In Irish usage, the large mansion of a Protestant Anglo-Irish landowning family, often now in decline. It signals both social privilege and the fading power of that class.

noun · Chapter 2

Anglo-Irish

Describing the Protestant landowning class of English descent who settled in Ireland and occupied a privileged social position separate from the Catholic Irish majority.

adjective · Chapter 2

specimens

Individual examples of something set aside for study or examination. Used here to suggest Alec's father observed people with cold, detached scientific curiosity rather than emotional engagement.

noun · Chapter 4

classify

To sort or assign something to a category after careful study. Here it implies Alec's father could not even be bothered to work out what kind of people he was looking at.

verb · Chapter 4

bewilderment

A state of complete confusion and inability to understand what is happening around you. The new recruits share a sense of being utterly lost in their new military situation.

noun · Chapter 5

enlist

To formally sign up and join the armed forces as a soldier. In this text it marks the moment characters voluntarily enter the war.

verb · Chapter 5

pips

Small metal badges of rank worn on a British Army officer's shoulder to show his grade. Here they stand for the whole system of military class distinction.

noun · Chapter 6

impartial

Treating everyone exactly the same, without favouring one side or person over another. The mud of the trenches does not distinguish between officers and ordinary soldiers.

adjective · Chapter 6

billet

A lodging or sleeping place assigned to soldiers, often a room in a civilian building rather than a formal barracks. It is where soldiers rest when not in the front-line trenches.

noun · Chapter 7

bunk

A narrow bed built into a wall or frame, typically stacked, used by soldiers in their quarters. Its emptiness signals Jerry's disappearance.

noun · Chapter 7

court-martial

A military court that tries soldiers accused of breaking military law. A conviction can result in severe punishment, including execution.

noun · Chapter 7

offence

An act that breaks a rule or law and can be punished. In military law, even small violations can be treated as serious offences.

noun · Chapter 7

AWOL

Absent Without Leave — a military term for a soldier who has left their post or unit without permission. It is a serious offence punishable by court-martial or death in wartime.

phrase · Chapter 8

rank

A soldier's official position in the military hierarchy, such as private or officer. It determines authority, privilege, and how one person must treat another.

noun · Chapter 8

brutality

Savage, cruel physical violence or harshness. Here it is used as a contrast: the cold politeness of Jerry's arrest felt more disturbing than open violence would have been.

noun · Chapter 8

bugle

A brass military horn with no valves, used to sound signals and calls in the army. Blowing it one last time is Alec's final act before his execution.

noun · Chapter 9

court martial

The formal military trial at which Alec is judged for shooting Jerry. Its verdict determines that Alec will be executed at dawn.

noun · Chapter 9