"On the Beach" by Nevil Shute: Critical Anaylsis
"On the Beach" by Nevil Shute: Critical Anaylsis
The book "On the beach" by Nevil Shute tells about the time after the third world war, which was mostly fought between Russia, China and America. There were also some smaller countries involved. The first hydrogen bomb was dropped by Albania on Naples and other followed. The Russians sent bombers from Cairo to Washington and London. After that only a few statesmen were still alive. The war increased and a lot of hydrogen bombs were dropped. After some time the whole northern hemisphere was destroyed. No human life could exist there.
The book is set in South Australia two years after the war in the year 1963. Peter Holmes is posted as liaison officer in USS Scorpion. He goes to see his captain Dwight Lionel Towers in the submarine. After a little conversation he invites him to stay the weekend at his home. After telling this his wife Mary she calls Moira Davidson to help enjoying the captain. When he arrives they go swimming and he is sailing a race with Moira on the Holmeses boat. For the evening Mary has organized a party. Later Dwight and Moira are staying on the veranda, talking about the actual situation of radioactivity. After some drinks Moira tells Dwight all her sorrows about never having a baby because there are only six months until the radioactivity would have come down to this parts of the world. Then she collapses and Mary takes her to bed.
At the next morning Dwight Towers goes to church and thinks about his family in Mystic. Back at Williamstown harbor the scientist John Seymour Osborne joins his crew. The first trip in this submarine under Australian command starts at Melbourne and goes on to Kangaroo Islands, Port Adelaide, King-Island, Port Philip Bay and back to Melbourne. After this little course, where they met another American ship, Dwight invites Moira to come down to the submarine. When Moira changes her clothes so not to make them dirty she recognizes a photo of Sharon, Helen and Junior in Dwight’s cabin. From the First Naval Member Dwight receives the report of USS Swordfish, the other US submarine, and obtains order to look after radioactive conditions in North Australia. At Cairns the radiation level cannot allow to go on deck. In Port Morseby and Port Darwin are the same conditions. Three days after...