On the beach door Nevil Shute

Title: On the beach

Year of 1st publication: 1957
The number of pages: 126
The author’s full name: Nevil Shute Norway

THE AUTHOR’S LIFE AND WORK

Nevil Shute (1899-1960) was born in Middlesex, England. His first ambition was to be a Royal Flying corps gunnery officer but he was unsuccessful in his medical tests. He was in 1918, for a short time, in the British Infantry prior to studying at Oxford University. The De Havilland Aircraft Company employed him as an engineer in 1923. After that he started his own aircraft company and worked on the development of secret weapons for the British in World War2. He held this position until 1938 when the popularity of his two novels persuaded him to become a full-time author. In 1926, he produced his first novel. 'Shute' left the navy in 1945. He arrived in Australia in 1948-49, after flying his own plane, to explore the opportunity for fresh ideas for his work, in his journey to Australia he produced two of his best-known works, A town like Alice (1950) and Round the Bend (1951). He decided to take up permanent residence in Australia in 1950's. Many of his books have been successfully filmed, for example, Scotland Yard Commands (1937) a version of Lonely Road; No Highway [in the Sky] (1951); On the Beach (1959, in Australia); and A town like Alice has been filmed twice. In the 1950s and '60s he was one of the world's best-selling novelists. Shute was married to a successful 28-year old medical practitioner. They had two daughters, Heather and Shirley. Shute died in Melbourne in 1960 after a stroke. He wrote 25 books in his life.

MAIN CHARACTERS

Dwight Towers
Dwight is the hard-working, loyal, soft-spoken captain of the American nuclear submarine. He knows how to lead a crew and he does it well. He also realizes that his job carries obligations and that he must fulfil them, even in these strange circumstances. Dwight does his work with a sense of who he is and what his role is in the world. He is very loyal to his wife and to the navy. He doesn't do things the Navy wouldn't permit, even during the last days he lives by the rules. He knows that his wife and children are dead, but he acts like they are still alive, for instance he buys presents for them. Dwight simply does not have the imagination to be able to grasp that the American people, his family included, no longer exist.

Moira Davidson
Moira is a friend of Peter Holmes, she is a lively twenty-four-year old woman who drinks a lot of alcohol as a relief from the despair that she will never be able to marry, have a family, travel, or fulfil any of her other dreams. Whenever the reality of the situation becomes too bad, she escapes to drink and dance. Moira finds life annoying because she has nothing else to do but help on her parent's farm. In the beginning of the novel, Mary Holmes ordered Moira to keep Dwight entertained and distracted during his visit. Moira does succeed, as she manages to bring fun and excitement to Dwight's last months. In turn, Dwight helps Moira find some peace. Moira uses her last months to transform and better herself. She begins to drink less and attend church more often. While she understands that Dwight will remain loyal to his wife until the end, she cannot help herself from falling in love with him. As the months progress, Moira reveals a more tender and generous side to her tough-talking, party-girl personality. When she finds out that Dwight wants to find a pogo stick for his daughter, Helen, Moira makes an admirable effort to find one for him. Moira dies by herself in her car at a cliff overlooking the ocean, her lonely death the final image of the novel.

Peter Holmes
Peter is a Lieutenant Commander in the Royal Australian Navy who is assigned to serve as a liaison officer aboard the American nuclear submarine. Peter is a hard-working military man who loves the sea and his job. Whenever he is not working, he is helping his wife take care of their baby daughter and their house. Peter is strong enough to face the fact that he might have to kill his daughter when radiation sickness sets in, but he still has hope and plans his garden for the next ten years. Peter admits he does not have the imagination to believe the world is really going to end. Peter is an extraordinarily ordinary person, intentional on Shute's part so that we might relate to him easily. The more we can relate to the characters, the more likely we will take seriously the threat of nuclear war and do what we can to prevent it.

Mary Holmes
Mary, Peter's wife, is a housewife who finds comfort and pride in creating a beautiful home and taking care of her family. She spends most of the time raising baby Jennifer and thinking of ways to improve their garden. More than any other character, Mary resists accepting that her safe, controllable world is coming to an end. Peter is critical of Mary for "living in a dream world," but we might sympathize with the new mother's refusal to believe her family will die. While others calmly deal with the calamity, Mary sobs and screams against the situation that forces her to consider the prospect of euthanizing her own child. Mary is an archetype of a young mother, and is supposed to be someone to whom we can easily relate. She intentionally disregards the news and newspapers because they are always full of bad news. Mary's insistence on ignoring what is going on in the world is a warning to us: like Mary, we can continue to tune out world events, but like Mary, we might eventually find ourselves in a situation in which such simply become impossible to ignore any longer.

John Osborne
John is a young scientist working for CSIRO (the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization). He faces the reality of the situation and uses the last few months to realize and fulfil his dreams. John truly lives for the first time only when he is in the shadow of death. Despite his fears, he goes on the submarine, and he takes even bigger risks when he races his Ferrari. Osborne reaches his goal of winning the Australian Grand Prix. He also becomes a member of the Pastoral Club, an exclusive club he has always wanted to join. At the end of the novel, it is almost a shock to find out that John has a mother who is still alive. John seems to be very much alone and not deeply connected to other people. John's death is lonely, but the way he wants it to be, in his Ferrari.

WHAT IS IT ABOUT

The story is about the terrible effect of a nuclear war. There has been a war between the northern countries of the world and everyone there is dead. But the winds are carrying radioactive dust all around the world. One by one, the countries of the south are also dying. In the end, only Australia and New Zealand are free from the radiation. But everyone there knows that in a few months it will reach them. Then they will all become sick and die. At the time that the book appeared many people in the world were very frightened of nuclear bombs and radiation. The story mainly took place in Melbourne, Australia, and other towns in southeastern Australia; also a submarine voyage to Seattle and nearby coastal areas of Washington State.

WHAT HAPPENS IN THE BOOK

The story begins in 1962 in Australia. A year before there was a short nuclear war, which destroyed the whole northern hemisphere. The radioactivity is coming closer to the south. They expect that Australia will be down within a year due to radiation.
‘On the beach’ tells about the last months in the lives of the last people on earth. Especially five of them: Peter, a Lieutenant in the Australian Navy, his wife Mary (and their little baby girl Jennifer), Dwight, Commander of the US submarine Scorpion, Moira a nice young woman, friend of Mary and Peter and John, a scientific officer who knows a lot about radiation.
Mary lives the live of a housewife looking after her baby, the house and the garden. It seems that she doesn’t real the danger of radiation sickness in the very near future. She gets very upset when her husband (Peter) tells her about free pills to commit suicide if they don’t want to die in pain and misery. Peter goes as a liasion officer with Dwight and John in the submarine on a cruise to the West Coast of the United States to find out if their is still any life. But they see only totally dead and abondoned cities and one dog. Moira was invited by Mary to amuse Dwight. When Dwight doesn’t have to work he and Moira have a good time. Dwight is talking about his family as if they are still alive but they must be dead. Dwight will never “cheat” his wife although she is dead. And Moira respects this.
Time goes on and the men are realising the clouds of radioactive dust are coming nearer and nearer. They try to live a normal live.
On one of the last weekends even a Grand Prix is organised that was won by John driving his Ferrari. On that weekend Moira and Dwight go fishing in the mountains and they have a great time. Now everything is coming to an end: people get ill and take the pill. John takes it in his Ferrari. Peter and Mary take it in bed after they gave Jennifer an injection. Dwight takes the submarine outside and sinks it. And Moira takes the pill after she watched Dwight sail away.

THEME

The theme of this book is the behavior of people when they know that the end of human life is near. Even after the final page of the book, it is breathtaking that all the characters in the book have committed suicide, the ultimate act of self-destruction. Before the radiation even comes down to kill them, many of the characters are actively seeking out other ways to kill themselves.

RECOMMEND THE NOVEL

I highly recommend this novel for the people who are interested in war stories. The book doesn’t have many pages, and it is pretty easy to read. So if you want to read a book that doesn’t take much time I would recommend this book and if you’re English isn’t great, I would also recommend it.