On the Beach

Shute, Nevil. On the Beach. United States: Balantine, 1957.280.

               Question: Do the characters of the novel fear death?

            It is difficult to say whether the characters of On the Beach feared their upcoming deaths. We have to look in depth on how the charcters react to upcoming events.

          In my opinion, Peter Holmes does not fear death, it is more his fear of leaving his family behind before they die. As Peter has just started a new family, it must have been very difficult to realize that he would never see his daughter fully grow up. Peter understands that if he were to die before his daughter, he would not have been able to witness all the pleasures of a parent. Unfortunately, Peter has to kill his baby, for the benefit of his child's suffering. This must have been the hardest moment, since it would be very difficult to outlive one's child, for even the few minutes longer he lasted.

        In my opinion, Dwight Towers does not fear death at all. He has already lost his family to the cruelty of the world and really was just waiting to join them. The only fear Dwight might have had was for Moira. He had realized that he had begun a new relationship, yet did not want to forget about his late family. When he refused to have any sexual relations with Moira, he showed the reader that he was devoted to remain loyal to his wife, even though she had died.

      Moira is the only character which fears death, because she is the only charcter that really has no bond to anyone. She is a single woman who really only cares for her own benfit, as any single person would. Though she tries to deny her fear, we can see that she regrets not being married and not having children. She sees her life as only half complete. As opposed to John, who also is single, he really accomplished his life when he won the race car event. Moira needed marriage and family, it was one of her goals in life.

      One would think that one would be in total fear if this were an actual worldly event, yet somehow the majority of the characters seem to be okay with their upcoming deaths. I believe this is because of the desensibilisation of the fear over time. Australia knew they were going to die way before the radioactivity was even near them. After a while, the initial fear faded away and they were just waiting for death to approach them. Not any of the main characters decided to try and run from the radioactivity because they realized that no matter what, eventually death would catch up with them.

Waiting for death is way more painful than death itself.