Penguin Readers Factsheets l e v e l E T e a c h e r’s n o t e s 1 2 3 On the Beach 4 5 by Nevil Shute 6 INTERMEDIATE S U M M A R Y n the Beach was first published in 1957. It was made BACKGROUND AND THEMES O into a film in 1959 starring Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner and Fred Astaire. The story is set in the fictional future, In 1957, when On the Beach was published, nuclear war was and assumes that an atomic war has taken place. The atomic at the forefront of people’s minds. The Cold War between the bombs and the fall-out have destroyed the nort h e rn E a s t e rn block and the West made the danger of war hemisphere of the world. The radioactive dust is slowly moving frighteningly real, as both sides gathered arms and threatened south, killing everything in its path. Lieutenant Commander in each other. The world seemed more vulnerable than ever the Australian navy, Peter Holmes, is appointed liaison officer before, and On the Beach dealt with issues few people were on board Scorpion, an atomic submarine. He is to work under prepared to confront. American Commander, Dwight Towers. The submarine is sent on a short journey to investigate the eastern and northern Shute was convinced that On the Beach was going to be a coasts of Australia, and a longer cruise to the north to failure, and was pleasantly surprised when it proved to be a determine if there is any sign of life. The story focuses on five huge success, drawing new readers to his works. Since then it main characters – Peter, his wife, Mary and baby daughter, has been referred to and taught by pacifists, philosophers, Jennifer, their friend Moira, and Dwight Towers. It shows how theologians, and political scientists, as a vivid picture of the they face impending disaster, and how they personally horrific consequences of nuclear war. confront the fate that awaits them. Shute set his novel in the year 1962 – a few years into the future. The title of the novel is fundamental to its key theme. The beach is a place where earth and water meet. It is often ABOUT NEVIL SHUTE associated with beginnings and endings, and in this case is symbolic of the end of life on Earth. Nevil Shute Norway was born on January 17th 1899 in Ealing, Shute used an extract from T.S.Eliot’s poem, The Waste a suburb of London, which was then on the edge of the Land, at the front of the full version of his novel. These lines country. Shute had a lifelong passion for aeroplanes and said can be directly related to the story : they were ‘the best part of my life.’ Playing truant from his hated Hammersmith prep school, Shute would visit the ‘In this last of meeting places Science Museum in Kensington, where he immersed himself We grope together amongst the model aeroplanes. And avoid speech Shute’s elder brother, Fred, died at the age of 19 in the First Gathered on this beach of the tumid river ..... World War. Shute believed it was his fate to die in the same This is the way the world ends way, and tried, without success, to get into the RAF. For the This is the way the world ends final three months of that war, he guarded the mouth of the This is the way the world ends Thames Estuary as a private soldier. Not with a bang but a whimper.’ After obtaining an engineering degree at Balliol College T.S.Eliot Oxford, Shute began his career as an aeronautical engineer. Melbourne can be seen as the last of meeting places where He began writing in the 1920s under his two Christian names people struggle to live their lives, not mentioning the (Nevil Shute) because he was worried that a reputation as a impending doom, whilst the tumid river of radioactive dust novelist may undermine his engineering career. Shute formed moves slowly towards them. The last four lines are particularly his own aeroplane construction company, Airspeed Ltd. which significant. The world dies not with the bang of the atom he built up to a thousand employees by the time he left in bomb, but through the slowly fading whimper of suicide and 1939. radiation sickness. At the start of the 2nd World War, Shute joined the Royal The novel ends on the beach. Dwight Towers takes his Naval Volunteer Reserve as an ‘elderly yachtsman’. After two submarine out to sink it in the bay, leaving Moira watching on days, he was pulled out to work on the design of the beach, where she then takes her suicide pills. unconventional weapons, and by the middle of the war had On the Beach is a story of desperate hope and final been made a lieutenant commander. resignation. All the way through there is the thought that After the war Shute became a full time author. He wrote 25 maybe Australia will be spared, that the radioactive dust will be books over a period spanning 30 years. In 1949 he moved to washed away by the rain before it reaches Melbourne. One Australia with his wife and two daughters, where he gained a scientist insists that the radiation in the north is lessening and reputation as an ‘Australian’ writer. He died in 1960. that soon life will be able to exist there again. This is the motivation behind the submarine’s journey to the shores of © Pearson Education 2000 l e v e l Penguin Readers Factsheets 4 T e a c h e r’s n o t e s Canada. The strange unintelligible radio signals emerging chemist on the board: ‘It’s probably going to be a difficult sporadically from Seattle for two years give out a message of decision for religious people.’ Ask students what he is hope that someone just might be alive there. This hope too is talking about. They discuss: dashed when the cause – a broken window frame rocking in a) Is he right? Why/why not? the wind – is discovered by the exploration party. This theme b) How difficult would they find the decision? of hope runs parallel to the resilience of humans to disaster. c) What would their decision be? The main characters in the novel refuse to accept that the world will end. They try to blot out the inevitable by continuing Chapter 6 to live normal lives. Peter and Mary plan their garden for years In small groups, students discuss whether they think Nevil ahead, Moira starts a typing course to better her skills, Dwight Shute gives a realistic picture of the world after a nuclear Towers buys presents for his family in America, even though he war. Make a list of the things they disagree with and knows they are dead. anything they think should have been included. They then Shute was first and foremost an engineer, and his books write down all the feelings they have as they read about the always contain an extraord i n a ry amount of technical dead world. The groups report back to the rest of the class. i n f o rmation, written in an easily understood style. His Chapters 7–9 characters are practical people who get on with their lives If possible record a radio news broadcast. Play this to the stoically and efficiently. The characters and the technical class and have a discussion about the way the information information in On the Beach is typical of Shute, but the is presented. Divide the class into small groups. Ask storyline is not. He generally likes his heroes and heroines to groups to produce a short radio broadcast about radiation solve their problems through logical and practical thinking. sickness, the car race, life in Melbourne, or from the last Shute had a wide readership by the time he wrote On the people alive in the world. They may include interviews if Beach, so that the novel made an instant impact. The day they wish. Each group reads their broadcast to the rest of before he died, Shute remarked on the power of the popular the class. Discuss which broadcast was most successful in novelist, who is able to ‘play the part of the enfant terrible in conveying the information, and why. raising for the first time subjects which ought to be discussed ACTIVITIES AFTER READING THE BOOK in public and which no statesman cares to approach’. In this way, an entertainer may serve a useful purpose.’ In small groups, students discuss what might happen to the world now that humans have died out. Each group writes a scenario for the next 100 years. Each group reads Communicative activities their ideas to the class and the class votes on: a) the most inventive and The following teacher-led activities cover the same sections b) the most realistic of text as the exercises at the back of the reader, and supplement those exercises. For supplementary exercises Read the section from TS Eliot’s poem The Waste Land printed on the front of this factsheet. Students discuss the covering shorter sections of the book, see the relevance of the poem to the book. photocopiable Student’s Activities pages of this Factsheet. These are primarily for use with class readers but, with the exception of discussion and pair/group work questions, can also be used by students working alone in a self-access G l o s s a r y centre.