A world without man is one of the foremost ideals of the post-apocalyptic scene, and Nevil Shute’s 1957 fiction novel “On the Beach” shows the impending doom of a world without anything very clearly.
Set in the aftermath of a cataclysmic World War III; most of the world as we know it today has been nuked into oblivion, with lethal levels of radiation drenching almost all of civilization. The novel focuses on those few traces of life that still exist in the Southern Hemispheres – though the radiation is slowly but surely moving closer.
In Melbourne, Australia, life continues mostly as normal. Some live in denial of the impending doom that is to befall them, such as the commander of the last American nuclear submarine, Dwight Towers, now under Australian command. Dwight purchases gifts and toys for his children back in the nuclear wastes of America, while several members of his crew depend on alcohol or a carefree attitude as they engage in risky behaviors. Dwight soon becomes involved with a Melbourne native named Moira, though he holds some insane shred of hope for his certainly dead family in the States.
Elsewhere in Melbourne we see more evidence of the times: a man named Osborne spends what remains of his short life fixing up a Ferrari, a newlywed Peter Holmes copes with his mentally retarded wife Mary and their newborn daughter, and a gang of youngsters put together a dangerous street race that ends in several violent deaths.
Throughout “On the Beach”, the economic and governmental controls of the world gradually break down. Even in the mircocosm of Melbourne, the government has come to terms with the future extinction of mankind by handing out free suicide pills and lethal injection kits. Suicide is rampant as some lose hope and news spreads of cities going “out” once the radiation clouds from the North hit.
The book draws remarkable parallels to more contemporary novels on the subject, like Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road”, which follows a father and son travelling through the desolated landscape of a ruined Earth. Though it lacks the rampant irradiated landscape of Shute’s novel, the ecological collapse of both novels is clear, and the aftermath of a world where the nukes have begun to fly is both desolate and grim.
“On the Beach” is however unlike many other post-apocalyptic novels (except “The Road”) due to its ending. Many movies and dark novels of today that remark upon the end of the human race enjoy teasing the reader and viewer with last-minute twists and deus ex machina’s such as in the movies “Children of Men” and “The Book of Eli” and McCarthy’s novel-made-film “The Road”. While this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it does muddle the waters between grey realism and optimistic fantasy.
Shute’s novel here ends like the poet T.S. Elliot wrote, “Not with a bang, but a whimper.” As the lethal clouds of radiation go south, the scene of the world goes silent and the characters that are left take their cyanide pills and die. The world gradually eases into oblivion and silence in Shute’s vision, and as the reader we are left with a sense of both fear and dread that this is a possible future for the world if humanity spirals into the chaos of war once again.
