FREE ESSAY ON ON THE BEACH

ON THE BEACH

On The Beach
In the big city of Melbourne, Australia, material goods have become scarce. There are no
cars, and very little of the luxuries that there once were. It takes hours to get simple
necessities such as milk. All this is because of the nuclear war in the Northern
Hemisphere. This nuclear war has wiped out every living thing, including all humans,
throughout countries like China, Europe, and even the United States. It all began with a
fight between Russia and China, who wanted to destroy each others land. They managed this
with nuclear bombs, and without realizing the consequences, killed off their own people
along with everybody else due to the radiation that was left behind. The radiation has
killed all forms of life in the Northern Hemisphere so far, and is now steadily
approaching the Southern Hemisphere; the only place left on the planet with life. 
Lieutenant Commander Peter Holmes lives in Melbourne with his wife, Mary and their
infant, Jennifer. They, along with everyone else in Australia, have heard and known that
the radiation is slowly coming and scientist have predicted that they only have until
September before it spreads throughout Australia, killing them all with a slow sickness.
This sickness includes symptoms such as nausea, diarrhoea, and trembling. It could take
anywhere from three days to three weeks to die, depending on one's resistance in their
body. Peter is aware of the short time he has left to live out his life, yet his wife
Mary fails to realize that there will be no "next year," or "next spring." She continues
to plan ahead as if she will still be alive years or even months from then. Peter helps
to comfort her by allowing her to think this way and buying her things such as flowers
for the garden that will not bloom until the next year. 
Peter is called on assignment in the beginning of the book to go on a cruise aboard the
U.S.S. Scorpion, the only submarine left. The goal of this cruise is to see if there is
any form of life in the northern cities of Cairns, Port Moresby and Darwin. Any form of
life would include birds, plants, animals or vegetation. On this cruise, the crew in
unsuccessful in finding any forms of life except one dog roaming around. They go back to
the port in Melbourne and are docked for some time. While docked, Peter invites the
Commander Dwight Towers to stay with him and his wife for the weekend to go sailing and
swimming. Mary decides she wants this to be an adventure for Dwight, and therefore
invites her friend Moira Davidson. Moira seems to be different then most girls; very
forward and drinks too much, and strong in her beliefs. Yet her and Dwight manage to
establish a friendship, which they maintain throughout the book. 
A few weeks later, another cruise is assigned, both involving Commander Dwight Towers and
Peter Holmes. This cruise will be much more difficult and more strenuous. They plan to go
up to the United States and around the west coast of Canada to see if they can find the
radio signals they have been receiving from where they think is Seattle. The navel
officers believe that there must be someone up there running the radio stations to be
getting signals. The cruise is planned to take two months, while being submerged
underwater for twenty-seven days of those two months. 
Before Peter leaves for his cruise he wants to make sure that his wife and daughter are
taken care of if the radiation were to come quicker then expected and he was not there to
help her or be with her. He goes to a nearby chemist for information on what happens to a
person when hit with radiation sickness and what to do when it happens. The chemist tells
him of all the symptoms and gives him some pills that no one else has been able to get
yet. These pills are designed to kill a person peacefully in their sleep, and are meant
to be taken when a person knows that they don't want to go on with living through the
radiation sickness that will eventually kill them. When Peter tells gives his wife the
pills, she gets angry and accuses him of trying to kill her and the baby. She is having a
hard time realizing that there is no way out of this; everyone will eventually die soon
enough. He soon convinces her that this is the best thing to do for her and the baby. 
Finally it is time for the second exploratory cruise of the U.S.S. Scorpion to take
place. Twenty-five days into the voyage, they come across San Francisco and find the
Golden Gate bridge to be completely torn down and all the houses along the shore to be
unhabitable. The submarine moved from place to place, taking pictures and recording
radiation levels in each city they came to. At the small town of Edmonds, one of the crew
members, Yeoman First Class Ralph Swain, realizes that they have come to his hometown and
suddenly becomes nervous and homesick. A couple minutes later he climbs out of the
surfaced submarine through the escape deck and swims to shore. The commander tries to get
him back but gives up after shortly because he had already been contaminated with the
radiation which would spread to the other members of the crew if he was let back on. They
decided to move on, knowing that he would die in a few short days. 
The crew come upon the spot at which the radio signals have been coming from. They send a
member out in a protective suite to check out the surroundings and he turns off the radio
with one final message stating there is no life at that present time. Without finding any
other reasons to stay in the Northern Hemisphere, the submarine turns back for home. They
report their findings to the navel officers in Australia. 
With the radiation drawing closer and closer to Melbourne, everyone continues on as if
nothing is going to happen, with the exception of spending more time with their families
on their last weekend of full health. They all know that by the next week, the sickness
will have gotten to everyone. Peter's wife Mary still has hope that she will still be
alive and somehow overcome this because they live far away in the country where she
believes it cannot reach them. Eventually everyone, one by one, becomes sick, including
Mary and Peter and their baby. They decide one night to take the pill together and give
their baby the fatal injection so that they will not continue on suffering and can die
together in peace. The story ends with Moira watching her friend Dwight take off in the
submarine for its last cruise. He intends to sink the ship, out of respect for the Navy.

On The Beach shows how one country can undoubtedly affect another country, even when they
are neutral. If focuses on the last months of a community's lives and how they deal with
the fact that they know they are going to die in a matter of months. They continue on,
performing their duties and not fully recognizing their fate. In the end, they manage to
stick together and accept their fate of being the last of human life upon the Earth.