On the Beach

“The petrol pumps served them as hitching posts.”

This passage creates a context for the world in which the characters live. The fuel shortage pushes people to revert to 19th-century transportation methods and adapt defunct or obsolete technology to fit into their new world. Ironically, technological advancement caused the war, yet they now can’t use most of their machinery.

“[N]ot so long to go.”

Different characters repeat this phrase throughout the narrative as time becomes a pervasive motif. Time becomes currency as jobs and money are obsolete, and people search for meaningful ways to spend hours, not money. The truth in the phrase becomes a torture to the characters as they must decide to keep their routines despite the inevitability of death or seize the day and chase their carnal desires with no care for the consequences.

“[B]ut for the rest of the time he was lost in a daydream of his family and of his home.”

Dwight is not religious but attends church to worship at the altar of his memories. Having lost everything in the war, Dwight survives by creating an elaborate fantasy world in his mind where his wife and child are still alive and waiting for him to return.

“Get right outside these riveted steel walls, and get out quick. This was no place for her. Into the world of romance, of make-belief and double brandies.”

For Dwight, the submarine represents a bower of protection and a place where he can still pretend America and his family exist. However, Moira abhors its suffocating, stiff military formality. The submarine, which holds Dwight’s family photo, also reminds her why they will never be together. He is wedded to his career and dead family.

“The general effect was one of boisterous and uninhibited lightheartedness, more in the style of 1890 than of 1963.”

This passage compares Melbourne’s partying to the decadence of the Jazz Age and Gilded Age, where economic growth led to unprecedented wealth. Gilded Age partiers couldn’t foresee the coming stock market crash that would plunge America into the Great Depression, a kind of apocalypse. Yet, the Melbourne partiers already know the end of their story.

“Then they began to receive the broadcasting for entertainment, and light music filled the hull, mingling with the murmur of the turbines and the rushing noise of water alongside.”

The sensory details in this passage convey the experience of being submerged in a submarine. The happy music juxtaposes the reality of the Scorpion’s grim errand.

“No imagination whatsoever […] It’s the same with all you service people. That can’t happen to me […] But it can. And it certainly will.”

John’s emotionless observations about the radioactive fallout are characteristic of his scientific profession. He finds the military’s formality and dutiful obedience dull and uninspiring.

“The sun shone down on them out of a cloudless sky, warm and comforting; the big chestnut in the garden cast dappled shadows on the lawn.”

The personification of the tree creates a sense of coziness and protection at Peter and Mary’s home. Despite the looming threat of the poisonous radiation cloud, their home feels like a protective fortress, and the beauty of nature brings them comfort.

“They went on happily planning their garden for the next ten years, and the morning passed very quickly.”

Peter and Mary each search for ways to spend their time meaningfully, and gardening brings them peace and contentment. Imagining a future they will never experience isn’t painful for them and is more tolerable than dwelling on the future they know is coming.

“I just love to see these northern trees again.”

The Davidson farm is the opposite of Dwight’s submarine home, which he treats as the only remaining piece of America. Seeing familiar trees from home is nostalgic and brings Dwight immense joy upon his arrival. If Dwight and Moira could be together, the Davidson farm could be his new home, but he can’t let go of the memories of his past or his allegiance to his family and country.

“Melbourne is the most southerly major city in the world, so we’ll be near the last.”

Geographically, Melbourne is the last large city on the planet. The citizens of Melbourne consider not just the ending of their personal lives, but with their death comes the end of civilization.

“He pulled the door to and closed it on so many sentimental hopes.”

The room holding all of Moira’s childhood toys represents her memories and future. She was saving them for her children, but she realizes that is a dream that will never come true, and as Dwight closes the door, he symbolically shuts the door on her life.

“Next year, […] I’ll be able to get a good job next year.”

Despite knowing the inevitable, Moira has begun hoping for a better future for herself. Whereas Moira previously judged Mary for pretending there would be a future, her love for Dwight has led her to do the same.

“All with an eccentricity that verged on madness, born of the times they lived in.”

The concept of sanity and mental health becomes a motif in the story as characters question other’s actions and judge their rationality. Everyone reacts to the existential threat differently, demonstrating that there is no single way to define what is rational or sensible.

“[H]e went through all the motions of enjoying it and giving her a good time, but there was no life in the performance.”

Dwight tries to show Moira a good time, but his mind and heart are always with his family. His military training has taught him how to remain in control, thus his ability to stay in control with Moira.

“[I]t all looked so normal in the sunlight that he felt there must be people there.”

Even after seeing the desolate cities with their own eyes, the Scorpion’s crew has trouble believing everyone is gone. The fact that nuclear radiation can kill off everyone silently while leaving the infrastructure intact is inconceivable to them.

“Her name is Sharon, like in the Bible.”

In the Bible, Sharon is a place, not a person, and refers to a fertile coastal area near ancient Israel, symbolizing abundance, beauty, and prosperity. For Dwight, the memory of Sharon represents restoration and rest, and he believes he will be reunited with her in death.

“The note of the machine sank progressively in a diminuendo; he stood watching it till finally it came to rest.”

The personification of the radio emphasizes the crew’s hope that they would find survivors in Seattle. Finding the radio unmanned means they are alone and will face the same end as the others. Sunderstrom symbolically cuts the power and shuts down the radio in an act of surrender to the inevitable.

“I guess the United States is me, right now. I’m thinking of running for President.”

Dwight is a serious man, and this joke marks a rare break in his tough veneer. In times of war, soldiers are promoted when their commander is killed in battle. Dwight’s promotion is doubly ironic because it makes him the commander of a country that no longer exists.

“Like a sponge squeezed by the pressure of circumstances, Australia began to drip a little petrol, and as the weeks went on towards August the drip became a trickle.”

The simile conveys Australians’ gradual release of their routine and self-preservation as they no longer see a need to hoard fuel. Using all their fuel is their last grasp at freedom before they lose control of their circumstances.

“She’s so hot, the poor little lamb.”

Mary refers to Jennifer’s fever from teething, but the phrase holds an ironic and foreboding meaning. Since the radiation is moving into surrounding areas, the baby is likely already hot with radiation.

“[H]ere were the familiar things she was accustomed to, the cleanness that was her pride, the carefully tended little garden, the clean wide view out over the bay. Here was security.”

Mary remains committed to the illusion of safety until the end. The car ride is thrilling, but after she sees Melbourne’s decline, she longs to return to the bower of her home, which shows no signs of apocalypse.

“He could not bring himself to tell her again that the infection was there around them, in their pleasant little flat.”

In one last-ditch effort to maintain her fantasy, Mary convinces herself that the radiation is a virulent disease and that they can protect themselves with quarantine and throat lozenges. Her desperation pierces through, revealing the depths of her fear.