43 pages 1 hour read

Nevil Shute

On the Beach

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1957

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Chapters 4-6

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 4 Summary

Dwight and Moira attend church while Mary and Peter stay home. Mary wants to extend their vegetable garden and plant more trees. Even though the trees won’t mature for decades, the couple enjoys envisioning the future together. Moira later comments that she thinks they are in denial, but Dwight says that dreaming of the future together brings them peace. Dwight and Peter speculate that their next mission will be to investigate the radio signals coming from Seattle. Though the messages only come sporadically and aren’t interpretable, their existence suggests that Seattle has a power source and someone may still be alive. John told Dwight that someone was writing a history of the war on glass bricks and storing them underground on Mount Kosciusko. They also include book pages and pictures of everyday items to teach those “who come after” the words and spellings (102). Moira remarks that they might use pages from instructional manuals to build cobalt bombs.

Dwight and Moira go for a swim, and he tells her about how he met Sharon. They married young, and Moira’s wealthy parents supported them until they could make it independently. Moira notices that Dwight’s socks are full of holes. She invites him to visit her family’s cattle and sheep farm, and she will mend his clothing.

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By Nevil Shute

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