Post-apocalyptic vision of nuclear holocaust in Nevil Shute’s novel "On the beach"

Abstract

The article concerns the post-apocalyptic vision of the end of the world, which emerges from the novel by Nevil Shute – On the Beach, which was juxtaposed with its screen version from 1959, directed by Stanley Kramer. The main goal of the article was to demonstrate the validity of timeless masterpiece, which constitutes a part of post-apocalyptic trend. On the Beach is a fatalistic story of extinction of the human species which occurs as a result of a hasty and reckless decision to use nuclear weapons. The author of the novel reveals the annihilation of humanity in the perspective of individual existence, making the end of the world a personal experience. Shute frequently emphasizes that the disaster, which happened to people among whom there is still a glimmer of hope for survival, is the result of mistakes of an imperfect man who believed too much in the omnipotence of the human mind. It is important that Shute’s vision of nuclear holocaust of the world is an inexhaustible source of inspiration for the modern realization in terms of destruction motifs, because it is a modern image of the end, which stems from the depths of the twentieth century.