The 1950s was a cesspool of war, violence, and internal turmoil. In the United States alone, issues regarding civil rights, the Korean War, and the Cold War seized precedence over the establishment peace within the country. An author able to recognize these issues established the pen name Nevil Shute. After emigrating to Melbourne, Australia in 1950, Shute analyzes the horrific issues that take place in the world, and later incorporates them into his novel, “On the Beach”. In his novel, the author incorporates the occurrences of Moira’s internal struggles. the government of Melbourne’s attempts to locate life, and the destruction of national superpowers. Therefore, enabling Nevil Shute to express his loathe of the animalistic violence and internal-destruction within the society of the 1950s. …show more content…
Shute expresses this idea through the characters in his novel. Moira Davidson, an important character, dramatically changes in values between her initial and conclusive appearances. Furthermore, Nevil Shute writes Moira to represent society as a whole; she faces the evils of temptation, alcohol, and hysteria. With information from Wendy Wall, an associate professor of history at Binghamton University and the author of “Inventing the ‘American Way’”, depicting the fears of individuals in the United States:
“In the late 1940s and early 1950s, American fears of internal communist subversion reached a nearly hysterical pitch. Government loyalty boards investigated millions of federal employees, asking what books and magazines they read, what unions and civic organizations they belonged to, and whether they went to church.” (Wall