On The Beach Character Analysis

When Death comes knocking on the door of human life, humans try to hide away in a state of denial, believing they have a tomorrow and that death will not touch them. The most significant psychological events are when Peter and Mary plan for the future of their garden and Dwight buying his children and wife gifts when in reality they are all going to die before they can pursue the future. Peter and Mary will never see the Gum Tree bloom and Dwight will never give his children and wife the gifts because they are already death and he will too soon die. Shute's ultimate goal for On The Beach is to create an understanding of his characters struggle through the character development, survivor's guilt, planning for one's future and how it all comes together with denial. …show more content…
Dwight's character is built upon the hope that his family is waiting for him in Connecticut even though everyone in America was killed due to the radiation. He feels guilty because he's alive when they are not, so he created this delusion. It's common for people to have survivors guilt in his situation. Dwight's internal and vocal delusion creates a sense of suspense and pity. Suspenseful because Dwight could snap at any moment in the book if other characters were to say the wrong thing, however Dwight proves to be a very composed person which results back to his character. On a subconscious level, Dwight, like most people, know the truth and understand that the memory of his family is false, but he, again like most people, still hold tight to the only thing that humans find reassuring,