Dec 27, 2009

On the Beach | Characters

The characters in On the Beach are almost unique in modern fiction in that they behave in exactly the way we expect them to behave. Julian Smith claims that On the Beach "has more mood than plot"; if this is true, then, the not-terribly-dynamic characters' function in this very mannered novel is to show the shadings and moods of the quite orderly way the world ends.

Commander Dwight Towers, United States Navy, is the captain of the last operating vessel in the U.S. Navy, the submarine U.S.S. Scorpion. He is, at the time of the novel, stationed in Australia,...