The Main Issues Arising in 'Children of the Dust'

Children of the Dust is a figment by Louise Lawrence. It deals with the aftermath of atomic war. It shows how the survivors of the approach shot struggle to stretch forth and adapt to their brand-new surrounding. It displays a family adhere up into two groups, the group of heap at bottom the hole and the group of mickle outside. The story covers a period of well-nigh fifty years, illustrating the means of life history of the desc remnantants of the volume inside and outside the dugout canoe. Even though the insiders and outsiders origin ingestd from the same family, they tout ensemble end up having rattling divers(prenominal) views on how human life should be persistd. I believe that the main issues raised in Children of the Dust argon endurance, prejudice and incompatible values of society.

After the thermonuclear onslaught, disparate groups of people and communities use different survival tactics, with varying degrees of success.

Children of the Dust displays the different tactics that the remaining people and communities use to survive and continue on the human race after a nuclear attack.

At the beginning of the book it shows a family trying to survive in the shelter of their home. After some time they realise that the hot dust has been coming in through the chimney. They realise that they stir been eating and drinking contaminated food and water. However, they refuse to reach up because they know Catherine is capable of surviving. They persist and continue looking after eight year old Catherine as outperform they can. Catherine shows that she is determined to survive; she made sure she drank bottled water and ate canned food to avoid the possibility of contamination and she washed-out almost all her time in her cubby dramatic art under the table so she had little chance of ventilation system in contaminated air. It was like she had an instinct to survive. With the exception of Catherine, all the family get radiation poisoning as they ate, drank and breathed in the contaminated food, water and air. Sarah felt it was best that Catherine moved on to live with Johnson. The two together start their own Utopia polish (with genetically mutated descendants who adapt to the environment) together.

Catherines father does not halt it home in time before the nuclear attack and unforeseeable circumstances see that he seeks refuge in the government controlled yap. In the book, the way of life in the gob is sharply contrasted with life on the outside. We are able to catch comparisons between the two groups of people who are both essay to survive and re pass water their society.

The people living in the bunker eat up a large store of food and resources. They cuss on computer images to remember and teach future generations more or less(predicate) art, nature and the world as it was before the attack. Their civilisation is very advanced from a technology point of view - in all probability too aquiline on the latter, as they are unable(predicate) of surving without technology. When their food supplies run out and their electricity goes down they are left with very little options. The outsiders, on the other delve rely on the basic survival methods such as agriculture and sewing. The outsiders abide to work very unverbalised to build their society and they struggle to reproduce, as most of the children are grossly deformed.

Initially the people inside the bunker are better aside than the people on the outside. However, in the long run, the outsiders fare better. the people in the bunker run out of supplies and electricity. They become dependant on the outsiders as the outsiders have developed the necessary survival skills that the people in the bunker had not daunted to develop. The people inside the bunker become dinosaurs in a bunker and they cannot survive in or outside the bunker as they have not adapted to the environment like the outsides whose thin sever eyes and thin coat of fur protected them from the unsmooth rays of the sun.

Prejudice is unequivocal in the relationships between the outsiders and the people in the bunker as they both have very different views about society and morals, and they have different appearances.

Civilisations cannot afford to be discriminative as prejudice causes interlocking, which can blushtually lead to war.

The people inside the bunker think that they are superior to the outsiders and barely delineate contact with them out of need. The hierarchy of the bunker scene they had the right to take the outsiders cattle just because they were passive and were not as technologically advanced.

When Ophelia travels outside she cannot help but be stir by the morals of the outsiders and their living conditions and their mutated appearance grade her physically sick.

Simon too, is very reserved when he first meets Laura and her people. He is wary of their appearance and values. At first he thinks that he is superior to them and their ways of living are basic, silly and frank but he comes to learn that in reality their way of living is more fair and just and that their people will out-live his as they have learnt the basic elements of survival unlike his people who never bo on that pointd to do so.

The different values of society are evident between the people in the bunker versus the outsiders.

When Ophelia ventures outside she is disgusted by the fact that Catherine was married to Johnson at fourteen epoch he was twenty-six years older than she was. She does not check over with the euthanasia principals of the community. She believes that leaving deformed babies out in the dust-covered to die is inhumane.

Lauras values contrast with Simons as Laura tries very hard to help him and his people, whilst Simons people had never cared about Lauras people and had even tried to take their livestock.

The people who live inside the bunker hold the same values and principles they held before the holocaust and experience as though they are superior to the outsiders. The people on the outside founded their society on a completely new set of values, as they learnt from the mistakes that man had made before, and they wanted to make a better life for mankind.

Children of the Dust is a captivating yet realistic novel that helps the reader to grasp a further understanding of the affects of nuclear war and the meaning and purpose of survival.

Children of the Dust displays the different values and ideas that different people and communities can hold. It also shows how the differences can cause conflict and even lead to things like nuclear war. Its main heart is survival and shows that even when something as massive as a nuclear attack strikes, there will always be a few remaining survivors who will be there to continue on the human race.

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