Humanity's last hope of survival was dashed in Chapter 6. Chapter 7 documents the connecting threads of social order beginning to unravel. People still maintain an admirable common decency, but they find it more and more difficult to hold onto routine. Rules and regulations that once made sense become impediments to enjoying these final days. Thus far in the novel, Shute has shown readers the power of routine and habit to hold society together through tough times. After World War III, without rules and regulations, civilization would have collapsed into anarchy and barbarism. As readers have seen, order and routine have kept things running smoothly and efficiently. Now, however, the tightly woven fabric of civil life and social order is coming undone. With extinction so near, strict social order no longer seems necessary. Shute uses the concerns of people during these last days to further illustrate the decency and humanity that has survived. In the closing chapter, the novel's epigraph is fully realized. Since there is nothing more to do and nothing more to say, the characters meet up to say goodbye. The world ends, as the T.S. Eliot poem predicts, "not with a bang but a whimper." Throughout the novel, Shute never gives readers reason to believe that a miraculous reprieve for humankind is waiting in the wings. Yet the ending is tragic. Shute has revealed the essence of each character, showing them to be decent, moral people victimized by a faceless evil. It's a deliberate choice by the author. He portrays the best in human nature and then shows how it is lost when senseless war indiscriminately killed both the best and worst of humankind.

What happens when Commander Towers leads his American crew with a team of Australians on an expedition to San Francisco from Melbourne? We discussed the characters' first glimpse of the lifeless, silent cities that have fallen victim to radiation poisoning. Shute also provides more details about the basic chronology of World War III & the advance of the resulting fallout. The governments and countries that went to war are long gone, but the destruction they unleashed has endured to destroy life from within. This part of the novel quietly echoes the introductory epigraph: "This is the way the world ends/Not with a bang but a whimper." The naval team speculates on where to lay the blame for the war and humanity's demise. Through his characters, Nevil Shute explores who the culprits might be in a real-world version of this scenario. The author's message: people were getting too comfortable with the idea of nuclear weapons. Science was pursuing further development of weaponized nuclear technology, heedless of the consequences. Shute highlights the dangers posed by the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

This chapter introduces most of the major characters as well as the situation they and all of humanity face. The setting is Melbourne, the southernmost major city in Australia. The epigraph preceding the chapter sets the narrative's quiet, desperate tone—signaling that what is to come will involve neither high drama nor violent conflict. All of that is over. The story's participants have been left to silently huddle together on the beach, "the last of meeting places." All of that is over. The radioactive fallout from World War III is spreading steadily south, exterminating life. Yet before towns, cities, or entire countries go dark, the fallout shapes a new reality for those still alive. Following the war, a countdown began that made the remaining time precious, but the waiting can also be painful and tedious. We are delving into themes of spirituality, science, psychology - and history - in a world where it will cease to be be written or read because human kind did not acknowledge control of modern weapons of war.

Today we began with the background of the the book's author, Nevil Shute. Born in England, he studied Engineering Science before entering the aircraft industry and working in aeronautical engineering to build ships and airplanes. During WWII, he worked on developing secret weapons for the Royal Navy. After the war, he moved to Australia, which is where this novel takes place. The story is set primarily in and around Melbourne, Australia after World War III has devastated most of the populated world, polluting the atmosphere with nuclear fallout, and killing all life in the Northern Hemisphere. Global air currents are slowly carrying the lethal nuclear fallout to the Southern Hemisphere. The only parts of the planet still habitable are Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and the southern parts of South America, although they are slowly succumbing to radiation poisoning as well. Seven months after the war, life in Melbourne continues reasonably normally, although the novel begins with the Australians experiencing shortages and an inability to connect with other countries. An American nuclear submarine, the USS Scorpion surfaces and comes ashore in Melbourne. We are introduced to Admiral Dwight Tower, his crew and the Australian characters they meet when they come ashore.

This week, we will be reading the novel, "On the Beach." It is a post-apocalyptic novel published during the early Cold War, written by British author Nevil Shute after he emigrated to Australia. The novel details the experiences of a mixed group of people in Melbourne as they await the arrival of deadly radioactive fallout spreading towards them from the Northern Hemisphere, following a nuclear war the previous year. As the radiation approaches, each person deals with impending death differently. The story has been adapted twice as a film and once as a BBC radio broadcast. We will view scenes from the original film as we read the novel. In the film the main character, American Navy Admiral Dwight Tower is portrayed by iconic American actor Gregory Peck - who also portrayed Atticus Finch in "To Kill A Mocking Bird," another great novel Nina has read this year. Today was an introduction to the material and the universal message of this iconic novel that if anything, may be stronger and more relevant today. Nina seems intrigued by the premise of this story and looks forward to reading the novel. As always, I look forward to working with Nina!

Jaydn was introduced to a new novel The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah. She watched a video interview with the author about the novel and a video of the setting for the novel in remote Alaska, so she could visualize the setting of the novel as she reads it. Jaydn then read, discussed, and analyzed the first chapter. She analyzed the three main characters as they are introduced in chapter one. She then wrote, citing text, to describe the positive and negative traits of each of them. She then predicted which might be the antagonist of the novel.

We discussed the elements of a narrative essay. She decided on the topic of gratitude. We discussed the necessary elements of a high-level essay and she began writing the outline. After reviewing the outline, she began the first paragraph. She will complete the essay tomorrow.

I met with Alex today and we discussed his academic needs and how we would meet them. I began with the elements of AP Language and Composition which is his English class for next year. We decided that we would spend half the session preparing him for the writing necessary for AP Language and begin reading the assigned book for AP Language.

We co-read the book for 30 minutes.

Ayden and I read several chapters of the novel.