Children of the Dust
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The Children of the Dust (ISBN 0-06-023739-2) is an apocalyptic fiction, written by Louise Lawrence. The book details a family history across three generations during the aftermath of a nuclear war and the horror it entails. The story covers in detail the three characters, whom through their actions are the last hope of their race.
The book focuses on the horrors that occur after the bombing. The survivors of the blast must suffer through radiation, nuclear winter, feuds between rival groups and mutation. The new race, named as homo-superior, have adapted to the loss of the ozone layer and the extra radiation to become the dominant species on the planet.
The book is broken up in to three sections for each generation. The novel offers some hope that humanity could survive the horrors of war (as an allegory for the current age) in order to form a new world.
Contents |
[edit] Major characters
Sarah Harnden is the focus of the first section. As a young fifteen-year-old schoolgirl living on the outskirts of Gloucestershire in England she witnesses the outbreak of the war. She is rushing home from school when the bombs begin to fall. The first chapter of the book, entitled "Sarah", details her struggle to make a life inside the family home after the initial exchange of nuclear weapons between the superpowers. In the end the family comes to the realisation that they have no future. Sarah and her stepmother, Veronica, focus their efforts to ensure the youngest daughter, Catherine, has a chance in the new world after the war. Before Sarah dies, she leaves Catherine with an older man whom she believes has the necessary survival setup and shelter to survive the coming nuclear winter.
Ophelia is the focus of the second section: Bill Harnden's only daughter from a post-war relationship with the government scientist Erica Kowlanski from inside the bunker. Ophelia spends her entire childhood underground in the facility. She ventures outside with her father to stop the remnants of the military from stealing cattle from the outsiders.
The third section of the novel focuses on Simon. He is a direct descendant of the survivors from the bunker. He struggles with other survivors from the bunker as they come to accept their fate as a dying race and their interactions with other survivors.
Catherine Harnden occurs in all sections of the book, across the time-line of the novel. Indeed, Louise Lawrence created her as the ultimate 'survivor'. In the second part of the novel ('Ophelia') Catherine comes in contact with her father, Bill, and step-sister, Ophelia. She inevitably develops sores and mutations as a consequence of the radioactive fallout. She has several offspring, but one of them (Lilith) is treated in subsequent sections.
[edit] Minor characters
Bill Harnden, Sarah's Father. Before the war he was a lecturer at Bristol University. He survives the dropping of the bombs by driving military personnel to a bunker (thereby gaining entry for himself).
William: William is Sarah's younger brother. He is given a suicide pill by Sarah shortly after the war to end his prolonged suffering from radiation poisoning.
Veronica: Second wife Bill and mother of his 2 middle children: Catherine & William, and stepmother to Sarah. She ends her life at the local church rather than at home in front of her family shortly after the war.
Lilith: The elder of Catherine's two surviving daughters. Genetic mutation has caused her, and many others born outside government bunkers, to be born with white eyes and a covering of hair on her body. It is also implied that she has a defect in her vocal cords, preventing her from speaking verbally, although she can vocalise.
Laura: Catherine's granddaughter, a mutant. She and Simon meet not long after he leaves the bunker and, though he initially detests her, he eventually comes to think of her as a beautiful person. She is the first to reveal that the mutants have psychic powers.
Erica Kowlanski: Bill Harnden's third wife and the mother of his youngest daughter, Ophelia. Her marriage to Bill is one of convenience, stemming from her belief that it is her duty to help repopulate the world; before the war, she had no interest in having a family.
[edit] Quotes
Dwight: ' Dinosaurs in a bunker' (in reference to the human race)
Bill Harden: 'It's a dead end without imagination' (during a quarrel with Erica).
