View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Moira decide to do while Dwight is at sea?

2. What is Dwight's condition when he arrives at Moira's house?

3. Where is the radiation sickness by August?

4. How does he convince Mary that taking Jennifer's life might be the best thing to do?

5. How does Mary react to the pills?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the understanding between Dwight and Moira that is verbalized on their fishing trip?

2. How is John Osbourne able to race his car so much?

3. What condition does Peter put on his continuing service in the Navy?

4. Why do things begin to slow down in Melbourne?

5. What is Dwight's condition when he arrives at the Davidson house?

6. On the long voyage of the Scorpion, what are they able to learn about San Francisco?

7. How does Mary put out of her mind that Sydney and Adelaide now have the radiation sickness?

8. What is it that Moira agrees to do for Mary if Peter does not return in time?

9. What has Moira managed to locate that makes Dwight happy enough to drift off to sleep?

10. Explain Dwight's change of status on the return trip from the north.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay on suicide as a way of avoiding an otherwise very painful death. Include the moral aspects of suicide in general and explain whether or not you think there may be extenuating circumstances that make suicide acceptable.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay about holding onto personal values regardless of external circumstances. Express your opinion of Dwight who remains faithful to a dead wife and children. Does his behavior in the novel mark him as a heroic figure?

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay about what visitors from another planet find on earth 100 years after ON THE BEACH. In your essay tell what they find and how they speculate what happened to all the people. Use you imagination and be creative.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 623 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample