The Main Issues Arising in 'Children of the Dust'

'Children of the Dust' is a novel by Louise Lawrence. It deals with the aftermath of nuclear war. It shows how the survivors of the attack struggle to survive and adapt to their new surrounding. It displays a family split up into two groups, the group of people inside the bunker and the group of people outside. The story covers a period of about fifty years, illustrating the way of life of the descendants of the people inside and outside the bunker. Even though the insiders and outsiders originated from the same family, they all end up having very different views on how human life should be continued. I believe that the main issues raised in 'Children of the Dust' are survival, prejudice and different values of society.

After the nuclear attack, different 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 radioactive dust has been coming in through the chimney. They realise that they have been eating and drinking contaminated food and water. However, they refuse to give up because they know Catherine is capable of surviving. They persist and continue looking after eight year old Catherine as best 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 spent almost all her time in her cubby house under the table so she had little chance of breathing 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