Summary Of The Novel 'The Sky So Heavy'

The novel, ‘The Sky So Heavy’ by Claire Zorn surrounds the lives of four young teenagers who have to fend for themselves in a post-apocalyptic world destroyed by nuclear warfare. Throughout this novel, it demonstrates in a clear and ongoing extent the various ways in which conflict is generated by power. This is evident especially since the number of resources, including food, are limited, which causes people to go to any means in order to feed their loved ones. Furthermore, the aspect of conflict being generated by power is shown through the effects the nuclear testing had in multiple countries, including Australia. Also, because of the impact this had on the citizens of Australia, authority is brought to the test when people start breaking
This is evident when nuclear missiles are launched and are reported to have made a mistake, leading to drastic effects on various countries, including a severe nuclear winter on Australia. Because of this, the public is affected in multiple ways, which leads to various disputes within the community. This is a factor mainly because of the limited availability of important resources, such as food and water. Through this, people lose the power of the way they control and live their lives since their lifestyle is completely thrown to an opposite perspective. In addition to this, a quote by Robert Winston states that “we only survived against great odds by organising ourselves into groups which would have had a common purpose, giving morale”. This relates to this novel as multiple characters, including the four teenagers, are shown to group together in order to survive, believing that there’s safety in numbers. Also, as mentioned earlier, food and other resources are limited and, therefore, cannot be supplied to everyone. For that reason, people are shown to go to any means in order to protect and feed their family and loved