After the Bomb – Book SummaryAfter the Bomb written by Gloria Miklowitz is a thrilling novel that takes place before, during, and after a bomb which
supposedly was sent from Russia by accident. L.A. and surrounding
cities are all altered by the disastrous happening. Philip Singer a
teenager is in a position as leader of the family. His brother Matt is
awfully sick, possibly from radiation, his father was away at work
during the blast and for all Philip knows he might be dead, and his
mother was desperately injured and needs immediate attention.
Hospitals are flooded with injured and dying people and the government
doesn’t send help for a few days. The badly injured don’t even get the
chance to be helped because the hospitals have to send the ones that
are likely going to live to hospitals that specialize in burns. His
mother is so badly burned that the hospitals put her on the bottom of
the list to be flown to burn centers. By the end of the novel Philip
has taken charge, snuck his mom ahead to be flown to a burn center,
and in a sense saved his town from thirst. He truly survived the
terror, shock, and danger of the bomb.
The novel goes through a couple of settings such as, Philip’s
struggle to keep his family alive, and the conflict between the nature
of a nuclear bomb against the Los Angeles area. When the bomb hits he
is playing around in a playroom shelter with his brother and his
girlfriend. They go out to find out what had happened and found
burning houses, their house only left with one wall, rubble on the
ground, debris all over the place, and people running frantically for
shelter. Philip’s brother became sick after finding his mother and
bringing her back down to the shelter, and found that his mother had
been burnt severely and needed immediate medical attention. Philip
struggles to keep his brother from getting even more sick than he was
and to bring his mother to a hospital. Philip’s family weren’t the
only people affected by the bomb. the entire surrounding area of Los
Angeles was pounded by a devastating bomb. Churches, Hospitals, and
streets were flooded with sick, dying, and even dead people.
Hospitals that were built to only withstand 200 people now have
thousands, and hospitals lack food, doctors, and water. Philip’s
struggle for survival, and the devastating blow against L.A. was only
the beginning of the disastrous bomb.
The setting is practically the whole plot of the novel showing
Philip’s struggle to get his mother to a burn center that could save
her life, bring his family to safety, and to save his town from
thirst. When Philip arrives at the hospital with his mom the
government and hospital had already started flying patients to burn
centers, but his mom was too sick and burnt so the hospital didn’t
care for her. She was placed on the bottom of list to be flown away.
Philip secretly switches the tag on her mom with one that says and
earlier number so that she would be flown out more promptly. He does
so and she is flown out early and he most probably saved her life by
doing so. Another example was when the bomb had just struck and
Philip’s family was in the shelter which wasn’t very safe and stable.
He went up to the surface to check out his neighbor’s house which was
miraculously intact. Philip found the owner and his wife in good shape
and arranged to bring his family over to the neighbor’s cool basement
for safety and refuge. A third example was when the hospital in his
town was almost pout of water and Philip was asked by a nurse
to find a worker that works with the town’ s plumbing at his house and
manage to get water to the hospital. He did so and after a while
drained water from a resident’s pool and had it flown down to the
hospital. These are some examples of how the setting functions in the
novel.
After the Bomb is an exciting and stimulating novel which shows
the leadership of a teenager over his family. The novel displays
a realistic happening that can happen any second and describes it
intricately. It’s an electrifying, terrifying, and exhilarating rush
and is an outstanding novel. Survival was only the beginning…
