A Study Guide for Nevil Shute's "A Town Like Alice"

By Gale and Cengage

A Study Guide for Nevil Shute's "A Town Like Alice," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Novels for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Novels for Students for all of your research needs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cengage Learning - Gale
• Release date: Jun 27, 2016
• ISBN: 9781535817400

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12

A Town Like Alice

Nevil Shute

1950

Introduction

Nevil Shute's 1950 novel A Town Like Alice was inspired by the story of a Dutch woman whom Shute met in Sumatra in 1949. The woman, Mrs. J. G. Geysel-Vonck, had been taken as a prisoner of war in Malaya by the Japanese, along with a number of women and children. With her infant on her hip, Geysel-Vonck and her party were marched for hundreds of miles through Malaya.

In A Town Like Alice, Shute created a character inspired by Geysel-Vonck and her experiences. Jean Paget, the heroine of Shute's novel, is an Englishwoman working in Malaya (now the western portion of Malaysia). Unlike her historical counterpart, she is unmarried. Jean's spirit, strength, and intelligence eventually lead her to be looked upon as the natural leader of the group of women and children. As prisoners of the Japanese, the women are repeatedly told that they are headed toward a prison camp for women. In reality, no such camp exists, and the Japanese soldiers continually force them onward, unwilling to allow them to remain at a Japanese outpost and thus divert resources from their own soldiers. Many of the women and children die of starvation, exhaustion, and diseases such as dysentery and malaria. In the course of their travels, the women meet two Australian prisoners, one of whom attempts to help them procure medicine and food. Joe Harmon, one of the Australian soldiers, befriends Jean. He is eventually tortured for his crime of stealing from the Japanese. Jean and the rest of her party are forced to watch Joe be crucified and whipped, apparently to death. Believing Joe to be dead, Jean and her party are forced to move on. They are eventually allowed, through Jean's ingenuity and powers of persuasion, to settle in a small Malay village, where they help plant and harvest the rice crop. After the war, Jean learns that Joe is alive. She travels to Australia, where they are finally reunited. Jean begins a new life there and attempts to develop the community in which she has settled. Throughout the novel, Jean's challenging of traditional gender roles is repeatedly emphasized, and her ambition to help women becomes a main undercurrent.

Author Biography

Shute was born Nevil Shute Norway in London, England, on January 17, 1890. His father, Arthur Hamilton Norway, worked for the General Post Office, and his mother was Mary Louisa Gadsen. After attending preparatory school in Hammersmith, Shute was sent to Dragon School in Oxford, England, and then on to Shrewsbury. Shute was visiting his father in Dublin, Ireland (as Norway was at the time the secretary to the General Post Office of Ireland), at the time of the 1916 uprising in Ireland.

Shute entered the Royal Military Academy but failed his medical examination due to a stammer. Later, at Balliol College of Oxford University from 1919 through 1922, Shute studied engineering science. He also began writing novels and short stories at this time, and he worked as an unpaid intern for the Aircraft Manufacturing Company.

In 1926, Shute published his first novel, Marazan. He eventually dropped the Norway from his name and published under the name Nevil Shute, but he continued to use his full name within the context of his engineering profession. He continued to merge his engineering and aircraft experience, and in 1931, he founded Airspeed Ltd. He constructed aircraft for the government, gradually enlarging the business while he simultaneously pursued his career in writing.

Shute married Francis Mary Heaton in 1931, and the couple had two daughters. By 1938, Shute had sold the film rights for two novels, The Lonely Road (1932) and Ruined City (1938), and was gaining popularity and