What is the summary of brother in the land act 1?

Answer 1

Robert Swindells

Brother in the Land

Main Characters: Danny and Ben Lodge, Kim

The scene is set in Skipley, England. One day in October, missiles with thermo-nuclear warheads, enough to kill everybody on earth, are dropped onto any city in Europe. There is also one missile for Branford, a city five miles away from Skipley. 14761hls15xqy1d

Danny Lodge, a teenager, his seven year old brother Ben and their father, an owner of a shop, have come through the Holocaust alive. After burying Danny's mother, he and his family have to learn that only very few people are still alive. Moreover, any building in the city is badly damaged or even destroyed.

About three weeks after the bomb, Danny gets to know a fourteen year old girl called Kim, who lives together with her sister and her sister's man and falls in love with her. She is the first person to explain to Danny that the old rules are no longer valid and that nowadays people have to be very hard and strong in order to survive.

The next day, soldiers come to town. They represent the Local Commissioner and explain that an emergency hospital has been set up adjacent to their new headquarters at Kershaw Farm. In fact, everybody who goes to this new "hospital" is killed by the soldiers. Moreover, many survivors look out for "badgers", people who still live in shelters. They often kill them in order to take away their food and clothes.

Some weeks later, the soldiers return. They explain that a registration point has been set up and that they would collect food and fuel for fair distribution. But once again, the soldiers lie to Skipley's population - they put poison into lonely or weak persons' food. Nevertheless, most people still come to the food distribution because they don't have any other chance to stay alive. lq761h4115xqqy

One day, Ben suddenly realises that his mother is dead. As the Lodges visit her grave, they meet an old man called Branwell who tells them a quotation - "He who places his brother in the land is everywhere". It means that all over the world people bury their deaths just as the Lodges did.

One week later, the Lodges' shop is attacked by soldiers, who take everything out of their cellar. For some reason, they also take Danny's father with them and drive away. Unfortunately, the car is attacked and the father dies in an explosion. It was Rhodes, a former PE teacher at Danny's school, who led the attack against the soldiers. Branwell, the man Danny met at his mother's grave, is also here, seems to command Rhodes and explains that he is really sorry for what happened. Moreover, he wants Danny to join his organisation "Masada" (Movement to Arm Skipley Against Dictatorial Authority) in order to fight the soldiers and survive. At first Danny isn't sure whether to do so but when he hears that Kim is also one of them, he agrees. Branwell tells him everything about Masada and its members - they have many weapons, an own "hospital" with two nurses and are just mending some cars.

The day after Christmas soldiers come to town once again and explain that from now on, everybody who wants to eat has to come to Kershaw Farm in the morning and work. Of course, nobody from Masada joins these workers, but most inhabitants do. As the soldiers want to build a new farm, these people have to carry away the top two inches of soil which are full of radioactive particles working with their bare hands mostly.

One day, Danny, Rhodes and four other men try to attack a tank and four motorbikes. Danny gets knocked out and wakes up again imprisoned by the soldiers. Booth, a boy from Danny's school, has to interrogate him but later tells his commander that Danny doesn't know anything about Masada. When Booth is told to kill Danny, he takes him to Kershaw's border, shoots in the air and lets Danny go.

Things are getting harder for Masada. As the soldiers put poison into Masada's well, there's only very little water left, and people often drink from radioactive puddles. Furthermore, there are "purples" - cannibals, people who look for lonely persons, kill and eat them. One day, Ben is also captured by purples, but fortunately Danny is able to rescue him.

Branwell and Rhodes work out a plan. They want to take over Kershaw Farm and rescue the people working there. After having prepared the weapons and cars, they start. Although Danny is shot into the arm, the plan works fine and Masada takes about seventy prisoners. Besides, Booth died in the fights. Most people who still live in Skipley comprehend what happened and three weeks later, there are already four hundred people living at Kershaw Farm.

Time goes by. In August, the people at Kershaw Farm have to learn that their vegetables aren't developing properly. They are very irritated and don't know how to go on.

People once again have hopes when Swiss soldiers come to Kershaw Farm with helicopters and tanks. They explain that there are groups like Masada all over Europe too. But finally, everything they do is, they immobilise the vehicles, take away the weapons and leave.

In December, Kim's sister gives birth to her baby. It has no mouth and dies almost as soon as it is born. In the same night, Branwell also dies and Danny and Kim decide to leave Kershaw Farm together with Ben, try to live as some kind of family and make a place for them somewhere.

On their way, Ben begins to lose his hair. When they finally find an empty house, Ben dies and is buried in the house's garden - in the land. Danny finds a book and begins to write down his story. Maybe, much later, someone would find it and the book could prevent people from doing things like this once again.

Characters

Danny Lodge:

In the beginning, Danny is a very naive person. He doesn't realise that there are no rules anymore, everybody has to care for himself and find his own way to survive in this new, chaotic world. Of course, at first his father makes the decisions, but when he's also killed, Danny's situation changes dramatically.

Although it must be incredibly hard for him, Danny stays calm and really thinks about his and Ben's future. This shows that inside, Danny is a very strong person. But I think that at first Ben is the only reason for his going on. Without Ben, if he for example would have also been killed, Danny wouldn't be able to stay alive at all. Although he never shows his real emotions, Danny loves his brother enormously.

Later, Danny meets Kim and falls in love with her. At first, she seems to be quite brutal to him, but Danny soon understands that she has just realised their new situation.

Although Danny often seems to be gullible, he is very intelligent, too. This is proved by the fact that he's one of the first persons to realise that one day Masada will decay. He knows that it's going to end "not with a bang but a whimper".

Ben Lodge:

Ben is Danny's seven year old brother. His mother dies on the first day of the whole catastrophe, but he realises it weeks later, one day he asks Danny "Where's Mum?". This shows that he can't cope with his current situation, he's so shocked, he doesn't even know that his mother's dead. Later, his father is also killed. Now, Danny is the only family member left, he has to care for him, he's his best friend. Ben really loves and adores him, which makes things a little bit easier for Danny.

I don't think that Ben knows that he's going to die due to his illness. I think in the end his a happy child and also dies happy.

Kim:

Kim is approximately as old as Danny. She doesn't fall in love with him at once but by the time she learns to love him. Her parents were also killed but her elder sister takes care of her. Nevertheless she learns that things change much faster and easier than Danny. This is proved by the fact that she also tries to make that clear to him when she meets him for the first time and tells him things like "Gentlemen are out, cavemen rule, okay?" or "We've got to be as hard as they are, Danny Boy - or harder.".

Furthermore, Kim's very important for Danny. Unless he had got to know Kim, he would probably never have joined Masada and his life would have taken another (likely worse) course.

My Opinion

I really liked the book "Brother In The Land". It's written very good and reading the hard-hitting story is thrilling. Robert Swindells is able to describe scenes very well and after reading the book you ask yourself how the future looks like, if mankind is one day really going to be killed in a nuclear war.

Moreover, it's interesting to see how the characters act being confronted with such a miserable future.

I think the book is quite true to life and things could really happen as described in it. Probably there would really be groups like Masada be founded everywhere.

I can only recommend this book to everybody I know, it's thrilling and also makes you think about our future.

Answer 2

Plot summaryThe novel which introduces Danny, who lives with his parents and younger brother. Danny, wanting some time away from his parents' shop, takes his bike out onto the moors; while there, he notices that a storm is brewing, and is just heading for home when he spots a concrete pillbox left over from World War II. He takes shelter inside and, moments later, sees a bright flash, which he initially thinks is a lightning strike. But, when he peers out, he sees a mushroom cloud, and realises what has happened. For the following night he hides in the pillbox, expecting to die at any time, but, in the end, he crawls out and decides to search for his family.

On the hillside, Danny encounters a man in a radiation suit, who confiscates his bike, and orders him to "get back to town". Arriving in Skipley, Danny finds the town in ruins, and learns that his family's shop has collapsed, killing his mother. His father and Ben have survived, as they were in the cellar, which the Lodges use as a stockroom. With so much food in their stockroom, the Lodges have plenty to live on, but the other survivors are not so lucky, and, as the weeks pass, people begin fighting over food. Shortly after the war, Danny meets a girl named Kim Tyson, who sums the situation up in the following words: "Cavemen versus gentlemen is no contest."

Shortly after Danny meets Kim, the local Commissioner issues an order that "all burned, sick and badly injured persons" should be taken out of the ruins and placed at the roadside so they can be taken to hospital; in fact, the "hospital" is a front for his plan to kill off the worst of the bomb-casualties. Later, the Commissioner implements a system of food and fuel rationing, with severe penalties introduced for hoarding. The injured, elderly, and people driven insane by the nuclear attack (known as "Spacers") are given poisoned rations. But Mr. Lodge refuses to hand over his stock and, though Danny and Ben do register for ration-cards, they only visit the local feeding centre once.

Presently, the Commissioner's men come to the Lodges' shop and arrest Mr Lodge. Moments later, the truck bearing Mr. Lodge is blown up, killing everyone on board, and leaving Danny and Ben orphans. The brothers seek sanctuary at the home of Sam Branwell, a smallholder who, along with several other survivors, has formed a resistance movement called Masada (an acronym for "Movement to Arm Skipley Against Dictational Authority); their aims are to overthrow the Commissioner and prevent him from creating a feudal society. Other members of Masada include Danny's former P.E. teacher, Keith Rhodes (the one responsible for blowing up the truck) and Kim, who helps out during the day.

It is discovered that a virtual concentration camp has been erected outside of Skipley, on the grounds of the Kershaw Farm, with the remaining able-bodied population of the town being used as slave labor under the Commissioner's rule. From a series of defectors, Danny learns that conditions at the camp are reminiscent of those at Belsen. As a result, the members of Masada are forced to step up their campaign of resistance, and, one night, launch a raid on the camp. After a battle, the Commissioner is overthrown, and Branwell is established as the new leader.

However, in the months that follow the raid, all of the newly-planted crops fail, due to the effects of radiation poisoning. Meanwhile, Kim's sister (Maureen) is pregnant, and Kim is worried that the baby may be deformed; in the end, it is born without a mouth, and dies not long afterwards.

Foreign troops arrive via helicopter, revealing there were communities all over Europe like Branwell's, which he terms a "commune" or "communist" society. Believing the Swiss troops would rescue them, the camp foolishly eat many of their rations. In fact, the Swiss confiscate their weapons, and disable the few vehicles they have. By now, the camp's food supplies are exhausted, forcing the people to scavenge for whatever they can find, and many are dying. Gradually, people start to leave in small groups to fend for themselves. Shortly after Branwell dies from exhaustion during the second winter after the war, Danny, Kim, and Ben leave the camp and head to Holy Island, where Danny hopes they will be safe.

During the journey to Holy Island, the three encounter a group on motorbikes (Rhodes being one of them) in the village of Osmotherley. Rhodes is about to shoot Danny for the food that he'd found down the side of a sink in a café, but Kim intervenes with a gun, and Rhodes and his buddy are killed.

Ben becomes ill with radiation sickness - otherwise known as a "creeping dose" - and dies. Danny and Kim bury him in the garden of an empty house. In the house, Danny finds a ledger, and starts writing an account of his experiences after the war. He ends by saying that he plans to leave his account behind for future generations to read; he hopes it will warn them not to go down the path which led to the war. Finally, Danny dedicates his story to Ben, his "brother in the land."

In 1994, the book was reprinted with a "new final chapter." In this revised ending, Ben still dies, but, rather than leave his account behind, Danny takes the ledger with him to Holy Island, and Kim is expecting a baby, the third of Holy Island, with Danny being the father. If the baby survives, it will be named "Ben."

by Danyal Siddiqui

taken from, Wikipedia

Answer 3

in this we learn that we are dogs..............