The Moon is Down #2

The conflict in the novel, The Moon is Down, is pretty self explanatory from the start. Enemy soldiers invade a peaceful town at the beginning of the novel. Six people end up getting killed in the struggle. Colonel Lanser meets with Mayor Orden to discuss his  terms and tell him that he and his men need to stay in the upstairs of the Mayor's house. One of Lanser's officers, Captain Bentick, gets stabbed and killed by one of the workers in the mine who had gotten mad at Captain Loft. Because of this, Alex Morden, gets tried and shot, and the soldiers become more strict. The soldiers begin to ration the food, taking away if the people act bad, and rewarding those who behave and follow the rules. Soon winter hits and moral becomes low on both sides of the war. Little blue parachutes begin to come floating down out of the sky. They include small sticks of dynamite, and pieces of chocolate. Colonel Laser and his troupe become nervous and "arrest" Mayor Orden and Doctor Winter. The novel ends with Dr. Winter promising Orden to keep faith in the resistance after Orden will most likely be killed.

The really interesting part of this novel is that we get to see both sides to the effects of the conflict. We see this most prominently when winter hits. The soldiers are beginning to feel the extent of their hatred by the townspeople, and their attitudes reflect this. "The men of the battalion came to detest the place they had conquered, and they were curt with the people and the people were curt with them, and gradually a little fear began to grow in the conquerors, a fear that it would never be over-" (Steinbeck 58). Anger starts building up in the townspeople and climaxes with Molly stabbing Lieutenant Tonder. As the book progresses you think the events that are happening is the main conflict, but it really is the townspeople's attitude against the soldier's attitude.

Steinbeck, John. The Moon Is Down. New York: Penguin Classics, 1942. Print.