The Moon is Down #7

As with war novels written in any time, John Steinbeck uses suspense as a technique to keep his readers interested in his story. In a novel involving war you never know what can happen next. You do not know who will win what battle, who will attack where next, or what will happen to people on each side of the war during each event. In the novels open, Colonel Lanser is discussing what he wants to see happen during the rest of his and his men's stay in the town they invaded with it's leader, Mayor Orden. the Mayor says that he does not control how his people act, so he does not know how they will react to the invaders. "They are orderly under their own government. I don't know how they would be under yours. It is untouched ground-" (Steinbeck 15-16). This starts off the novel with the reader having no idea how the townspeople will react and continues on throughout the novel. the scene with Molly and Lieutenant Tonder is also very suspenseful because it just abruptly ends after Molly hides a kitchen knife under her skirt when Tonder knocks on her door. The reader does not find out what happens until almost two chapters later when Colonel Lanser offhandedly mentions that Lieutenant Tonder was killed.

Another topic that the author uses to keep his readers interested is his sense of mystery. The entire concept of the parachutes is very mysterious. the reader never finds out who sends them, or why this town was chosen to receive them. All we know is that this town is the only one to receive the parachutes because they are some kind of test to see if the parachutes will work if they are dropped everywhere. The parachutes include a stick of dynamite and a piece of chocolate, so people will keep looking for them and picking them up. I think that his is a really cool concept and it kept me interested until the end of the novel.


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