The Moon is Down: Question 2

            In The Moon is Down, the main conflict is that a small, unnamed town is invaded by a much larger country, which we can assume is Germany. The invaders then force the people into following their rules, and working in the mine in order to bring back the mined items back to their leader, which we can also assume is Hitler (Steinbeck).

            The cause of this conflict has to relate to things outside of the novel. In history, we know that the Hitler started the whole thing to gain power and make his perfect world. By invading the towns, he gets control and all of their valuable resources. This is why the town in the novel is invaded.

            There is not much gained from the conflict. The only people that could possibly gain from the invasion are the invaders. They get to get the products of the mine without even working in it. The townspeople only gained their unity, which I believe was always there, but they just discovered it. The struggle of the losses made them get closer and closer to one another. They work together to spread word about saving the dynamite and to have everyone save them (Steinbeck). This way of working together made them forget their differences to work together.

            The majority of things in the novel were the losses from the conflict. The invaders lost a couple of their men. They lost Captain Bentick from Alex Morden’s pick (Steinbeck 858). They also lost Lieutenant Tonder from Molly Morden stabbing him with her knitting scissors (Steinbeck 1532). The invaders suffered from the hatred of the townspeople and gradually grew further and further estranged. The townspeople lost Alex Morden, Mayor Orden, and many other townspeople (Steinbeck). The townspeople lost not only their town, but also their freedom. They could no longer go about their daily activities for fear of getting in trouble from the Nazis (Steinbeck)

           

Steinbeck, John. The Moon Is Down, a Novel,. New York: Viking, 1942. Print

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