The Moon Is Down

This article is about the novel. For the album, see The Moon Is Down (album).

The Moon Is Down is a novel by John Steinbeck, an American author. The title refers to a phrase spoken by Banquo's son Fleance in Shakespeare's Macbeth. It was written in 1942 during World War II when Steinbeck worked as a reporter. The story details a military occupation of a small town in Northern Europe by the army of an unnamed nation at war with England and Russia. It is a very transparent reference to the occupation of Norway by the Germans during World War II. Interestingly, a French language translation of the book was published illegally in Nazi-occupied France by Les Editions de Minuit, a French Resistance publishing house. The book is still in print as a paperback issued in New York by Penguin Group (USA), in 1995 with ISBN 0140187464.

It was also made into a movie starring Cedric Hardwicke, Henry Travers and Lee J. Cobb in 1943.

Contents

1 Plot Synopsis 2 Characters 2.1 Townspeople 2.2 The "Enemy" 3 Discussion 4 External links

Plot Synopsis

In the story, an invader force arrives at a seaside coal-mining town and takes it over. Their goal is to take over the coal mine and to organize increased production and export of coal to support their war effort. The officers in charge of the occupation soon find themselves in conflict with the townspeople, especially as the resistance movement begins a campaign of sabotage of coal production. They try to combat the resistance and force the inhabitants into submission, but quickly realize the futility of this, especially as it becomes clear that the war has been already lost.

Characters

Townspeople

• Mayor Orden - an almost embodiment of the people
• Docter Winter - friend of Mayor Orden
• Joseph - a servant of the Mayor
• Annie - the Mayor's rather temperamental, independent cook
• Madame - wife of the Mayor
• Christine - mentioned briefly; a better cook than Annie and a friend of hers
• Alexander Morden - A miner, killed Captain Bentick.
• Molly Morden - Wife of Alexander Morden

The "Enemy"

• George Corell - popular storekeeper, traitor and spy
• Colonel Lanser - the head of the local battalion; the only one with any war experience, a WWI veteran
• Captain Bentick - old, Anglophile
• Major Hunter - The engineer, has a model railroad at home
• Captain Loft - young, ambitious; he lived and breathed the military
• Lieutenant Prackle - apparently a good artist
• Lieutenant Tonder - a poet described as a "dark romantic"
• "the Leader" - referencing Adolf Hitler

Discussion

The Moon Is Down is a story that we can see from both sides. The main characters include both the townspeople and the officers of the occupation force who are basically conscripted mining engineers. There are no "villains" per se here, indeed in some respects the invaders may seem more likeable, and certainly easier to understand, than their victims. The conflict starts from the very start of the occupation as an illusion of a friendly takeover that both the invaders and the locals are trying to maintain is shattered by the deaths of several people killed because of futile resistance attempts. The absurd attempt by the mayor to restore it by having the soldiers tried for the killings done in the line of duty only accentuates the inevitable setting in of the harsh reality.

For a time, things go well as the locals sit and brood about the events, and the invaders are busily planning and carrying out coal production expansion. Soon enough, however, the resistance movement forms and launches a campaign of sabotage against the coal mine. The invaders, out to do their duty to their country, undertake repressive measures to keep the production going. They do so realizing that in fact they have little hope to get much more than a temporary reprieve. As a result, all semblance of harmony is ended. The occupiers are in the midst of perpetrating a terror campaign that is obviously yielding no fruit. As the work grinds to a halt and several of them are murdered, they realize that their hopes to live and let live are coming to naught. The townspeople are starving, having chosen not to cooperate in any away with the invaders. Everyone becomes pawns in a ritual of collective self-destruction, that is approaching crescendo even as the war is bringing it to a close.

External links

• Google Print (http://print.google.com/print?id=sotm___X2aAC)