Customer Reviews

The Moon is Down

5 star:		(50)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

In an unnamed country (similar to Norway) during World War II, a German sympathizer lures local men and the town's twelve soldiers into the forest long enough for the Germans to take the town. They occupy the home of the mayor as a sign of their power and commandeer the local coal mine. Mayor Orden has never before been a brave or very forceful man, but he is not a fool, and while he tries to keep order in the town, as the Germans demand, he refuses to use the power of his office to betray the ideals of his people. Soon the locals begin to sabotage everything the Germans can use to prolong the war.

The narrative is dramatic, full of conversation and containing minimal description, which gives it the feeling of a simple morality tale. Steinbeck depicts the German soldiers, at first, as almost bumbling--organized, to be sure, but basically human, showing footsoldiers getting homesick, seeking understanding of the orders they must fulfill, complaining about the weather, and wondering if their mail will arrive on time. Gradually, as Berlin exerts more and more pressure to take out the coal, the German occupiers must impose more drastic measures. Local resistance becomes more violent in response: soldiers disappear and are found dead in snowbanks, small explosions blow up rail lines, and the miners have "accidents" which prevent the coal from being removed. Even the arrest of Mayor Orden and Doctor Winter cannot force the citizens to give in to tyranny.

Though the novel was published in 1942 expressly for "propaganda" in Europe's occupied countries (where it was quickly translated and disseminated secretly), it is a good story which transcends its original purpose and, as a result, it continues to find an audience. The depiction of the Germans as ordinary but flawed humans--"herd men who win the battles"--rather than as terrifying monsters, makes their defeat seem possible. Depicting the townspeople as resourceful but ordinary--"free men who win the wars"--rather than as heroes, makes their resistance seem a natural, and victory seem possible. Though the characters are shallow, Mayor Orden does grow and change, and his references to Plato's defense of Aristotle in a crucial conversation with Doctor Winter put the relationship of the individual to authority into a wider context. Simple, direct, concise, and humane, this may be the most effective piece of mass propaganda ever written. Mary Whipple

The Moon Is Down by John Steinbeck is a classic novel dealing with the emotional effects of war. Set during World War II, we are introduced to the "conquerers" and the town that has been sieged. A once docile, peaceful people, the villagers are quickly changed into a people full of hatred and malice. The Moon Is Down tells us how war can change people for the good, and for the worse. The townspeople become consumed with rage, and want nothing more than to free themselves by killing their conquerers. The conquerers, who were once strictly militant in every move and thought, become affected by what they have done to the once peaceful villagers, and gain more compassion througout the novel. The Moon Is Down is facepaced, and not long length-wise. Contrary to other Steinbeck works, this book is written almost in "play" style. It moves quickly with much of the story being dialog. It reads increadible fast and is very entertaining, as well as thought provoking. It forced the reader to sympathize with the conquerers and become emotionally attached with both the protagonists and the antagonists. This book forces the reader to delve deaper into their own minds and think more deeply about war, and it's effects on all of humanity.

The Moon is Down is not the most well-known of Steinbeck works, probably in part due to its unusual genesis, but it is a remarkably stirring work. Written as anti-German propaganda in 1942, it was by far the most successful work of Allied propaganda, with hundreds of thousands of copies in circulation in many different languages (despite Axis attempts to suppress it).

As propaganda, the work was criticized as being too easy on the Germans -- portraying the occupying soldiers as very human and real instead of as cold and heartless. There is no doubt in my mind that this is precisely the reason for its success (and that Steinbeck is a genius in this respect). Steinbeck wrote about the plight of the occupied citizenry in a way that was so real that he reached them. It is also precisely in the occupying army's humanity that Steinbeck places the weapon that ultimately inspires the occupied and destroys the occupier: fear. One of the occupying soldiers articulates the fear very clearly: "The enemy's everywhere! Their faces look out of the doorways. The white faces behind the curtains, listening. We have beaten them, we have won everywhere, and they wait and obey, and they wait" (p. 64). He goes on to liken the occupying army's success to that of flies who conquer flypaper. And of course the novel itself brings the fear to life -- the flypaper ultimately proves quite inhospitable to the flies.

Steinbeck's work is interesting on deeper levels, too. Freedom and leadership are clearly top-of-mind for him, and he elegantly describes both. Steinbeck's Mayor is a wonderful leader and a powerful advocate for freedom as indefatigable. He tells the colonel of the occupying forces, for instance: "You and your government do not understand. In all the world yours is the only government and people with a record of defeat after defeat for centuries and every time because you do not understand people" (p. 48). The colonel's lack of understanding is precisely that the will to be free will prevail.

Finally, the Mayor is such a wonderful case study of a leader who is born of the circumstances in which he finds himself. Early in the novelette he is timid and reticient. He seems to be waiting. Then, when one of his people kills an enemy soldier, he suddenly steps up, and says of the beginning of the occupation: "the people were confused and I was confused. We did not know what to do or think" (p. 54). But the action of this one person provides the guidance and clarity that he needs to catalyze his people. And with that one man's action, he takes his queue from his people (such a remarkably subtle but so significant characteristic of a great leader), and with great wisdom and courage leads his people in the exploitation of his occupier's great fear.

Definitely a good (short) read.

John Steinbeck fully represents a great American author. His novel, "The Moon is Down" was written as a form of propaganda for its time, and Steinbeck uncovers profound, often unsettling truths about war-and about human nature. In every chapter you read, you can find a descriptive image about the town which has been conquered, and the feelings of its people. This book reveals the evil in human nature, and the reaction of a conquered people. A small town has just been taken over and is now Nazi occupied. The troops come in, and immediately the attitude of this once peaceful town, turns into vengeance. The mayor represents the word of the people. He stays office for a in while, however under the influence and control of the Nazi's. The people of the town show no kindness, and much disrespect to the officers, which in turn makes the Nazi's angry. This leads to the death of many innocent lives. There is much loneliness and danger in the town, which results in many citizens trying to escape to England. Some successfully do, and get to the English leaders to ask for help. The English sends planes over, and drops boxes and parachutes filled with bombs and ammunition for the people of the town to use against the Nazi's. This is where the trouble begins, and certain important lives are lost. Steinbeck includes striking images and fine dialogue throughout the entire novel. Every chapter contains a descriptive image of the town adding to the drama. This, for example, found on page 51, "And over the town there hung a blackness that was deeper than the cloud, and over the town there hung a sullenness and a dry, growing hatred." Even when a line is not in context, we can understand the story by Steinbeck's creative and vivid scenes. He flavors his words in such a way, that we can fully capture the mood of a scene, and the meaning of the novel. Steinbeck helps us to understand the war and the people involved in it. A sense of togetherness is exemplified in the people, and the theme of working together is expressed in their attitudes, as they fight to save one anothers lives. What was happening to them was unfair and immoral, however they stuck through it by understanding that a group is so much better than an individual, and caring for others helps make them and you a stronger person.

During the height of World War II John Steinbeck, renowned for his accurate and detailed depictions of the Monterey County published a short propagandistic novel designed to elicit hope and courage in the hearts of the oppressed compatriots in the Nazi-occupied territories. Demonstrating his multifaceted style, Steinbeck keeps descriptions to a minimum as the events unfold. The book, however, has been widely criticized for its portrayal of the `insuperable enemy' as mere-mortals: men with fears and feelings of their own who detest fighting and are anxious to return back home. The Moon is Down tells the story of Mayor Orden and his fellow citizens' fight for freedom through effective dialogues and conversations. Its evident accessibility to people of varying degrees of literacy and education made it one of the most effective pieces of Allied propaganda ever written. Despite the ban in Axis-controlled regions, the book gained momentum and popularity throughout Europe with just 3,000 (estimated) illegal copies. Steinbeck powerfully and eloquently establishes that despite the harshest of circumstances, free-willed people will triumph over their oppressors.

In 1941, amidst uncertainty and declining moral of World War II, Steinbeck drafted and presented The Moon is Down to the Foreign Information Service. Washington DC immediately dismissed setting the story in the United States, the patriots could not imagine an invasion in their homeland. Steinbeck proceeded to write the novel with poignantly vague depictions: as the events unfold, the setting is subject to readers' interpretation and could be located in any Eastern-European country. Shortly after being published in March 1942, The Moon is Down opened as a play in the New York Theater, followed by a movie adaptation in 1943. John Steinbeck generously donated his earnings toward the war effort. The book was targeted at the Axis-occupied Europe that was in a dire need of hope. People quickly translated and disseminated it under the shroud of secrecy and the penalty of death.

A band of soldiers seized Mayor Orden's town with the help of a local coward in order to extract coal from the mines. The people were taken by surprise and initially showed little resistance, "The town was occupied, the defenders defeated, and the war was finished" (p1). From the onset the invaders consider "[the war] more of an engineering job than conquest" (p15) and do not realize the harsh realities of combat. Steinbeck depicts the soldiers as human beings following unquestionable orders from "The Leader;" as the story progress, they grow homesick and doubt the propaganda of their own superiors. Lanser, an experienced but pessimistic Colonel leads the invasion, who "told himself he was a soldier, given orders to carry out... [Not] to question or to think" (p22) and believed with certainty that history would repeat itself and they would lose the war. Despite the military's superiority, a growing resistance emerged among the people - "People are getting together... They don't like to be conquered" (p42). Lanser compels Orden to maintain control over the populace, but the Mayor aids the struggle and insists that people have a dynamic of their own. The pressure increases as sabotage ensues and soldiers begin disappearing as they venture into town. As the airplanes dropped dynamite to aid in the resistance, the enemy's once glorious attitude has vanished: the quick conquest became an ongoing struggle on foreign territory with no end in sight. Unable to suppress the opposition, as a last resort Lanser condemns Mayor Orden to execution unless the explosions cease. However, nothing can stop the free people and the last interaction between Orden and Lanser powerfully reasserts this belief.

"Free men cannot start a war, but once it is started, they can fight on in defeat. Herd men, followers of a leader, cannot do that, and so it is always the herd men who win battles and the free men who win wars. You will find it so sir." (p113)

Steinbeck's message is clear, powerful, and effective: the free will of the people cannot be suppressed. Although written as propaganda during the World War II, the book's roots are universal and applicable to any period in history. The invaders could be perceived as the Chinese oppressors of the Tibetan region from 1951 to this day, the ultimate belief and hope for freedom shared by the Tibetan citizens and exiles scattered around the globe. Presently it can be compared even to the Iraq occupation; Steinbeck's careful style avoids judgments of right and wrong, but instead illustrates each perspective and the helplessness of the war. This book is an important contribution to literature and starkly contrasts the exaggerated propaganda during the 1940s; it ignited a fire of hope in its readers instead of depressing them with "Buy War Bonds" posters. Once again, Steinbeck displays his firm understanding of human nature and unequivocally writes about importance of human freedom.

First of all, this is a great book, and I hope you can find some time to read it.
I vehemently disagree with the characterization of Mayor Orden in the review made by the anonymous reviewer, "a reader."
In this review, Mayor Orden is characterized as a coward. The reader contends that Mayor Orden did nothing to help either side and his final decisions were made for himself. Then the reader goes on espousing the virtues of democracy, informing us that democratic rulers carry on the will of the people. Well, perhaps "a reader" needed to read this book more carefully.

Mayor Orden gives his life for democracy. He says in the beginning of the book that he, as mayor, IS the people. That is, he is the WILL of the people. His self-sacrifice serves as an example to his constituency; he's telling them in the good old American-Steinbeck tradition to resist totalitarianism, even if it means death. He knows his death will provide another martyr for the resistance, thus undermining the Nazis. He knows that the will of the people is resistance. He would only betray them if he had chosen to save himself and try to impose the will of the Nazi Colonel on the town.

In short, Mayor Orden = Nathan Hale. I hope people actually read these books before they review them. There are some items in the aforementioned review that make me question whether or not we read the same book.

I imagine many people who read this book don't realize that Steinbeck wrote "The Moon is Down" as a vehicle for propaganda. It was translated into many languages and distributed throughout the world. The original setting was a small town in the United States, but William "Wild Bill" Donovan of the OSS and others felt it would be too horrific for the people of the United States so soon after World War II so Steinbeck changed the setting to an unnamed northern European country. Steinbeck did considerable research on resistance in occupied countries and found that though the countries had different histories, cultures, languages, etc., the most successful methods of resisting and fighting the enemy were the same everywhere: the method he portrays in "The Moon is Down." Students who choose to read this book for a school assignment will really impress their teachers if they note that the title is a phrase from Shakespeare's "MacBeth." (Be sure to find the source in the play--I'm not going to give you everything!)

"The Moon Is Down," the novel by John Steinbeck, has been published in the Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics series, with an introduction by Donald V. Coers. The intro discusses Steinbeck's career during World War II, and discusses the novel's history after its 1942 publication. Particularly interesting is Coers' account of the various legal and illegal translated editions of the book. Coers' intro is followed by a comprehensive bibliography, making this edition a treasure for Steinbeck scholars.

The text of the novel itself is quite short (112 pages in the Penguin edition). "Moon" tells the story of a town that is invaded and subdued by an army from another country--little hints indicate that the invader is WW2-era Germany. Steinbeck reveals the psychodrama of relations among occupying troops, the town's civil authorities, and the civilian population. The story explores the tension within the ranks of the occupiers as well as the people's reaction to occupation.

This is an intriguing novel. Steinbeck's prose at times gives the book an almost fable-like flavor. His characters seem at times more like archetypes than fully fleshed people. At his most powerful Steinbeck endows the book with some really haunting imagery. After more than six decades, this book remains, in my opinion, compelling and relevant.

John Steinbeck is a masterful writer with a keen eye to see divergent perspectives of the world. This book may strike Steinbeck fans as being odd because it is not his typical set of early 20th Century California. Despite this jaunt from his comfort zone, I would go so far as to say this is my second favorite Steinbeck book.

The Moon is Down tells the tale of a Norwegian town conquered by the Nazis. Despite the advantage that the conquering Nazis have, they are never able to gain the love or admiration that they expect from the people. This troubles the Nazi soldiers, particularly when the townspeople begin to retaliate against the Nazis. What immediately strikes me reading this book in 2004 is the book parallels with the situation in Iraq. I am certainly NOT comparing American soldiers to Nazis. The idea that a country does not like foreigners occupying their country, no matter how justified the invaders might be, is true.

The plot eventually digresses into a question of how the Nazis can control the townspeople. The Nazis are less confident of winning the war and only want to survive. As the reader would suspect, the Nazis resort to drastic means.

Steinbeck certainly captures a unique view of war in The Moon is Down. The value of this book in terms of its political and historical commentary makes it a compelling read.

In 1941, John Steinbeck met with officials of the Foreign Information Service in Washington D.C. to discuss writing a book to assist American propaganda efforts during WW II. He initially prepared a draft of a play centering upon German occupation of a town in the United States. This setting did not meet with approval from the Foreign Information Service, and Steinbeck revised his work. He wrote a short novel set in a small town in an unnamed Scandanavian country which had been subjected to German invasion and occupation. The resulting book "The Moon is Down" was published in 1942. It was transformed into a play and opened on Broadway later that year. A film version of the book appeared in 1943; and, in 1946, Steinbeck was awarded the King Haakon Liberty Cross from Norway for this novel.

Today, "The Moon is Down" is less well-known that some of Steinbeck's other works, but it bears comparison with his best.
The story moves quickly, the characterizations are effective, and the story rises to make eloquently its timeless point about the nature of human liberty.

The story opens when the Germans invade by sea a small village to exploit its coal resources in the war effort. For a short novel, the story presents a variety of characters and each of them is individually developed. These include the German commander, Colonel Lanser, a man of education and culture, swift to obey all orders but who has serious inner doubts about Germany's war effort and aims. We also meet several members of Colonel Lanser's Officer Corps, some of whom are full of themselves and of military ambition, while others are lonely and feel the greatest need for the companionship of a woman.

The book also includes good characterizations of the townspeople. Among others, the reader meets Corell, the local who collaborates with the Germans and facilitates the invasion, the mayor of the town, Mayor Orden, his friend, Dr Winter, and a woman of indominitable spirit, Molly, whose husband has been shot by the invaders. The book shows the conflict and enmity that develops between the invaders and the invaded as the Germans resort to ever-harsher methods to secure the coal and the townspeople stiffen their resistance in defense of freedom. For all that Steinbeck recognizes the common humanity of all the characters in his story, the book is a ringing affirmation of freedom and of the human spirit. The work is far more than a simple propaganda effort.

The book makes emphatic use of products of human creativity and thought in emphasizing the value of human freedom. The climactic scene of the book includes a lengthy discussion of Plato's Apology in which Mayor Orden, Dr. Winter, and Colonel Lanser all participate. Earlier in the book, at another key moment, love poetry by the German author Heinrich Heine plays a crucial role in moving the story forward.

I found "The Moon is Down" much more effective than some of Steinbeck's other short novels which are frequently forced upon young readers. While the book is short and easy to read, it is a work of some complexity and of varied characters. Steinbeck in this work met the aims of the Foreign Information Service; but, more importantly, he produced a work of literature that transcended the goals of the war effort.