Outside Reading Blog #3: The Moon is Down

“Policeman and the postman could not even get to their own offices in the Town Hall and when they insisted on their rights they were taken prisoners of war and locked up in the town jail.”

In the immediate beginning of the book, Steinbeck gives us a brief note about a small French town that has been occupied by Nazi soldiers. When the invaders managed to take over the small, peaceful town, the people had simply lost all their rights, begging for the mercy at the conquering Nazi soldiers. As this quote states, normal day citizens that wished to visit the Town Hall would be whisked away by the soldiers without question, forced to work in the coal mines that the town was known for or be killed. Using this passage, Steinback encourages the readers to feel sympathy for the conquered community, and somehow persuades the reader to take a side in the story, kind of like how he persuaded the reader sympathize for Lenny in Of Mice and Men.

'I am in charge here. My job is to get coal out. To do that I must maintain order and discipline, and to do that I must know what is in the minds of these people. I must anticipate revolt. Do you understand that?'

Colonel Lanser, the head of the invading army and a war veteran, said this to one of his underlings when they were together in his office. Lanser cannot understand what the towns people are planning to do, and he fears a revolt within the city. In this story, it seems that Steinbeck tries to send a message to the audience that the invading soldiers suffer much more psychologically than the conquered, due to fatigue, homesickness, and loneliness. When the towns people began to organize themselves more in the story, the morale of the soldiers become worse and worse, and it reminds the readers that both sides of the war are merely human beings, not the flesh eating monsters that the English propaganda made them out to be. Therefore, as the commander, Lanser hopes to maintain discipline within his soldiers. The task becomes increasingly difficult as the townspeople continue to resist, and as they do, the Nazis would execute them instead of dealing with all the trouble.

“The men of the battalion came to detest the place they had conquered…and gradually a little fear began to grow in the conquerors, a fear that it would never be over.”

In the beginning, Lt. Tonder, an officer in the Nazi army, believed it was easy to conquer the small French town. He continuously forced the townspeople to mine the coal that the town was known for, and therefore raised a hatred among the residents. This quote states the fact that the invading army grows increasingly grim and unhappy at the fact that they have to stay in the town. Whereas the townspeople are able to count on each other, they have no one available for comfort or companionship. As the nagging doubt that they would never leave the town became more intense, they would become to fear the conquered townspeople, sensing the animosity within them for having conquered their home. This morale effect with the soldiers is the beginning of the end, because they start to question the leadership of their commanders and continue to despair at the isolation and homesickness they feel. In connection to Of Mice and Men, Curley terrorizes Lenny for his peculiarities, but later starts to somewhat fear him for his strength and will of mind.

'He came to make love to me.'

Molly, a young, attractive woman in the town, said this to her friend Annie when she saw Lt. Tonder in Molly's house late at night. Molly's husband had been executed days earlier for killing a Nazi Captain, and because of this, Molly was deeply saddened. Since the soldiers were lonely from days spent away from their family, Lt. Tonder came to Molly to soothe his loneliness, trying to get her to like him. This definitely proves to the readers that EVERYONE is a human being, even the "cruel, baby-killing" Nazi soldiers. Tonder personally comes to Molly's home and expresses his feelings for her, saying that he is a "man, not a conquering man." Unfortunately for him, she did not want anything to do with a Nazi, and ended up killing him with knitting needles.

"I arrested you as a hostage for the good behavior of your people. Those are my orders."

According to Colonel Lanser, by arresting and executing Mayor Orden, the leader of the townspeople, it will diminish their fighting spirit. Although Lanser knew his plan was doomed to failure, knowing that the conquered never give up without a fight, he was obliged to go through with his plan due to orders from "the Leader" a.k.a. Hitler. He spoke this quote to the mayor himself after the latter was captured, and told him that it was a ransom in return for the good behavior of the people. Mayor Orden believes that nothing is worth being enslaved for, like the situation the townspeople are in, and he believes that his people will fight on, no matter what it takes, in order to regain their freedom.