Summary Of John Steinbeck's The Moon Is Down

For as long as organised conflict has been around factions have had to decide how to deal with newly conquered people. Humankind likes to believe that we as humans are civilized with our captives we do not mistreat or murder newly conquered peoples, That is surely not the case till to this day mistreatment of conquered people is still an issue though it might not be as clear cut as before. Though, it might not be the captives that our mistreated, but the captors. This idea is highlighted in John Steinbeck’s book The Moon is Down. A nation like Germany can plan every aspect of an invasion down to the man to ensure their victory and the complete defeat and subordination of the opposing country, but some aspects cannot be anticipated. Unseen

It is a hard look into the different stages of occupation, and though it's not meant to be real or historically accurate due to Steinbeck's omission of the faction names, the reader can assume. The way Steinbeck sums up war is,“war is treachery and hatred, the muddling of incompetent generals, the torture and killing and sickness and tiredness, until at last it is over and nothing has changed except for new weariness and new hatreds”(Steinbeck 23) Steinbeck's characterization of the initial invasion of the area is very similar to the way Germany conducted itself whilst invading the countries in Europe and North Africa, but not the Soviets. In the book the occupying force entered at the most opportune time when the defending military was gone and was quick and concise. This directly mirrors how Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941. Germany selected the best time to invade during the period of denial for Stalin. He was quick and concise through the use of mechanized infantry and quick pincer moves. Germany knew through the use of quick pincer moves they could trap large swath of Soviet military forces. This continues when we think about Germany's objectives which was to reach major Soviet cities by winter. Though, it was all smart concise moves. Hindsight is 20/20, but they still must have seen the problem of dividing their forces to capture an unimportant city like Stalingrad. They used the advantage of catching the Soviets off guard to push in to the vast interior as much as possible. On both sides there is a solid line between those seen as evil lives and those who are not. The soviets saw World War II as their great patriotic war and many men volunteered or were pressed into service in the defense of the fatherland. The Soviets did not assume that all men would be blindly patriotic and fight to the last breath for the fatherland. Russia formed disciplinary