The Moon is Down: Conflict Causes, Gains, and Losses

There are a few different conflicts involved in The Moon is Down depending on the reader’s point of view.  The issue that the citizens were facing was the occupation of invading forces.  No one wants their country to be invaded.  It means less freedom, freedom that the people are unwilling to let slip away.  One man, Alex Morden, killed one of the opposing soldiers after having been told to get back to work (Steinbeck 31).  The invaders, the book does not mention the setting or who the invaders are, come to the country because they have been given orders to get coal, which would have to come from an outside source.  This is the source of the peoples’ problems.  When the army shoots Alex Morden for the murder mentioned earlier, it creates tension within the people and behind the silence they are burning with rage.  Finally, one day the English fly over and drop dynamite for the people to use against their conquerors (Steinbeck 66).  This seems to take a hit on the army mostly because if a soldier is off his guard then he gets killed.  They cannot trust anyone, and so the tactic of the rebels appears to be to make the army fearful and to deprive them of sleep; no one is at full alert if he or she is over exhausted. 

            If you were to look at the invaders’ point of view, their conflict involved the way that the citizens were treating them.  There was a little strife in the beginning of their occupation; however it began to rise after the death of Alex Morden.  Then when the people became armed with dynamite, the soldiers would not know if the worker to their side was armed or not.  The army was hoping to stop all offensives by threatening to kill the mayor if there were any more attacks, but it did not work (Steinbeck 81).  The people were ready and willing to fight for themselves, their family, and their neighbors no matter what the price.  By the end of the story, the invaders are still in conflict with the people over control of the town.

 

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