The Moon Is Down John Steinbeck Analysis

637 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Propaganda during world war 2 essay

In 1941, John Steinbeck, an established author and involved politician, met with his COI and OSS colonel, “Wild Bill” Donovan. The men were deeply concerned with the Nazi's use of propaganda, and Donovan suggested he write a work on it. When Steinbeck first published his fable The Moon is Down , he faced harsh criticism because of his portrayal of the “villains.” In this famous story, Steinbeck shows a new side- a more humane side- of the supposed invaders. Because of his career in the COI, he had access to displaced citizens from then intruded countries, allowing him to hear their stories of underground resistance parties, some headed by the intruders themselves. They captive citizens saw their intruders in a perspective that differed greatly …show more content…

Captain Lanser shows his consideration for his younger soldiers by giving them thoughtful advice and warning of what will come in their careers in the military. Captain Bentick sacrifices his life for Captain Loft, the ultimate act of care and love. Lieutenant Prackle shows love for his sisters by being overprotective of them, and Major Hunter shows care for his model train set. Steinbeck is trying to shape the soldier's individual personalities while still showing that they all have something special to them, and are not just caught up in war and killing people. All of the soldiers long for the war to end so that they can all return home to their families. The townspeople prolong this by sabotaging the invaders and blowing up the railroads. The soldiers are afraid of the townspeople and are growing homesick. They all wait for their letters to be delivered to their families and worry if someone has died in their town or family. In writing The Moon is Down, Steinbeck wished to change the views of invaders in European countries as to see them as humans. Steinbeck depicts the soldiers as normal human beings by having them complain about weather and wondering if their mail will arrive on time. This was a detriment to Nazis at the time because they did not want their captives to see them as “weak.” He showed that they were humans too by showing the their loneliness, care for

Show More
Related

  • Steinbeck's Paradox and Dreams

    1178 Words  | 3 Pages

    ` Even though Steinbecks essay could be considered a dated opinion being written in the 19 hundreds. it goes to show his considerably harsh outlook hasn't sadly strayed from our reality all that much from its original publishment. He makes a statement “We are restless, a dissatisfied, a searching people.” Steinbeck may seem brutal and disappointed. but when reading you get a surprising tone of disapproval that doesn't sound hateful. It’s cruel but almost disapproving in a condescending way. He also makes a statement “We are self-reliant and at the same time completely dependent. We are aggressive, and defenseless.”

    Read More

  • Comparing Soldier's Home 'And' In Another Country

    1853 Words  | 4 Pages

    In “Soldier’s Home,” the main character Krebs exhibits grief, loneliness. When he returns home with the second group of soldiers he is denied a hero's return. From here he spends time recounting false tales of his war times. Moving on, in the second page of the story he expresses want but what he reasons for not courting a female. A little while after he is given permission to use the car. About this time Krebs has an emotional exchange with both his little sister and his mother. Revealing that “he feels alienated from both the town and his parents , thinking that he had felt more ‘at home’ in Germany or France than he does now in his parent’s house”(Werlock). Next, the story ends with his mother praying for him and he still not being touched. Afterwards planning to move to Kansas city to find a job. Now, “The importance of understanding what Krebs had gone through in the two years before the story begins cannot be overstated. It is difficult to imagine what it must have been for the young man”(Oliver). Near the start of the story the author writes of the five major battles he “had been at”(Hemingway) in World War I- Bellaue Wood, Soissons, Champagne, St.Mihiel, and Argonne. The importance of these are shown sentences later that the

    Read More

  • What Are Browning's Arguments On 'Ordinary Germans' By Robert Browning

    670 Words  | 2 Pages

    The atrocities of war can take an “ordinary man” and turn him into a ruthless killer under the right circumstances. This is exactly what Browning argues happened to the “ordinary Germans” of Reserve Police Battalion 101 during the mass murders and deportations during the Final Solution in Poland. Browning argues that a superiority complex was instilled in the German soldiers because of the mass publications of Nazi propaganda and the ideological education provided to German soldiers, both of which were rooted in hatred, racism, and anti-Semitism. Browning provides proof of Nazi propaganda and first-hand witness accounts of commanders disobeying orders and excusing reservists from duties to convince the reader that many of the men contributing to the mass

    Read More

  • Analysis Of John Steinbeck's 'The Grapes Of Wrath'

    1845 Words  | 4 Pages

    When times get tough, many people turn away from everyone and everything. It must be part of human nature to adopt an independent attitude when faced with troubles. It is understandable because most people do not want to trouble their loved ones when they are going through problems, so it is easier to turn away than stick together. Maybe their family is going through a rough patch and they reason they would be better off on their own. This path of independence and solitude may not always be the best option for them or their family, though. Often times it is more beneficial for everyone to work through the problem together. It is not always the easiest or most desirable option, but most times it is the most efficient and it will get results in the long run. In The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck makes this point very clear through several characters. Many characters throughout

    Read More

  • Comparing Maturity in Separate Peace and All Quiet on the Western Front

    2105 Words  | 5 Pages

    Simply existing in a happy-go-lucky setting, their dreams of wartime glory are hovering over the horizon, but the reality of the war they are about to fight in has not yet appeared.

    Read More

  • Stories of the Vietnam War Illustrated in O’Brien’s The Things They Carried

    830 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...en’s novel shows the soldiers’ innermost thoughts and concerns and internal conflicts which appear to outweigh the communist cause. The Things They Carried demonstrates the soldiers’ opposition to the war. However, the U. S. remained focused on preventing a communist takeover. The United States enormous political power affected history

    Read More

  • Hypocrisy In All Quiet On The Western War

    980 Words  | 2 Pages

    He arrives back at his town, unused to the total absence of shells. He wonders how the populations can live such civil lives when there are such horrors occurring at the front. Sitting in his room, he attempts to recapture his innocence of youth preceding the war. But he is now of a lost generation, he has been estranged from his previous life and war is now the only thing he can believe in. It has ruined him in an irreversible way and has displayed a side of life which causes a childhood to vanish alongside any ambitions subsequent to the war in a civil life. They entered the war as mere children, yet they rapidly become adults. The only ideas as an adult they know are those of war. They have not experienced adulthood before so they cannot imagine what it will be lie when they return. His incompatibility is shown immediately after he arrives at the station of his home town. ”On the platform I look round; I know no one among all the people hurrying to and fro. A red-cross sister offers me something to drink. I turn away, she smiles at me too foolishly, so obsessed with her own importance: "Just look, I am giving a soldier coffee!"—She calls me "Comrade," but I will have none of it.” He is now aware of what she is

    Read More

  • John Steinbeck Outline

    811 Words  | 2 Pages

    I. John Steinbeck used his personal experiences as a laborer to write many of his novels like Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath.

    Read More

  • Saki'’s The Interlopers, Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front, and Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men

    4211 Words  | 9 Pages

    The three powerful stories including Saki’s “The Interlopers”, Erich Maria Remarque’s, All Quiet on the Western Front, and John Steinbeck’s, Of Mice and Men, portray the impact that friendship and companionship, or the absence of it, can have. Hector Hugh Munro, better known as Saki, was born in Burma while it was under the control of the British Empire. Near the beginning of World War I, Munro was enlisted into the 2nd King Edward’s Horse as a trooper at the age of 43. He soon rose to higher ranks and fought for many years. Unfortunately on November 1916, Munro was shot by a German sniper and died near France. His struggle has not only been through the physical tribulations of war, but also through the social stigma of being a homosexual during the times of World War I. Tragically, at this time, it was an unacceptable way of life and was looked down upon by society. Similarly to the adversity of war, Remarque also fought in World War I, but on the German side. He enlisted at the age of 18 and later was injured by a shrapnel wound to the leg, arm and neck. His struggles did not stop there as he was faced the immense heartbreak of losing his sister. Her death was a punishment to Remarque because of the portrayal of the Germans in his literature. Though Steinbeck did not go through the same experiences of war and loss as the other two authors have, he has experienced a fair share of struggle. Steinbeck won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1962 but was highly criticized as many people believed that he did not deserve the award, regardless of his many accomplishments such as “The Grapes of Wrath”. All of revered and respected men have shared a common theme throughout their lives, one being the impact of the ...

    Read More

  • All Quiet on the Western Front

    1386 Words  | 3 Pages

    Imagine being in an ongoing battle where friends and others are dying.  All that is heard are bullets being shot, it smells like gas is near, and hearts race as the times goes by.  This is similar to what war is like.  In the novel All Quiet on the Western Front, the narrator, Paul Baumer, and his friends encounter the ideals of suffering, death, pain, and despair.  There is a huge change in these men; at the beginning of the novel they are enthusiastic about going into the war.  After they see what war is really like, they do not feel the same way about it.  During the war the men experience many feelings especially the loss of loved ones.  These feelings are shown through their first experience at training camp, during the actual battles, and in the hospital.

    Read More

  • Diction In A Separate Peace

    842 Words  | 2 Pages

    War always seems to have no end. A war between countries can cross the world, whether it is considered a world war or not. No one can be saved from the reaches of a violent war, not even those locked in a safe haven. War looms over all who recognize it. For some, knowing the war will be their future provides a reason for living, but for others the war represents the snatching of their lives without their consent. Every reaction to war in A Separate Peace is different, as in life. In the novel, about boys coming of age during World War II, John Knowles uses character development, negative diction, and setting to argue that war forever changes the way we see the world and forces us to mature rapidly.

    Read More

  • Analysis of John Steinbeck´s Paradox and Dream

    654 Words  | 2 Pages

    Americans strive to obtain the American dream, but they fail to realize that it is our own dissatisfaction and anger that get in our way of keeping the American dream alive. John Steinbeck’s, “Paradox and Dream”, describes these paradoxes that linger in almost all Americans lives. Steinbeck shows how Americans believe in these things, but they contradict them by the actions they take or the words we say. He describes how Americans are dissatisfied, angry and intemperate. John Steinbeck portrayed a negative attitude towards Americans and their ideals by displaying how most are dissatisfied and angry, intemperate and opinionated, and believe in these certain things about ourselves that are not always true.

    Read More

  • The Book Thief: Concentration Camps and Death Marches

    2658 Words  | 6 Pages

    World War II was a grave event in the twentieth century that affected millions. Two main concepts World War II is remembered for are the concentration camps and the marches. These marches and camps were deadly to many yet powerful to others. However, to most citizens near camps or marches, they were insignificant and often ignored. In The Book Thief, author Markus Zusak introduces marches and camps similar to Dachau to demonstrate how citizens of nearby communities were oblivious to the suffering in those camps during the Holocaust.

    Read More

  • " The Battle Within "

    767 Words  | 2 Pages

    As the soldiers take a good look at the people they love;the beautiful sun setting in the background ;and the life that they’re leaving behind. They begin walking down a path of no return. While on this path, the soldiers face constant battle against their morals and the burden that each of the men must carry on a daily basis ;this creates a huge dilemma that the men must face head on in order to survive. Fear, anger ,shame , courage: these are the emotions that resonate within the very being of the soldiers during the course of the story. Some are able to overcome these hurdles, while others allow the obstacles to eat away at them until it consumed them. To demonstrate this truth, Norman Bowker is unable to overcome his need to be useful to those around him which led to his untimely demise.This could have been avoided if he would of looked in different places to see what he excels in, rather than doing so he took his own life .The author uses the choices that each of the soldiers make to show that the fear of shame can be used as a motivational factor, that allows them to act courageously in critical situations.

    Read More

  • Character Analysis of The Moon is Down by John Steinbeck

    970 Words  | 2 Pages

    doesn’t want to be in the town any more than he is wanted there, but a

    Read More

More about The Moon Is Down John Steinbeck Analysis

Open Document