The strange thing about The Moon is Down is that it does not have a very descriptive setting. We, the readers, do not know when or where this book is taking place. It is one of those stories that is literally about a town in a country that is being conquered by people in a war from another country who are lead by one "Leader". Everything about it is very vague.
The readers can only assume that this novel takes place during the time that it was written. When it was first written, John Steinbeck was writing this novel as propaganda for World War II. Seeing as though this novel is about a war, I believe it takes place during World War II and their "Leader" is Hitler. This novel reflects the time period because many towns were being taken over during the war. I am sure that many of said towns were as afraid as the townsfolk in the book were. From reading this, the readers gain a better understanding of what happened during World War II in Western Europe.
The novel is very symbolic because it was written to give the people from captured towns in Europe a little bit of hope. In the book, we witness how a small, peaceful town is able to finally rebel. By writing this novel, Steinbeck hoped that he would get the message across to captured towns in Europe that they did not have to be afraid to fight back. Even now, while the war is over, people can still look to this novel and be inspired by the theme of it.
Steinbeck really captured the essence of war through this novel, so the readers were able to learn a lot about that time period. "Lanser had been in Belgium and France twenty years before and he tried not to think what he knew—that 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). From this section, we get a summary about how war is to the average soldier. We got info from both sides of the war.
Overall, the novel really explained how life was like during World War II. It gave a lot of subtle hints about the time period, that when noticed, can give a lot of infortmation.
Steinbeck, John. The Moon Is Down. New York: Penguin Classics, 1942. Print.
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