Reading into chapter five of this novel, we can see that the soldiers are not as into it as they used to be. Months have passed and they are getting tired; they just want to go home. Even the people of the town are wearing down. They are slow and lazy at mining the coal for the soliders. Also, some pretty bad stuff is apparently happening. Avalanches are tearing up railroads, the English are bombing the coal mines, and people are dying. There is also a ration on food so that the army can keep the people in line. Aren't they nice? In they end, they are just average people who want to go home after working for months on end. "Their talk was of friends and relatives who loved them and their longings were for wrmth and love, because a man can be a soldier for only so many hours a day and for only so many months in a year." (Steinbeck 58). This sentence really made me think about war. Not every soldier is a bad one who is only out to kill you unless you're on their side. They usually have families and friends as well. Soon, the soldiers got paranoid, "Thus it came about that the conquerors grew afraid of the conquered and their nerves wore thin and they shot at shadows in the night." (Steinbeck 59). Basically, everything is beginning to fall apart, invaders and townsfolk alike. If I was in the soldiers situation, I would want to leave as well. Who would want to be away from their family for so long? In the end, the soldiers, especially Lieutenant Tonder, just wanted to go home.
I am not sure what is going to happen next, but with everything falling apart the way it is, I can see things getting interesting soon. There appearts to be hatred and revenge developing in the townsfolk as they get sick and tired of the soldiers being there. The soldiers are getting lazy, irritated, and paranoid of their surroundings. The end result can only be chaos.
Steinbeck, John. The Moon Is Down. New York: Penguin Classics, 1942. Print.
No comments:
Post a Comment