The Moon is Down: What responsibilities does the author believe exist between various groups in society, such as workers and bosses, men and women, blacks and whites, etc.?

This book doesn’t mention a lot of relationships because it doesn’t really focus on them. There are two groups of people in this story: the invaders, and the invaded. Naturally, they both hate each other’s guts, and I don’t believe Steinbeck’s reason for this was to make a point and say “ If someone conquers you, you should hate them.” That wasn’t what he wanted at all. But I do believe Steinbeck believed that as a conquered country, your responsibility is to fight back and stand up for your freedom.  You shouldn’t just sit back and watch everything wash away, you should fight back, and that is exactly what the townspeople did. There was another relationship I noticed in this story. Mayor Orden is (guess what?) the Mayor of the town, and I really liked what he believed his responsibilities were. He truly understood his job as a leader, and he knew that the people had elected him and could easily un elect him if they wanted. He knew the people trusted him, but he took into account what the people wanted before making any decisions. Orden has a discussion about this with Colonel Lanser. Here is the dialogue they have. Lanser starts.  “Will you try to co-operate?”  “I don’t know. When the town makes up its mind what it wants to do, I’ll probably do that.”  “But you are the authority.”  “You won’t believe this, but it is true: authority is in the town. I don’t know how or why, but it is so. This means we cannot act as quickly as you can, but when a direction is set, we all act together. I am confused. I don’t know yet.” (Steinbeck, 19)  Orden understands his responsibility as Mayor. He listens to the people, and then makes his decision. This is how democracy should run, and Orden understands this. He also accepts the fact that even if he dies, the people will still go on and fight. He says at the end of the story when Lanser arrests him in attempt to make the people behave, “ But that won’t stop it. You don’t understand. When I have become a hindrance to the people, they will do without me.” (Steinbeck, 109) As the leader, he tells Lanser why the people will keep fighting. “If I tell them not to fight, they will be sorry, but they will fight. If I tell them to fight, they will be glad, and I who am not a very brave man will have made them a little braver. You see, it is an easy thing to do, since the end for me is the same.” (Steinbeck, 111) I think Steinbeck believes this is the relationship people should have with their leader.

Steinbeck, John. Moon Is Down. N.p.: Penguin Group, 1942. Print.