The Moon is Down: What are the causes, gains, and losses of the conflict dealt with in this book?

The conflict of this story is really complex because the focus isn’t just on ONE side, but both. We get to see into the minds of the conquered and the conquerors, and each side has its own conflict. The conquered people want to over throw the conquerors, and the conquerors want to keep the conquered people controlled and get them to mine coal for them. This is war. Fascism against democracy. So basically the conflict is this: A country invades another and the invaders face resentment, while the invaded  gets freedoms taken away.Both sides equally want to struggle to win. The cause of this conflict is that the conquerors invade because they need the towns “coal mine and the fishing” as Colonel Lanser says. (Steinbeck pg.14) They place a spy, Mr. Corell, into the town and break in while the whole town is completely distracted. Apparently, the whole country is invaded also. They were directed by their leader to conquer the country, and they did what they were told. That is the cause of this conflict. Both sides of this conflict suffer and lose a lot and gain very little.  The conquerors at first gain power and land and have control of the little country. They gain the coal that they came for, but they suffer more than they gain. The conquerors, or I like to identify them as Colonel Lanser’s people, lose the optimism and feeling of control they arrive with, they lose many soldiers and friends that are killed by townspeople, they lose their reputation, they lose health and happiness and become lonely and homesick, and they lose their sense of safety, and suffer from psychological stress. Captain Bentick is severely beat to death with a pick (Steinbeck pg. 37) and poor Lieutenant Tonder is murdered in cold blood. ( Steinbeck pg. 86). Some soldiers go crazy and the soldiers live in constant fear and misery. “Now it was that the conqueror was surrounded, the men of the battalion alone among silent enemies, and no man might relax his guard for even a moment. If he did, he disappeared, and some snowdrift received his body.” (Steinbeck pg. 58) The people do the work in silence, but slowly kill them off. Mayor Orden’s people gain very little too.  They find a deep resentment inside them, and while this conflict continues, they gain a hate for the invaders along with a driving need to earn they're freedom back. They lose their freedom, their privacy, their safety, their family members, and at the end, their Mayor. But, despite the losses, the people still find in themselves the strength to keep fighting.

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