The Moon is Down: What can audiences learn?

This novel can teach readers many vaulable lessons.  There is of course, the main lesson, that one power should not rule the world.  This story is all about how the townspeople will rise above the conquerers.  The soldiers turn paranoid of the townspeople because they know that they are talking and that they are planning something against them.  This story was written to teach audiences that if one power tries to control the world they will fail.  They will fail even faster if they try to take away people's freedom and voices.  This is a great lesson to teach audiences.

Another lesson that is taught by Steinbeck in this novel is what goes around comes around.  This book teaches that you should treat other right and with respect.  If you do not treat them right, then something similar happening to them might happen to you.  For example, Alex Morden was killed by the invaders after accidentally killing one of the invaders soldiers.  This happened to Alex because he did it to someone, so the same must be done to him to be fair.  While the reader was rooting against killing Alex, it had to be done because it was the fair choice.  The next event in this cycle happened when Molly Morden murdered Tonder.  Tonder was a soldier that was part of the invaders who killed Alex.  Therefore, Tonder did killed Alex, and according to this lesson learned from the book, what goes around comes around, so he was killed.  This is an important lesson to learn from the novel because it teaches readers to always be cautious of what they say or do because it could come back to hurt you in the end of it all.

One more lesson that can be learned is that bravery is important in life.  Many people had to be brave during this war: soldiers, townspeople, the mayor, the list goes on.  However, people were brave when they knew that they had to face difficult times.  One of the first acts of bravery was when Annie threw boiling water on the soldiers.  This was brave because she did it for herself and she was not liking the way the soldiers were not listening to her.  This act somewhat foreshadowed what events were to come, and was very brave at the same time.  Another brave act was by Alex Morden faced death.  He did not plead for his life or run away.  He knew his fate, yet he accepted it.  That was a very brave thing to do because most people would cower from death.  Bravery was also seen when Mayor Orden faced the same fate as Alex.  He was to be killed as well and he bravely gave instructions and even chuckled before he had to go.   This shows bravery because he admitted contemplating to plead for his life or escape, but did not want to desert his town.  This was a very brave thing to do for the very same reasons as Alex.  Those are only a few lessons to be learned from this novel, but they were some of the most important lessons shown within the pages.

Steinbeck, John. The Moon Is Down. New York: Penguin Classics, 1942. Print.