The Moon Is Down – John Steinbeck

This short novel, with very much the feel of a play, was written by John Steinbeck in 1942 as a propaganda piece to support the Allies’ war effort.
 
I wanted to find out if it would serve just as well as an allegory for today’s terrible war in Europe and the Russian occupation of Ukrainian territories. The answer is NO.

Steinbeck’s book served a purpose in its day, but that day is long past and it has little merit without that context. And literature with an agenda is almost always weak.
 
In Nazi-occupied countries during the Second World War, repression of the local populace was brutal when opposed, often simply administrative when not. Then there existed a modus vivendi, a hate-hate relationship, maybe, yet a relationship all the same, since life, however abnormal, had to continue in an arrangement of sorts.
 
When the book came out, it had more supporters than critics, but these were adamant in decrying its “soft and dreamy” tone. Steinbeck’s very patriotism was called into question. Citizens under occupation, though, read it avidly and approved.
 
It’s worthwhile examining why. Because Steinbeck’s work in the war brought him into contact with refugees from Norway, Denmark, France, Belgium and the Netherlands, and hundreds of thousands of clandestine translated copies of The Moon Is Down would end up circulating these occupied countries and being sought after.
 
The action takes place in a coastal mining town of an unnamed country, but which, for me, has a Nordic feel to it. The occupiers – not explicitly, but obviously German – take control of the municipality, while retaining the mayor in nominal authority for the pragmatic reason of helping to keep order and the coal mined. 
 
By not portraying them as inhuman caricatures, unmitigatedly evil and invincible, Steinbeck sought to portray the Germans not as sympathetic, but “fallible, even defeatable.” The people of occupied Europe understood this and the book found favour with them. The tyrannical Axis understood it, also. In Italy, to be found in possession of The Moon Is Down meant a summary death sentence.
 
And yes, maybe there were serving soldiers of the Bundeswehr in these countries who behaved with a measure of decency. Especially in Nordic lands, where the population was white, ordered, Germanic. It is nothing personal, is the implication. The military occupation is expedient and necessary. We are equals, but you must understand that we have orders to follow.
 
Had the action been set in, say, 1940s Jewish Prague, there is no way the scenario could have worked. And there is no way the book could or should win a sympathetic reception in Europe’s war today.
 
In Prague, or other eastern zones, the Nazis abhorred the Jews and the Slavs. Their mindset was of hate, contempt and killing.
 
In Ukraine, the genetic history with Russia may be mixed, but only one of these peoples has a soul. The Russians have no respect or mercy and the Ukrainian people meet this with a just and blazing fierceness. 
 
Their hatred for the Russian murderers of innocents is absolute and their unity in resistance is rock solid. There can be no respectful accommodation with the enemy, only deferred fury.
 
It is best not to pursue comparison where there is none.