"The Old Man and the Sea" Question 2

The main conflict of this book is Santiago, the old man, has hooked himself a really really really gigantic fish.  This would be great but he has a tiny skiff not ideal for fish of this size, he's all by himself, and he's a very old man which is probably why he is always referred to as "the old man."  He's actually described as being in very good shape for how old he is and how long he's been a fisherman, but even then everyone has their limits and apparently three long days at sea, a 1500 pound marlin, and five plus sharks attacking his skiff are his.  So to summarize the conflict:  The old man has hooked a giant marlin and must reel it up and kill it all by himself and get it home, which is three days away, all by his lonesome.  The causes of this conflict are quite a few things.  For one, the old man has sailed out much farther than he usually does because he has been very unlucky and is determined to change that.  Had he not sailed out so far he probably wouldn't have hooked the marlin.  Another cause is his old age.  In his prime, this fish would have still been a struggle but he wouldn't have made as many silly mistakes as he did.  His age is also a good thing though because he has a vast amount of experience and knowledge because he's been fishing for so long.  The losses of the conflict are the loss of the fish's meat.  Sharks attack his boat and eventually he has to just let them eat away at the fish because he looses all his weapons.  He still gets to say he caught and hauled home an eighteen foot marlin, but he won't get any money for it because all the meet is gone.  One of the gains of the conflict is the old man does indeed catch the fish.  He may have only made it home with a cracass but by golly it was an eighteen-foot carcass!  By finally ending his luck and catching the fish I think it gives him a confidence boost and ends his unlucky streak so to speak.  He does tell the boy that they beat him in the end, referring to the sharks, but he still beat the fish.  




Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner, 1952. Print.

"The Old Man and the Sea" Question 1

In my opinion, I think that "The Old Man and the Sea" shows that Earnest Hemminway has a pretty go getter attitude.  The old man in "The Old Man and the Sea" has a similar attitude.  In the beginning of the novel he has gone eighty-four days without catching a single fish, and as a fisherman that's not really a good thing.  When he has help offered to him, however, he politely says no and goes on with his day in a half-glass-full manner.  He doesn't look at his "bad luck" as bad luck but simply the way things are and that only makes him determined to change it.  The novel is basically about the old man hooking a 1500 pound marlin and his battle trying to reel him in.  The climax of the book is when the old man, Santiago, finally sees the fish is tiring and despite how greatly fatigued he is himself, he begins to reel him in and eventually kills him.  It's a pretty long and very uneven fight, the old man being on the underdog side, yet the old man some how pulls it out.  This conveys to me that Hemingway was a glass-half-full kind of dude.  Though the old man does get the fish his happiness doesn't last long for the sharks come.  DUH DUH DUH DUUUUUH.  His marlin leaves a pretty decent blood trail that any shark would pick up on.  He kills about five sharks before he looses all his weapons and continues to badly injure a few, but eventually he must realize when there is nothing he can do and sits back and listen to his prized fish being eaten.  When he finally makes it back to shore, all that is left is a the head, tail, and carcuss.  Yet the old man still promises his good friend, "the boy", he will continue to fish and they will become partners again.  Through out the novel, the old man talks of baseball and his love for DiMaggio, the star on the Yankees at the time.  This leads me to believe Earnest Hemingway was a pretty big fan himself and valued the game.  The old man is at sea with the marlin three days and basically he thinks of the boy, how much his hands and back hurt but that it's not to bad, and baseball.  The narrators point of view is third person.  We see snippets of the old mans thoughts but it's mainly just describing the situation to us.  

Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner, 1952. Print.

Compare and contrast of Mayor Orden and Colonel Lanser

Colonel Lanser and Mayor Orden are the two big forces of power in "The Moon is Down."  They are the two people who have the utmost say in any important situation.  Mayor Orden and Colonel Lanser are both very similar yet have some differences through out this novel.  Mayor Orden is the Mayor, weirdddd I know, of the little town that is invaded by the Nazi's in "The Moon is Down."  He is a sweet old man who is described as the guy who's been in office so long that even the elders of the town have his little head pop into their own head when they think of a mayor.  He appears as a kind of a shy guy who can't say no and maybe even a little frazzled, but he proves to be able to hold his ground.  Colonel Lanser is the leader of the Nazi's who invade this little town.  He tells Mayor Orden at the beginning he wasn't originally a Colonel but an engineer and that he just wants this process to be as easy as possible.  He isn't necessarily your typical stone cold Colonel you think of.  He enforces the law and his men respect him but he also understand these men are in crazy conditions, unexpected conditions, and need respect as well.  He served in World War I and he describes how he saw a lot of gruesome things in that war and how it's affected him personally and how he acts as a Colonel in this war.  These men are very similar in that they both want what's best and fight for what they think is right.  Neither of them are cold blooded killers and take action for no good reason but to entertain themselves.  Lanser does authorize to have a lot of people killed, which I don't think any of those deaths were necessary or right, but he was following protocol and was doing it because that is how he knew how to keep order.  Mayor Orden always made decisions that he thought would be best for everyone in his town, never to benefit himself.  The biggest difference I saw between Mayor Orden and Colonel Lanser was the fact that Colonel Lanser was able to kill people, Mayor Orden was not.  I still think that the Colonel was following protocol and didn’t want to kill anyone, but nevertheless had you put Mayor Orden into the Colonel’s position I doubt he would have been able to pull the trigger.  Wait a second!  That was punny!!  I meant “to pull the trigger” as in to authorize the killing of people but it ended up being a pun!  Oh happy day!  Alright back to the point!  To sum it up, I thought that both authority figures were very similar and could have switched places and age would have been the only give away.  This will make this blog 500 words.


Simon, Marion, and C. Bosker. John Steinbeck: The Moon Is down. Paterswolde: Dalcomtext, 1997. Print.

"The Moon is Down" Question 8

How accurately does this novel reflect evens in history?  I’d say pretty accurately.  “The Moon is Down” is a work of historical fiction.  The characters are fictional but the actual events are actual events in history.  There were little towns in Europe and there was an actual Adolf Hitler and there were Nazi’s and these Nazi’s did invade these little towns in Europe because Adolf Hitler told them to.  In “The Moon is Down” there was a very prominent relationship between the soldiers and towns people, more so than any other relationship.  Steinbeck wrote it so that the soldiers had the upperhand for most of the novel and the townspeople were the under dogs.  He wrote it so that it appeared the soldiers had the responsibility of keeping the towns people in check and doing what they’re supposed to being doing at all times and the townspeople were responsible for doing what they were told to be doing so that them and their family wouldn’t face the consequences.  There was also the relationship between the Mayor and the Colonel.  They were both men of power and both men with big responsibilities that, if not completed, had big repercussions coming their way.  Ultimately Colonel Lanser had the power over Mayor Orden, but the Mayor still stood his ground.  When the Colonel told him to tell his people to cooperate he refused.  Also, through out the novel the Mayor personally helped people to flee the country to escape the soldier’s wrath.  Steinbeck made this relationship a little un-stereotypical.  He made it appear the Colonel was in power and controlled the Mayor, but at the same time behind the seen you could see the Mayor was still holding his own.  It says in the nicely sized introduction at the beginning of “The Moon is Down” that John Steinbeck was actually a CIA agent for America during World War II and this book was modeled after people and events he met and saw working for the CIA in World War II.  I can say with confidence that he modeled this novel after people and events he saw during World War II. 

Simon, Marion, and C. Bosker. John Steinbeck: The Moon Is down. Paterswolde: Dalcomtext, 1997. Print.

"The Moon is Down" Question 7

John Steinbeck is a clever little man.  I actually don't know how little or big he is, I'm just saying that for effect.  Steinbeck is a very descriptive writer.  As my brother Adam put it, "All John Steinbeck's book are just a junk load of adjective with a few nouns and verbs to make it into a book."  I think this is true.  I may not have worded that quite the same but the idea is similar never the less.  John Steinbeck uses heavily descriptive writing to suck the reader into whatever it is he is writing about and get them stuck like a mouse on a sticky pad.  Ok maybe not that inhumane but you get the picture. He turns a somewhat drab and gray story into a colorful interesting work of art, if you will.  I don't know about anyone else whose ever read it but that was what mainly kept me interested through out "The Moon is Down".  Another technique that John Steinbeck uses in writing "The Moon is Down" is mystery.  Ok.  I bet you're thinking, "Mystery? Say whaaaat?"  Think about it though.  In the beginning, Colonel Lanser asks Mayor Orden to asks his people to give their full cooperation and the entire process will be much easier.  Mayor Orden refuses to do such a thing.  He says his people will not cooperate if their very freedom is being taken away.  Right there!  That's were the mystery begins!  Weren't you wondering, "Oooooooh!  What will the people do?  Will they fight for their freedom?  Will they just go along with it and do nothing?  Will they plan a huge uprising like in the "Hunger Games?"  I wanna knowwww!"  That's what went through my head.  I was kind of disappointed when there wasn't some huge uprising but they did at least get the dynamite.  The dynamite came when two boys fled the country for England and Mayor Orden asked them to beg whoever in command to send them something, anything, to use against the soldiers.  So back to the point.  Not knowing what the people were going to do kept me very interested and kept me reading the book. 






Simon, Marion, and C. Bosker. John Steinbeck: The Moon Is down. Paterswolde: Dalcomtext, 1997. Print.

"The Moon is Down" Question 6

What can we learn from reading "The Moon is Down"?  For starters, I don't think this book was written to teach a lesson so much as it was to spread word of World War II to people who didn't have accurate news streaming to them during the war.  So now we can consider this a work of historical fiction and learn  from it in a historical perspective.  I think we still read it because it can still offer up information and knowledge to little 11th( OMG I'm and upperclassmennnn!) graders like myself haven't learned about World War II.  I hadn't considered all the little towns that HItler didn't completely wipe out and what happened to them.  No one really mentioned the little towns who got to stay where they were but still felt the effects of Hitler.  This little town had to give up their freedom and the fruit of their labor or face the consequences such as their family starving or worse, death.  Being an uninformed teenager, I can only think that we would read this book to gain in a historical aspect.  John Steinbeck is of course a decent author considering the majority of his books are all on mandatory reading lists in every high school in America and beyond.  He does indeed send a good message of hope and perseverance but it's not all that prominent.  I don't feel like he wrote this to teach us to always have hope and persevere in any situation.  That was just a little bonus.  The characters in this novel are however pretty typical.  The mayor specifically.  He's this old guy that's been in office forever and has a heart the size of the Grand Canyon.  This is pretty typical and timeless of Steinbeck to write.  An old guy who just wants the best for everyone.  This will always be a relatable character that people can read about and put into todays time and he would still make sense.  The soldiers are all tired and going a little crazy from being away from their family and having to live off of packaged military food.  This is very timeless.  I can say this with confidence, even though I've personally never been drafted into war, that this would happen to any soldier in any war.  

Simon, Marion, and C. Bosker. John Steinbeck: The Moon Is down. Paterswolde: Dalcomtext, 1997. Print.

"The Moon is Down" Question 5

The setting of "The Moon is Down" is a small village in Europe in the 1940's.  If you were in Europe in the 1940's there's no doubt you were aware of and probably being effected by World War II.  This little town is directly being effected by World War II through the course of this book.  This book is completely about World War II so the history of the time period is reflected pretty strongly in this book because that's what it's about.  The people of the town that this book take place in act pretty typical with all that's going on.  A brigade of soldiers randomly show up, well it's actually not that random but very well thought out and planned but to them it's random, and invade their town and conquer them and they act how most people would:  scared and confused.  This reflects most people during World War II.  For the people in Germany who weren't for Adolf Hitler, they were scared of what was to become of their home and their friends and family and confused and didn't really know how to react.  For the people surrounding Germany they were scared because they had heard about the going on's in Germany and the crazy dictator rumored to be coming for them next.  The people in America who had boat loads of people being dropped off at their doorstep and had no were to go they were probably scared for their possible relatives in foreign countries at risk of being killed.  Then you probably had some random eskimos in Antarctica who had no clue of the going ons.  I don't actually know that but hey.  It's whatever.  During the 1940's women were still pretty dependent on men.  This social issue is reflected when Alex Morden reacts to being told he cannot leave the mine and swings his mining axe at a soldier and kills him.  He is convicted and shot by the soldiers.  This leaves his wife to fend for herself.  She was used to the married life and having a man around to provide for her and to open jars when she couldn't and scoop the snow off of her roof when it got to heavy.  It doesn't appear that she is on the brink of starvation or anything that serious but I think if you had given it some time it may have gotten there.  I believe the symbolic meaning of this book was to spread the word of the war far and wide.  It was translated illegally into French, Norwegian, Danish, Dutch, Swedish, German, Italian, and Russian.  The possession of the book in Axis-power countries was punishable by immediate death.  The thematic significance was very simple.  Hope.  It gave people hope.  I'm sure to read this during World War II and to find out that this was an actual thing and it was actually happening was very unsettling but it also showed someone was trying to do something about it.  This makes this 500 words.




Simon, Marion, and C. Bosker. John Steinbeck: The Moon Is down. Paterswolde: Dalcomtext, 1997. Print.

"The Moon is Down" Question 4

In "The Moon is Down" there isn't a set hero of the novel. If I had to choose someone, although, it would have to be Mayor Orden.  He is the Mayor of the town shocker right?  In the beginning it shows him meeting the crazies who invaded his town.  They tell him all these things they need him to do in order to "make the process easier on the town".  Orden puts his big boy pants on tells them no.  He refuses to tell his people to comply to their orders because he knows it's wrong.  Through out "The Moon is Down" the Mayor is always portrayed as the good guy who is always trying to help his town best he can with out adding more friction to the current predicament.  The Mayor is unconditionally kind to those who deserve it and he is very clever.  He realizes he has little power or say in the current situation, but he utilizes all that he does have to the border line.   Mayor Orden is portrayed, honestly,  as the old guy that everyone knows.  They describe him as being the person even the elders in the town now come to think of when someone says the word "mayor".  He is a sweet man who wants the best for everyone in his town and does his best to make sure that happens.  He accomplishes getting a few people out of the town safely to escape their certain death.  He also sets up for weapons and man power to be sent to their town so they can try to do something about the crazy soldiers ruling their town.  In the end he is taken as prisoner to use as blackmail against the towns people basically.  The soldiers are hoping if they threaten his life along with Doctor Winter, another esteemed member of the town, it might whip people into shape and they'll do what they're told a little easier.  Those two being taken as prisoner is the end of the book so we never really find out if it worked or not.  In my previous blog I blogged about the theme of the book.  In my opinion it is hope.  I also believe that, to the town, Mayor Orden symbolized hope.  He was the upstanding authority figure to everyone and if he was doing ok and said that everything was going to be ok they believed him and had hope.  If the Mayor had died or gone crazy, basically if he had lost his wits and stopped hoping, the town would have gone down hill fast.  The soldiers, in my opinion, were headed in the right direction by taking him prisoner.  They were headed in the correct direction for their purposes of course.  

Simon, Marion, and C. Bosker. John Steinbeck: The Moon Is down. Paterswolde: Dalcomtext, 1997. Print. 

"The Moon is Down" Question 3

What universal theme does this book address?  This book takes place during World War II.  In my opinion the over all theme of that war was hope., simple but powerful.  So many people suffered and lost so much during that time period and really all they had to turn to was hope at times.  They were thrown into positions they never ever fathomed they could be put into, yet some how they were there.  A lot of people probably did whine and complain and ask why (which they had a right to, no one deserves to suffer as much as the people did in WWII), but there were still a lot of people who looked at their current position and choose to hope for the best.  When the town in "The Moon is Down" is unexpectedly invaded and conquered, all the towns people are so shocked and confused they don't have much to do but hope their mayor knows what to do.  In this particular novel, in my opinion John Steinbeck shows that he knows a few things about human nature.  One:  We are very opposed to change.  We can generally get used to it after a while, but initially we generally don't react with any type of  joy.  This is illustrated through the town. in "The Moon is Down".  In the beginning it is stated a few times that the town is a peaceful one and hasn't had war in many years.  Suddenly their town is invaded and no longer their own and they are so set in their ways they have no idea what to do.  Another thing John Steinbeck illustrates about human nature in "The Moon is Down" is how naive homosapiens can be.  One of their fellow people is orchestrating their demise right under their noses and they don't even know it.  Mr. Correll, a simple business man, becomes basically a secret agent and prepares the town to be conquered and no one ever suspects a thing.




Simon, Marion, and C. Bosker. John Steinbeck: The Moon Is down. Paterswolde: Dalcomtext, 1997. Print.   

"The Moon is Down" Question 2

The conflict dealt with within "The Moon is Down" is pretty straight forward; Nazi's have invaded and conquered a town and the towns people of that particular town (which is somewhere in Europe, but never specifically stated) aren't to happy about it.  This is obviously a gain for the invaders as opposed to the invadees.  The Nazi's are there for the towns coal and fishing and they use these resources to their pleasing.  Eventually everything isn't rainbows and sunshine for the soldiers, though.  The towns people can't do much about the soldiers, but what they can do they use as much as their advantage as possible.  This definitely makes the soldiers life much more difficult.  Because the soldiers have invader their town, the towns people don't really gain anything.  They of course have various losses though.  One loss being the loss of their mine.  The miners are still made to work, though, but not as free workers.  They're basically made into slaves of the Nazi's.  They loose their mine and their freedom all within a few hours.  People are also killed regularly throughout the novel and by the end of the book killing doesn't even come with question.  Someone acts up, the soldiers shoot. The soldiers also suffer loss through out the novel, though.  They really didn't sign up for what they're thrown into.  They were simply suppose to get in, get the town under control, utilize their resources and send them onto the rest of their army where ever they were, and get out.  Instead they're still stuck there a year later and they really have no clue about what's going on anywhere else in the war.  They've gone with out seeing their families for how long and they haven't had real, hot food in over a year.  This drives a lot of them crazy and they begin to talk to themselves and make some pretty rash decisions.  Don't get me wrong though, I'm still totally on the town side. They're put in the position of being used and told what to do for absolutely no reason, well besides Adolf Hitler was a messed up dude.          






Simon, Marion, and C. Bosker. John Steinbeck: The Moon Is down. Paterswolde: Dalcomtext, 1997. Print.                                   

OH HAI. It's my first blog! That happens to be about "The Moon is Down" Question 1. Get excited.

In "The Moon is Down" John Steinbeck reveals he wasn't to excited about Adolf Hitler and his gang.  The protagonist in "The Moon is down is Mayor Orden.  He has been the mayor for as long as the elders can remember and from the beginning fights for the towns well-being.  The antagonist at the core is Adolf Hitler.  He's the evil one sending soldiers into unsuspecting towns to conquer them and steal their coal.  The over all writing of the book puts the town in the good-guy position and the Nazi's in the bad-guy position.  When you're reading, the majority of the time you find you're rooting for the town as opposed to soldiers who have invaded the town.  When Alex, a coal mine worker, accidentally kills a soldier with his mining axe you're rooting for Alex, subconsciously, the entire time, hoping he isn't sentenced to death so his poor wife Molly isn't left all alone. Think about it, you definitely were. All of these things make me think that John Steinbeck values are similar to the Allies as apposed to the Axis Powers in World War II.  Just from looking at the writing style of "The Moon is Down" I would peg John Steinbeck as glass-half-full kinda bloke. In the story, even though their town is conquered and everything they've ever known is changing they still come off as pretty cheerful people.  The mayor as well.  He's been the mayor for a very long time, and at the beginning of the story it is stated multiple times the town has been peaceful for so long they, including himself, don't know what to do with themsleves.  Even though the mayor is thrown into a position he's never been in and he's not to sure what to do with himself, he still does his best to do what's best for everyone and tries to accomplish this in the most peaceful manor possible.  Well...that is until the end when he ask for any sort of weapon to be sent to him.  For the majority of the story he is peaceful.  As for perspective, the point of view changes quite a few times.  It changes from person to person, but they never use I or me so therefore I can conclude it's told from third-person.  I personally like it when books change perspective.  I think stories are much more thoroughly told that way and you can see a lot more of the story you wouldn't have if it was told simply in first person. 

Simon, Marion, and C. Bosker. John Steinbeck: The Moon Is down. Paterswolde: Dalcomtext, 1997. Print.