"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.