The Moon Is Down - 2

2) What are the causes, gains, and losses of the conflict dealt with in this book?

The central conflict in The Moon Is Down is very simple but complicated at the same time.  I could simply state that the conflict here is that there is a small town being invaded, by what I presume to be Germans, during World War Two.  But of course it is never that simple, even if I wish it was.  Especially because this blog has to be three-hundred-fifty words, but that is beside the point.
The intention of the invaders was to search for coal in the town, and apparently they did not want to get in the way of anyone.  They just wanted some coal!  They did not mean any harm.  They even say in the book that they only chose that town because it was quiet and small (Steinbeck 15).  Even if they did unintentionally harm the town, it did not hurt them much in the long run because they grew together through the whole process.  This goes back to the whole "unity" thing in my last post.  Getting through hard times with the help with someone else strengthens your relationship.  Thus, the whole town coming together to get through the problem made them grow stronger as a unit!
The conflict brought the whole town together, which is a major gain.  But I feel as though the losses outweigh the gains because innocent lives were lost through this story, and that is not worth the unity of a small town.  Overall, gains and losses are unimportant when thinking of how  the people all grew as human beings.  Yes, lives were lost, which is awful and unnecessary, but at least they were all able to learn valuable lessons from it.  Even if this story is fictional, we can all still learn about making the best of a conflict through this book.  Although our situations are not quite this drastic, I am sure that we can all relate in some way or another.  The people could simply not escape the situation, so they made the best of it, which is something I am sure we all have at least attempted to do in the past at some point.  

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