The Moon Is Down - 3

3) What universal themes does this book address?  What does the author understand about human nature?

I think that the main universal theme in The Moon Is Down is unity.  People are uniting left and right throughout the story.  The invaders are united, the townspeople are united, the people at war are united on both sides.  Unity is everywhere.  I do not think that anyone would have survived World War Two if not for unity.  It might seem like an obvious thing to point out, but unity is an unavoidable thing among humans.  It is natural for us to want to work together through situations.  It is quite simply what people do in times of need or crisis.  Unity was apparent throughout the book, but the people of the town made an especially large improvement from hardly speaking to coming together against a common enemy (Steinbeck 74).  
The people were making no mistake to come together in that way.  The plans of the invaders ended up backfiring because of their ability to work together.  Relationships are formed along the way.  Even if the people were scared (they were), they still had the ability to overcome that with a little help.  I noticed a sudden change when Alex killed an invading officer (Steinbeck 55).  Everyone took his courage and passion and built upon it until they became an unstoppable force.  
Steinbeck really does understand one of the most important things about humans: you sometimes have to take them out of their comfort zones to make their original comfort zones more comfortable.  This might seem confusing, but it is something that I have thought about outside of this assignment quite a lot.  This means putting someone in a situation they might not like in order to make them happier in the long run when they are back in their normal situation.  This has happened to all of us at one time or another, but this book is a good example of that.  The people are happy in their little town, then the invaders come and tear their lives apart.  They then have to unite and come together to overcome, and new-found relationships and much more power comes with unity.  My point is that if you aren't happy in a situation, you have to leave your comfort zone sometimes to fix it, and it will always get better in the long run.  

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