The Moon Is Down - 7

7) What techniques does the author use to engage the audience and make the story effective?  Give examples to support your analysis (mystery, humor, symbolism, suspense, etc.).

In The Moon Is Down by John Steinbeck, many literary techniques are used in order to create feelings in the reader throughout the story.  One of the major techniques that I noticed is suspense.  Many times through the book, you find yourself waiting for something to happen, and tension builds and builds higher and higher until you just cannot take it anymore.  A lot of tension is built when Mayor Orden and Colonel Lanser are arguing about what the mayor can and cannot do for his town during the invasion (Steinbeck 43).  The tension here is completely undeniable.  When reading this particular passage, you cannot help but get a little anxious.  You can feel the tension rising as they fight it out, and you have to know what happens next or else you are just simply going to explode right then and there! (That escalated quickly).
Anyway, throughout the book, you are continually waiting for something new and drastic to happen.  There is constantly that inescapable feeling of tension that you just really cannot get rid of.  World War Two was obviously a war, and wars are definitely times of great suspense and tension.  Honestly, that was sort of an uncomfortable feeling for me, as it should be.  That is truly what makes the story effective.  You are not supposed to be happy when reading about this topic, and I felt what the characters were feeling.  That is how books like this are supposed to be written, and Steinbeck did a wonderful job of making me feel uncomfortable.  "Yay" for historical fiction! 
Most of the time, I was just trying to figure out what was actually going on.  I just wanted to understand one character, but third person omniscient point of view does not allow for that.  I feel as if the whole point behind him using this point of view was to create a chaotic feeling in the reader, which is something he did without fail.  I felt a powerful feeling of chaos through most of the book.  These techniques are things that he must have done on purpose to create specific feelings in the reader.  

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