32 pages • 1 hour read
John SteinbeckThe Moon Is Down
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1942A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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BetaChapters 7-8Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 7 Summary
While on patrol, a squad of Colonel Lanser’s troops notice that the English nightly air raid is behaving unusually. The planes circle slowly over the town, flying high. Instead of releasing bombs to target the mine and soldiers, the English release small packages of dynamite, explosives, and other weapons on bright blue parachutes. Each package has a piece of chocolate with it and instructions for the townspeople to focus their attacks on the railways.
The blue parachutes are easy to see in the snow, allowing the townspeople to go out in search of the weapons packages. The children of the town find the packages and bury the explosive for their parents to use later. Likewise, the soldiers search for the packages and collect what they find at the mayor’s house.
Colonel Lanser speaks with his staff at the mayor’s house about the packages. All but Tonder is present, who was recently murdered with knitting shears by Molly Morden when he visited her house for a second time. Major Hunter reports that there are multiple breaks in the railway line that transports coal out of the town. Lanser has received word from his superiors that this is the only town in the country to have received these packages: “The capital orders me to stamp this out so ruthlessly that they won’t drop it any place else” (93). Lanser resents the capital’s suggestion of poisoning the chocolate, believing it to be naïve and out-of-touch with the realities of conquest. Loft and Lanser both agree that they must quickly handle the threat of a revolt, but they differ in viewing their conquest as a victory or defeat. Lanser claims: “We trained our young men for victory, and you’ve got to admit they’re glorious in victory, but they don’t quite know how to act in defeat” (97). Lanser orders Loft not to shoot any townspeople unless there is an overt act of violence taken against one of the soldiers.
Major Hunter expresses his concern over how to handle the town’s leadership. Lanser says that his orders are to take hostages and execute them, which he does not intend to do. Major Hunter offers to describe Lanser as overtired in a report so that the colonel may be reassigned to a less stressful place, but Lanser refuses. Lanser then relieves Prackle’s doubts about the campaign by reminding the lieutenant that his ultimate loyalty is to military command: “You’re not a man anymore. You are a soldier” (99).
Corell enters the mayor’s house and speaks with Lanser. He was saved from abduction by the Anders brothers by one of Lanser’s patrols. Corell has received a reply to his initial report and was granted more authority in the town by Lanser’s superiors. He demands that Doctor Winter and Mayor Orden be executed, believing it to be the only way to stop the people from revolting. Lanser is offended, but because of Corell’s new authority, agrees to compromise and place Winter and Orden under house arrest.
Chapter 8 Summary
News of the mayor’s imprisonment spreads through the town quickly, and the townspeople redouble their efforts to find all the parachutes dropped by the English pilots. Doctor Winter is brought to the mayor’s house and placed under arrest. He speaks with Mayor Orden about their roles in the town as leaders: “We have as many heads as we have people, and in a time of need leaders pop up among us like mushrooms” (105). Orden confesses that in times of fear he has considered escaping to England, but he is now resolute on fulfilling his role as mayor and leader.
The two friends begin reciting a speech from Socrates’s Apology they learned in grade school and that deals with questions of morality. When Colonel Lanser enters, he offers his own recitation of a line and respects Orden’s need to finish the entire speech. Lieutenant Prackle interrupts them to report that Captain Loft has found and arrested a group of townspeople with dynamite.
Orden claims that no matter what Lanser does to him personally, the townspeople will continue to fight for their freedom: “The people don’t like to be conquered, sir, and so they will not be” (111). Lanser’s orders require him to execute his hostages—Winter and Orden—if there is further violence in the town. The group hears a series of explosions in the distance. Because Lanser is determined to follow his orders under any circumstance, Orden accepts the noise of the explosions as his death sentence. In the last moments of the novel, Orden is led from the house by Lieutenant Prackle to be executed.
Chapters 7-8 Analysis
Though Colonel Lanser believes and admits that his troops have been defeated in conquering the town, he continues to follow the protocol and orders given to him by his military superiors. By doing so, he hopes to convey a false image of structure for the townspeople, his last attempt at preventing the town from outright revolution. In his conversation with Major Hunter (98), Lanser reveals the discrepancies between orders given from a remote, foreign place and the realities of enacting those orders on the front lines of war and to people he interacts with on a daily basis. Lanser remains loyal to his duties as a military leader, despite his growing ethical concerns over his actions towards Orden and the townspeople. Being in such close social proximity threatens to blur the lines between friend and enemy; Lanser’s only option is to let the orders he receive decide his actions for him while hoping to modulate those actions in some degree so that they are not unnecessarily violent.
This is undermined by Corell, who interrupts Lanser’s more temperate plan for dealing with the people’s new weapons to announce his authority and his intent on holding Lanser accountable to his military superiors. If Lanser fails to follow the orders of execution he has been given, Corell will report him for disobedience.
Lanser’s observation of duty is contrasted by that of Orden, who greatly respects his role as a mayor and voice of the people. Both Orden and Winter are soothed by their belief that the revolution will continue in the town regardless of their leadership. Their replaceability is a source of strength before execution, whereas the prospect of being replaced drives Lanser to follow his orders rigidly.
The similarities between Lanser and Orden’s characters are displayed in their consideration, but eventual refusal, of escaping from their duty to save their lives. Though Major Hunter offers to file a report that would effectively transfer Lanser to a less stressful position (98), Lanser denies this option in favor of seeing his duty through to the end, even at the expense of his ethical beliefs concerning Orden. Orden himself confesses to Doctor Winter: “You know, I’m afraid, I have been thinking of ways to escape, to get out of it. I have been thinking of running away” (105). Ultimately, though, Orden cannot conceive of escaping to England and abandoning his people. Both Orden and Lanser are resolute in observing the duties of their office at great personal expense.
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By John Steinbeck
