What techniques does the author use to engage the reader of The Moon is Down??

John Steinbeck's The Moon is Down uses many different techniques that keeps the reader reading and is engaging. One of the techniques that the author uses is suspense. The suspense in this book mostly surrounds the question of whether the people will be successful in their rebellion. An example of this is when Will and Tom Anders set out to sail to other countries to find support against the villager's plight (Steinbeck 78). This causes the reader to wonder whether the brothers will be able to spread the word about the villager's situation. The reader is also wondering at this point whether the army will catch the boys before they begin their journey. Suspense is also used when Lieutenant Tonder returns to Molly's house a second time (Steinbeck 81). As she runs to get the door the scene directions indicate that Molly picks up a pair of sharp scissors before heading to the door (Steinbeck 81). Before the reader can find out for sure what Molly is going to do the curtain closes (Steinbeck 81). This makes the reader curious to know what happens. While it seems that Molly will kill Lieutenant Tonder, the reader does not know for sure. This loose end leads to much speculation on the reader's part to what happened to both Molly and Lieutenant Tonder.

Not only does John Steinbeck use suspense to make the book The Moon is Down more engaging, but he also makes the townspeople of this story underdogs. By making the townspeople underdogs the reader cannot but help to root for the villagers to succeed in their rebellion. This also makes the reader sympathetic to the people's cause. In this story the villagers are underdogs because they are all civilians and have had all of their weapons taken away by the invading army (Steinbeck 5). They also sent out a group of men to fight the army, but they were badly defeated (Steinbeck 14). The people though do not let this defeat them and they continue to fight the occupation that has taken over almost every aspect of their lives.

Bibliography: Steinbeck, John. The Moon Is Down. New York. Penguin Group USA, 2009. Print.