The Moon is Down Plot Diagram
You can find this storyboard in the following articles and resources:
The Moon is Down by John Steinbeck
Lesson Plans by Kristy Littlehale
This novel, which won the Nobel Prize for literature, is helpful in generating English class extension lessons on propaganda, resistance movements, and World War II.
Storyboard Description
The Moon is Down Summary Plot Diagram - The Moon is Down Steinbeck
Storyboard Text
- EXPOSITION
- What? We are free men.
- You will work this mine.
- CONFLICT
- Yours is the only government and people with a record of defeat after defeat for centuries and every time because you did not understand people.
- RISING ACTION
- It's commercial dynamite, sir.
- I've talked to the capital. This is the only place they've dropped them.
- A small town in northern Europe is invaded by a nameless occupying force. George Corell arranged it, and now the townsmen are being forced to work the coal mine for the occupiers. Colonel Lanser wants this occupation to go as smoothly as possible, but Mayor Orden knows that his people don’t like being conquered.
- CLIMAX
- You know, I hope you know what you're doing.
- Colonel Lanser’s men are facing increasing hostility from the townspeople. Captain Bentick is killed, and after the execution of Alex Morden, the silent revenge of the people seeps out as they sabotage the mining efforts. Lanser seeks to bring them under his control with Orden’s help, but Orden refuses to cooperate.
- FALLING ACTION
- As the hostility increases, so do the soldiers’ paranoia about the town they are occupying. Men are escaping from the town and fleeing to England. Mayor Orden tells the Anders boys to tell the English to drop dynamite so they can fight back, and they do a few weeks later. Lanser knows he has to bring this spirit of rebellion under control, especially since the townspeople are killing his soldiers any chance they get.
- RESOLUTION
- The Mayor is an idea conceived by free men. It will escape arrest.
- After the parachutes with the dynamite drop, Corell, who survived a kidnapping and murder attempt by the Anders boys, arrives and tells Lanser that he has received authority from the Capital. He informs Lanser of Orden’s cooperation with subversive actions in the town, and Lanser concludes he needs to arrest Orden and Doctor Winter, the local historian and physician.
- This, sir, was the answer to my report from headquarters. You will notice that it gives me certain authority.
- After their arrest, Lanser pleads with Mayor Orden to tell his people to stand down. He hopes that the threat of the execution of the town’s two leaders will deter any more violence. However, while Orden is slightly anxious about his own death, he begins to recite from Socrates’ Apology, and takes heart in the fact that while he may die, other leaders will emerge. The Mayor is an office, and it will continue even if he is not present.
- 'I prophesy to you who are my murderers that immediately after my - departure, punishment far heavier than you have inflicted on me will surely await you.'
- An explosion goes off, and Lanser knows he must follow through with executing Orden and Winter as punishment. Orden finishes his recitation of Apology, with resolve that the debt of his death will be paid by the people as they continue to fight their oppressors.
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