Point of View

John Steinbeck writes The Moon Is Down from a third-person omniscient point of view, allowing the reader to know all characters' thoughts and feelings. A critique of the book found in the introduction to the novel, asserts that Steinbeck presented his story with a "sure sense of audience and empathy for the oppressed."

While a few critics called him on presenting the Nazis in an admirable light, Steinbeck's concern was not with a critic's review; rather, his goal was to reach as many suffering people as he could with his message of hope. Steinbeck sensed that individuals in occupied cities and towns might view their captors in a more favorable way than did Americans thousands of miles away. The Germans in fact were human and like anyone else had likable and admirable qualities. By making some of the invaders, like Colonel Lanser for example, sympathetic, Steinbeck...