norwegian’s response toward nazi’s ideology in john steinbeck’s the moon is down

Norwegian’s response toward Nazi’s Ideology

NORWEGIAN’S RESPONSE TOWARD NAZI’S IDEOLOGY

IN JOHN STEINBECK’S THE MOON IS DOWN

Iqbal Tawakal KurniantoAli Mustofa

English Literature Department, Language and Art Faculty, Universitas Negeri Surabaya

Abstract

In a novel, it is often found that there is a character which becomes a center of the problem in a novel. But sometimes, there is also a novel that does not use a character to be the center of the story in that novel or the author uses a group or an organization that is the beginning of the problem in the story. This research is used to reveal how the role of a group or an organization in case of building a completed story is. A group or an organization which will be analyzed here is a group or an organization in The Moon Is Down written by John Steinbeck that is Nazi. To analyze Nazi in that novel, a theory which are brought by Stephen Greenblatt is used, New Historicism. This theory is chosen because the related to the creation of a story and the reality that had happened. By using New Historicism, it will be easy to understand the position of Nazi which is created by the processes in the story and the reality that had happened. A result of this research will be an explanation about how the Nazi in the story is made and how Nazi affects a story so there is an understanding about the story that include a value and an understanding of Nazi itself.

Keywords: Nazi, response, ideology

INTRODUCTIONThe Moon Is Down is one of the masterpieces

which were written by John Steinbeck, an American writer and Nobel laureate, who described in his work the unremitting struggle of people who depend on the soil for their livelihood. This novel is about Norwegian civilians that had been conquered by Nazi in the World War II. Because this research focuses on the Nazi, it is going to be Nazi who will be the center of the story. This research is going to analyze Nazi as the conqueror and the resistance of Norwegian as the conquered.

(1) Statement of Problema. How does NAZI make use of their

ideology to overpower Norway in The Moon Is Down?

b. How does the Norwegian civilian give response toward NAZI’s conquer in The Moon Is Down?

With those problems, it is obvious that this research is going to see the Nazi in two ways or point of views.

(2) Solving problems planTo answer those questions, this research is

going to use Stephen Greenblatt’s New Historicism. This theory is going to analyze Nazi created by story and Nazi in the reality. The story here means everything surrounding the Nazi such as character’s action, the problems occurred, and also some events which brings Nazi as the center of the story.

(3) Purpose of the researchPurpose of this research is obviously to answer

what are questioned in statement of problems.a. To give description how NAZI and

their ideology overpower Norway.b. To reveal several events in The Moon

is Down that indicating the form of Norwegian civilians response toward NAZI.

(4) Summary about the theoriesA theory is going to be used in this research, the

theory are brought by Stephen Greenblatt. This theory theory applied to literature that suggests literature must be studied and interpreted within the context of both the history of the author and the history of the critic. Like Tyson in his book,

the questions asked by traditional historians and by new his-toricists are quite different, and that’s because these two approaches to history are based on very different views of what history is and how we can know it. Traditional historians ask, “What happened?” and “What does the event tell us about history?” In contrast, new historicists ask, “How has the event been inter-preted?” and “What do the interpretations tell us about the interpreters?” (Tyson, 2006: 282 ) New Historicism evaluates how the work is

influenced by the time in which it was produced. It

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e – Journal UNESA. Volume 01 Nomer 01 Tahun 2013

also examines the social sphere in which the author moved, the psychological background of the author, the books and theories that may have influenced the author, and any other factors which influenced the work of art.

Related to The Moon Is Down, story of this novel was an image of the reality in World War II, Nazi and their ideology to experience those states. The story comes with complicated situations by Nazi and the Norwegian’s civilians. Those problems and other events in the novel create particular condition for the image of the reality. That condition is able to show what kind of story is the novel. This research definitely doesn’t focus on the kind of story but the process how the Nazi experiences in the reality which are created by some conditions in the story.

The story here can be represented by all of the actions which have done by Nazi’s soldier. Those soldiers affect much in case of building Nazi as the image of Nazi in the reality. Besides the actions of those soldiers, everything which is related to the resistance of the Norway that created by Nazi means the story.

Nazi in The Moon Is Down, Nazi is going to be analyzed with New Historicism. The result of this research is able to let the readers to know the role of Nazi in the story which they have read. Understanding Nazi more will help to understand the whole story. Like what is written by David Crew in his book about Hitler and The Nazis. A history in Documents,

“The Nazi regime is still one of the most dramatic and destructive episodes in western European, indeed in world, history. Nazism is synonymous with terror, concentration camps, and mass murder. Hitler's war claimed tens of millions of lives and left Europe in complete ruins” (Crew, 2005: 8)

The Nazi empire was created by violence, lived by violence and was destroyed by violence. In contrast to other empires created by armed might, which bequeathed art and literature that are still widely admired, or administrations, customs, languages and legal codes that Europeans and non-Europeans still adhere to, from Ireland to India, the tawdry Nazi anti-civilization left nothing of any worth behind, except perhaps its contemporary function as a secular synonym for human evil.

Nazism was literally "from nothing to nothing": with its powerful imaginative afterlife curiously disembodied from its pitiful achievements. Rarely can an empire have existed about which nothing positive could be said, notwithstanding the happy memories of wartime tourism. Even in the limited terms of its own aesthetic politics, the Nazi "New Order" was merely the universality of ugliness (Michael Burleigh, The Third Reich: A New History (2000, p. 481).

METHODAfter explaining the theory which is going to

be used, this research is going to show how the theory is applied. Because the data source which is used is novel, The Moon Is Down by John Steinbeck will be the main data source. There are actually other data sources which come from some books or e – books, and journals.

This research will find out some proofs, formed as conversations or narrations in the novel which are related to the theory in the novel. It will also read the novel closely to get some quotes for supporting the theory. Books, e – books, and journals will also become supporting elements in this data collection. From those things, the theory will be easier to be found.

The analysis which will be done by this research will combine the data from novel with the data from references, books, e – books, or journals. Besides that, there will be also some comments of this analysis. From those data and comments, there will be analysis which can answer the statement of the problems.

Theory which is used, New Historicism; will be used to focus on Nazi in the novel. In the statement of problem, the questions are about the actions of Nazi. In the analysis, the elements of this theory will be applied in Nazi. The elements of New Historicism will be used to see how the story builds Nazi. What kind of Nazi this story builds according to the reality. This study also wants to see the relation of the theory elements to the story whether it is proper or not.

The analysis will be divided in to two sections according to statement of problem. Section one is about the first statement of problem related to Nazi. The section two is about the second statement of problem related to Norwegian’s response. The result which is obtained from those sections will be written in conclusion or result section.

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ANALYSIS AND RESULT(1) How does NAZI make use of their

ideology to overpower Norway in The Moon Is Down?

In this analysis, this research has decided that the story is about Nazi’s ideology. So, this analysis is going to find out how Nazi makes use of their ideology to overpower Norway. It means that the way that Nazi uses to overpower Norway is the affects of their ideology that came from the leader. There are some proves that Nazi make use their ideology in order to overpower Norway.

“By ten-forty-five it was all over. The town was occupied, the defenders defeated, and the war finished. The invader had prepared for this campaign as carefully as he had for larger ones. On this Sunday morning the postman and the policeman had gone fishing in the boat of Mr. Corell, the popular storekeeper. He had lent them his trim sailboat for the day. The postman and the policeman were several miles at sea when they saw the small, dark transport, loaded with soldiers, go quietly past them. As officials of the town, this was definitely their business, and these two put about, but of course the battalion was in possession by the time they could make port. The policeman and the postman could not even get into their own offices in the Town Hall, and when they insisted on their rights they were taken prisoners of war and locked up in the town jail.” (Steinbeck p.1)From that narration, Here the researcher

learned that a small town has been taken over by one of the many Nazi groups during World War Two. Mr. Corell “The town good guy”, sent the town postmen and policemen on a boating trip, keeping them from the invasion (the researcher learn later that “The town good guy” is really a back-stabber later in the book). After the invasion, the Nazis request a meeting with the town’s Mayor, Mayor Orden. Joseph and Doctor Winter, two of Mayor Orden’s colleagues, await the arrival of Nazis too. The two meet Captain Bentick, a rank lower than Colonel Lanser who is the one who had requested the meeting. Bentick searches the home. During the meeting Annie, Mayor Orden’s cook, becomes very aggravated by the soldiers who wait outside the front porch of the Mayor’s home, and throws a pot of boiling water at them. This situation showed that the civilians

were scared and disturbed by the invasion of NAZI.

“The local troops, big, loose-hung boys, heard the planes and in the distance saw the parachutes, and they came back to town at double-quick step. When they arrived, the invader had flanked the road with machine guns. The loose-hung soldiers, having very little experience in war and none at all in defeat, opened fire with their rifles. The machine guns clattered for a moment and six of the soldiers became dead riddled bundles and three half-dead riddled bundles, and three of the soldiers escaped into the hills with their rifles.” (Steinbeck p.1-2)From that narration, it shows that NAZI does

not cares with the experience of war for their soldier because of their leader. They are still in a young age and had a little experience in war. But in their invasion, they came in quick and the soldier gave hard guns like rifles and machine guns. They are good in the way to use those guns but they were easily to death because of their lack experience. They frightened the civilians with their rifles and machine guns, so the civilians did not know about their lack.

Those several events are the example about the presence of the invasion of NAZI. After understanding about how the story describe Nazi’s way of conquer. This research will analyze the Norway’s condition when the conquering happened. Steinbeck created the story of a close-knit community that was forced to face the brutal realities of Nazi occupation. The streets are quiet, lights are turned out, and fear is about. That was an image that happened in the story as the reflection of the reality.

This condition makes Norwegian’s civilians confused. What they imagine are definitely real.

“As Dr. Winter and Joseph talk about time, occupations, and machines, Dr. Winter says, "They hurry toward their destiny as though it would not wait. They push the rolling world along with their shoulders.” (Steinbeck p.3)This quotation showed us about the image of

NAZI from the perspective of the civilian. NAZI had an Aryan characteristic. They must take control of the world with their rules.

“Dr. Winter says, "All invaded people want to resist." And Mayor Orden says, "I

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am a little man and this is a little man, but there must be a spark in little men that can burst into flame.” (Steinbeck p.108)It's much more than about simply living or

dying, winning or losing. As propaganda, the work was criticized as being too easy on the Germans -- portraying the occupying soldiers as very human and real instead of as cold and heartless. There is no doubt in my mind that this is precisely the reason for its success (and that Steinbeck is a genius in this respect). Steinbeck wrote about the plight of the occupied citizenry in a way that was so real that he reached them. It is also precisely in the occupying army's humanity that Steinbeck places the weapon that ultimately inspires the occupied and destroys the occupier: fear. One of the occupying soldiers articulates the fear very clear.

“The enemy's everywhere! Their faces look out of the doorways. The white faces behind the curtains, listening. We have beaten them, we have won everywhere, and they wait and obey, and they wait.” (Steinbeck p.64) He goes on to liken the occupying army's

success to that of flies that conquer flypaper. And of course the novel itself brings the fear to life -- the flypaper ultimately proves quite inhospitable to the flies. Steinbeck's work is interesting on deeper levels, too. Freedom and leadership is clearly top-of-mind for him, and he elegantly describes both. Steinbeck's Mayor is a wonderful leader and a powerful advocate for freedom as indefatigable. He tells the colonel of the occupying forces, for instance:

“You and your government do not understand. In the entire world yours is the only government and people with a record of defeat after defeat for centuries and every time because you do not understand people. (Steinbeck p.48)The colonel's lack of understanding is precisely

that the will to be free will prevail. The colonel just knew about how to complete his duty that his country gave to him. The civilians made an image that he like “robot” that NAZI had. They felt that the colonel did not understand people because of he and his country had good reputation in war.

“The people were confused and I was confused. We did not know what to do or think. (Steinbeck p.54)

Finally, the Mayor is such a wonderful case study of a leader who is born of the circumstances in which he finds himself. Early in the novelette he is timid and reticent. He seems to be waiting. Then, when one of his people kills an enemy soldier, he suddenly steps up, and says of the beginning of the occupation, but the action of this one person provides the guidance and clarity that he needs to catalyze his people. And with that one man's action, he takes his queue from his people (such a remarkably subtle but so significant characteristic of a great leader), and with great wisdom and courage leads his people in the exploitation of his occupier's great fear.

The relationship between the German Nazi's and the townspeople was obviously very tenuous. At first it seemed that the Germans had control, but they slowly began to loose it little by little. The relationship tensions grew so much the soldiers were afraid to turn there back to a citizen and even more afraid to eat in one of the city restaurants. This wore out the soldiers and would eventually cause them to leave and break down mentally.

(2) How does the Norwegian civilian give response toward NAZI’s conquer in The Moon Is Down?

Norwegian civilian responses toward the NAZI occupation were many kinds. This response began with two soldiers that going back and fourth with meaningless dribble. One of them spots planes high in the sky. The planes begin to drop little devices with blue parachutes attached. The Nazis begin to fear what these packages are. Still some men go on to open them, and inside them reveal plans for a revolt. It gives directions on how to sabotage the railroads made by the Nazis. A meeting was held about these devices, The Nazis were afraid to open them. Colonel Lanser’s anger raged to find the directions to the revolt.

The turning point was made by Steinbeck in his literary work, it was reflected from the real fact that the D-Day Invasion or Invasion of Normandy was happened in 1944 by Allied assault on Nazi-occupied northern Europe that assembled the largest force in the history of amphibious warfare and represented a major turning point in World War II (1939-1945). The Allied forces consisted of 20 U.S. divisions, 14 British divisions, 3 Canadian divisions, a French division, and a Polish division. On the first day of the invasion, June 6, about 120,000 Allied troops landed at five beach locations along the coast of the French province of

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Normandy after crossing the English Channel from bases in southern England. The Allies faced a force of about 50,000 Germans and suffered nearly 5,000 casualties on the first day alone but succeeded in securing the beaches from which they launched their offensive. Many historians consider the D-Day invasion the greatest military achievement of the 20th century.

“Lieutenant Tonder was a romantic naive poet who felt the enemy should love him. Steinbeck presented Tonder as "a bitter poet who dreamed of perfect, ideal love of elevated young men for poor girls".” (Steinbeck p.21)This was an image of the Lieutenant before the

duty to conquer the town gave to him. He was a common and natural people like all God’s creature. He had characteristic, hobby and behavior. When Lieutenant Tonder first arrived in town, he thought that it was a nice country with nice people.

“Tonder says, "There are some beautiful farms here. If four or five of them were thrown together, it would be a nice place to settle, I think".” (Steinbeck p.29)The war was not ending as quickly as Tonder

expected. The townspeople had become the silent enemies of the soldiers or the townspeople became silent waiting for revenge.

“Now it was the conqueror was surrounded, the men of the battalion alone among silent enemies, and no man might relax his guard for even a moment.” (Steinbeck p.58)The soldiers now have only each other to talk

to and Tonder longed to go home. They were alone in the place they never knew before. They could not relax even for a minute. They were ready to die anytime like the God of death beside them.

“The men of the battalion came to detest the place they had conquered, and gradually a little fear began to grow in the conquerors, a fear that it would never be over.” (Steinbeck p.58)In war, as time goes on fear begins to settle on

soldiers, they made their own destiny. They came with a certain purpose, to conquer for preparing the battle in World War II.

“Thus it came about that the conquerors grew afraid of the conquered and their nerves wore thin and they shot at shadows in the night.” (Steinbeck p.59)

Tonder starts to doubt the honesty of his fellow Germans. He started to be afraid of what he had done. He felt that he had a lot of sin because of what he did.

The reflection of the quotation from the novel was same as the reality happened, a group of German officers and civilians concluded in July that getting rid of Hitler offered the last remaining chance to end the war before it swept onto German soil from two directions. On July 20 they tried to kill him by placing a bomb in his headquarters in East Prussia. The bomb exploded, wounding a number of officers—several fatally—but inflicting only minor injuries on Hitler. Afterward, the Gestapo hunted down everyone suspected of complicity in the plot. One of the suspects was Rommel, who committed suicide. Hitler emerged from the assassination attempt more secure in his power than ever before.

“Tonder says, "If anything happened- at home, I mean - do you think they would let us know...well, I would like to get out of this god-forsaken hole!" (Steinbeck p.63)Tonder felt at first that this town had nice,

pleasant people but as time moved on, he changed his views.

“These people! These horrible people! These cold people! They never look at you. They never speak. They answer like dead men. They obey these horrible people. And the girls are frozen.” (Steinbeck p.63)Tonder, who once felt the enemy should love

him, now fears the enemy. Tonder starts losing control and says,

“The enemy's everywhere! Every man, every woman, even children! The enemy's everywhere.” (Steinbeck p.64)Tonder who once wanted to settle in this town

now longs to go home. He felt that the enemy (townspeople) would give him and his battalion the anger of their revenge because of what they had done. Steinbeck’s give us a reality that stated in history that the defeat of Germany's Allies in the East because they were not realized while the Soviet Union was letting the Warsaw uprising run its tragic course, it was gathering in a plentiful harvest of successes elsewhere. An offensive between the Carpathian Mountains and the Black Sea, opened on August 20, resulted in Romania's asking for an armistice three days later. Bulgaria, which had never declared war on the Soviet Union, surrendered on September 9,

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Finland on September 19. Soviet troops took Belgrade on October 20 and installed a Communist government under Tito in Yugoslavia. In Hungary, the Russians were at the gates of Budapest by late November.

By those events, the Norwegian’s civilians give their spirit in the way of fighting Nazi’s and their occupation.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTTo make this journal finish, this will be an

impossible one if Dr. Ali Mustofa, M.Pd., as my advisor, didn’t giving me guideline and advices. I would love to say thank you Mr. Ali, without your help this journal will never finish. I would like to send my gratitude also to my second advisor, Ms. Mamik Tri Wedawati, S.S., M. Pd. who is always patient in giving me advices when I try to finish this journal. I hope my journal will be able to be useful for other people.

CLOSING

ConclusionFrom the analysis above, there are two

conclusions can be taken. First, conclusion concerning with the representation of the NAZI and their ideology affects the Germans NAZI way to conquer.

The first conclusion about the representation of the NAZI and their ideology is reflected in several events of the novel that indicating how their ideology give affects in the way they conquer that committed by the characters in the novel. The image of NAZI and the use of their ideology can be found in how the Soldier’s invasion in various way. To gain the ideology, as the theory preceded, it can be achieved through the condition when the invasion started and when the invasion held. First, it can be seen in how the soldier started the invasion to the Norwegian people. Also the Norwegian people always consider the NAZI as a high rank in war and it is also committed by other elements in society like the Aryan Race that is the background of the NAZI ideology.

The war comes and it is gradually change the NAZI and Norwegian condition. One event that represent the gradual change of NAZI and Norwegian committed by Colonel Lanser during the night after the death of Alexander Morden. The death of Aleander Morden made, Molly, his wife become widow. It is continued from here, the love

rise in Lanser’s heart that would never happen during his War experience. It made Lanser becomes weak, and when the Colonel is weak so do the soldier. It is the turning point for the Norwegian to make their country exist after the war. It is represented by Colonel Lanser and Molly Morden and the Mayor of the town, Mayor Orden.

Sprang up the war with the purpose of expanding the territory before the World War II held, is proven false by the Norwegian in this novel. Without the war, the change will not happen, and without the change, no oppression will be found, this is the answer of the second problem statement.

This study believes that the invasion and conquer in war is; for if the obdurately material natives are transformed from subservient beings into inferior humanity, then the colonizer is similarly transformed into an invincible scribe, whose writing reports on the Other and at the same time insists on its scientific disinterestedness and the steady improvement in the condition, character, and custom of primitives as a result of their contact with the being that is more superior to them (the invasion soldier). This is correctly reflected by the Norwegian in the novel as they are served in the analysis.

For the final conclusion, as the chapter II stated, for the colonizer or in this novel by NAZI, the incorporative apparatus requires unremitting effort to maintain. For the victims or in this novel by The Norwegian civilian, conquer offers these alternatives: serve or be destroyed. The alternatives for the victims, whether they like it or not, it will and always bring changes towards them.

SUGGESTIONFor next study to this novel, other researchers

may be able to take Nazi to be analyzed. Of course, this journal can be used for a guide to analyze Nazi in case of their ideology or other purposes.

The research can be also done on the effect of war by the perspective both the conqueror and the conquered. That can use social approach.

BIBLIOGRAPHYBurleigh, Michael. (2000). The Third Reich: A

New History. New York: Routledge.Crew, David F. (2005). Hitler and The Nazis.

Ahistory in Documents. Oxford University Press.

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Steinbeck, John. (1966). The Moon Is Down. New York, N.Y. 10022: The Viking Press, Inc.

Tyson, L. (2006). Critical Theory Today. New York: Routledge.

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