The story itself is about a small town in America, though I doubt this is true, that is taken in the early hours of a Sunday morning. The soldiers think that since this town hasn't seen war in a hundred years that they won't be as strong, but what they didn't realize is that free people are the most strongwilled, causing them more problems than anywhere else.
Ultimately, what the soldiers under "The Leader" want is coal. The colonels have soldiers gaurding the mines forcing them to work. Colonel Loft was ordering a man named Alex Morden to work and he being a free man with a hot temper went after him with a pick. Instead of killing Loft, Morden kills another Captain. It isn't until Alex Morden is "tried" and punished that the town finally realizes that their freedom is gone.
I enjoyed this book, and although it is a bit vauge (only 112 pages), it stayed true to how Steinbeck writes. There are hints of symbolism and politics. I only had the chance to read it twice, so I'm sure I'm missing alot of the big picture, but it was great from what I got out of it. I would recommend this book to people who love this country and the idea of democracy, but are sick of the morons who wave their flags around-- as it will soon remind others as swastikas in the middle of a parade or just hanging in a shop window. This novel makes you see what happens when you say that someone is infalleable- facism takes control and the free spirited are killed, literally or figuratively.
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