Cruise To Galapagos Island example essay topic

In both books I have read: John Stienbeck's "The Moon Is Down" and Kurt Vonnegut's "Galapagos", the main characters are escape great danger. Both stories describe how tough times can get and how the characters have to fight just to survive and make it through each day. In "The Moon is Down", for the people who inhabit the small Norwegian town, the struggle begins when they are invaded during WWII. It is then that they try to think of a plan to resist and escape German rule.

In the very beginning a couple of locals are killed when they try to fight back, so then the locals decide to make it seem like they are being cooperative and pretend to give in to the Germans and stop resisting. So by the time Colonel Lanser has a meeting with Orden, the mayor of the town, he tells him that there wasn't much resistance and "The people as a whole are quiet". (15) The colonel explains to Orden that he just wants to finish his business without any trouble; he says "You will still be the mayor, you will give the orders, you will penalize and reward. In that way, they will not give trouble".

(17) Mayor Orden is aware of the fact that the population will defend themselves against the German conquerors. It starts when a local mine worker no longer wants to work on a mine controlled by the Germans so he asks Captain Bentick if he can quit, but when Bentick refuses to let the worker go, he is killed. The report comes back to the colonel Lanser; "I have to report, sir, that Captain Bentick was killed". (27) This is a big a surprise to Lanser and he is compelled to bring Alex Morden (the killer) to trial. A verdict is reached fairly quickly and Lanser gets ready to execute Alex saying, "It's the only thing we know". (31) The number of casualties keeps increasing when Alex Morden's wife, Molly seduces a German soldier who really begins to fall in love with her only to find out she wishes death upon him and finally kills him with a pair of scissors.

At this point the Germans sense the opposition, but they don't know what to do, so Mayor Orden and Doctor Winter are held hostage and the Germans threaten to kill them if the people don't cooperate. But both, Orden and Winter know that their people won't stop the attacks and that their deaths will grant them the liberty, "If they follow the usual course, they must kill me, and then they must kill you". (67) Although Orden thinks about it, he doesn't intend to plead for his life, "I have been thinking of pleading for my life, and it makes me ashamed". (74) While in "Galapagos", the main characters escape death by signing up to go on a cruise to Galapagos island wipes out mankind. "This is a deadly virus". (14) The island is pretty remote, located o, called "the nature cruise of the century", when a terrible virus occurs on the mainland and ff the Ecuadorian coast, which turns out to be the only place in the world not infected.

"We are indeed the only survivors". (65) The six passengers on that ship were about to start a whole new breed of human beings on the Galapagos island for the next million years. During that time they face numerous challenges during their daily lives because starting from scratch is not as easy as it might seem to some. "We have to start all over". (71) It is evident that in both books, the characters are struggling in some way. In "The Moon is Down", the locals struggle when the Germans come in and try to take over.

While in "Galapagos", everyone that ends up on the Galapagos Island is struggling to make ends meet, due to the absence of material things that everyone is so used to. The people are forced to start from scratch, first having to live off the land and get used to a whole new habitat. Another good example would have to be the Mayor in "The Moon is Down", who struggles to find a way to defeat the Germans as things go downhill for him and his best friend, Doctor Winter when they are held hostage by the Germans who get frustrated when they begin lose control over the town. Both books describe something that happened in the past.

In "Galapagos" the author is writing as if the story happened a million years ago in 1986 A.D. All throughout the book Vonnegut emphasizes how different people were back then from the way they are now. It seems as though he lived through both time periods, like he was alive a million years ago and now he's comparing the times. While in "The Moon is Down", the story takes place in the early 40's during WWII, when the Germans invaded Norway. Here as well as in the other book, you notice the difference in how things worked back then and how they are now, like the technology and they way people defended themselves and their countries against invaders.

In this book the author also seems to be telling a story from past experiences but unlike Vonggut, Stienbeck was actually alive during the time that his story took place. So he indeed knew how hard times got during WWII. "I have experienced these terrible times". (11) Both books have two sides (good & bad) and all the characters are either on one side or the other. In "The Moon is Down", you can see which side everybody is on right away. It is obvious that the Germans are the "bad guys" the people of Norway are "good".

Voneggut's "Galapagos" also has very good examples of good battling evil when a money hungry selfish businessman, Andrew MacIntosh is trying to persuade a Japanese computer genius to do business with him. "I can assure you that you will benefit the most from this deal". (11) At first the Japanese guy likes MacIntosh and doesn't realize that he does not care about anyone but himself. He then understands that all MacIntosh is trying to do is use him for his invention and make everything to his own benefit. "MacIntosh has always been selfish and greedy".

(11) A more specific example in "The Moon is Down" is Mayor Orden who is the good guy. Orden is trying to figure out a way to get his people out of the hands of Colonel Lanser, the bad guy who came to take over. "They will not succeed". (7) In "Galapagos" Vonggut describes how women fall victim to a bad guy named James Wait, one of the passengers on the cruise ship. "Wait is a con artist who marries unsuspecting women and gets them for everything they have". (5) After reading both these books I have noticed some similarities but for the most part, the books were a lot different from each other.

Not only were they about totally different topics, they were also written with two different styles. I have noticed that Steinbeck uses a more realistic style of writing, where he talks about something that actually happened sometimes he even basis it on his own experiences. His story might be fiction but it is based on a historical event. On the other hand, "Galapagos" appeared more like science fiction because the author exaggerates and talks about abstract things and gets his stories from his imagination. I also thought that both books were pretty hard to follow, especially "The Moon is Down", a book I didn't like at all. It wasn't only hard to follow, but its climax was almost at the end of the book, which, in my opinion is wrong.

"Galapagos" was a bit more interesting but still didn't impress me too much and was also incredibly hard to follow.