This was a quick read and well-written like all other Steinbeck pieces I have read. Steinbeck wrote this during World War II to assist the United States in its propaganda war with the fascist powers in Europe. The setting is a fictional village (presumably in the Netherlands) occupied by the Germans. The Germans occupy the town as conquerers and seem perplexed that the conquered are not content to remain so...Steinbeck then illustrates how a resistance forms to the occupation that is inexhaustible and the fires of freedom and democracy cannot quenched. Steinbeck was criticized during the war because he painted a too-human portrait of the German soldiers in his volume. However, I would argue that Steinbeck tries to capture the common humanity between opposing sides in any conflict. One can imagine that many lowly soldiers in the German Wehrmacht were there mostly against their own will and inclinations and that once settled in for an occupation of indefinite length, many became discontent, lonely, and depressed.