Theme: The Shade of the Moon

     I have recently finished 'the Shade of the Moon' by Susan Beth Pfeffer. This book takes place after the moon has been knocked closer to the earth, wreaking havoc and killing millions. A few years after the tragedy society has been re-established, with new rules, new jobs, and a new class system that favors the wealthy. There are clavers; the rich who live in nice neighborhoods and have jobs like doctors, slips; the people who are not rich, but have passes that they obtained that allows them to lve i nice areas, and there are grubs; the working class, who are forced to live in slums, they have jobs like cleaners or bus drivers. I think that the theme of this book is that class separation is bad for society, in a social way.
     The first example of this is found on page 10. John says " our domestics are grateful to be working is Sexton."(domestics are cleaners and care takers, they are grubs). Notice how John says 'our', as if the people belong to him. He also assumes that these people who may have been artists, lawyers, or models, are happy to be working as cleaning ladies or nannies, just because the government doesnt need their skills anymore. This is showing that he thinks that they are below him, they must be happy just to get to work for him. He doesnt even consider that they might be upset that they have to live in slums because there is no more need for models or lawyers in this post-apocalyptic world
     Another example is when John's friend says "all grubs are bums". He thinks that just because his grandfather was a doctor, which allowed him to be a claver, he is better than the people in the slums, the same people who mine for the coal that heats the houses and farm the food he eats. this shows how separate the classes are socially. Even the claver kids hate grubs for no reason!
   All in all, this shows that a society with clearly divided classes is unstable socially. People, family, grow farther apart because of simple names. And when the time comes to work together, no one will be able to becuase the clavers think the grubs are below them. John has family in a grub area, and he has to pretend he hates them because everyone will make fun of him if he admits he loves his grub family. Therefore, classes are bad for society.