Literary Devices in The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Setting
Other than a quick trip to a committee room on Earth, the setting for The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is the Moon. In this future, our solar neighbor has been colonized and established as a penal colo...
Narrator Point of View
Mannie is a man of many hats. He's a computer repairman, a revolutionary leader, and a husband to six wives. On top of all that, he also gets to be the first-person central narrator of the novel, a...
Genre
Many people tend to think of science fiction as little more than the trappings of pop culture phenomena like Star Wars and Star Trek. You know the stuff we're talking about: robots, lasers, gr...
Tone
We've all been there. You buy a brand new copy of The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, go home, make yourself a cup of tea, sit down to read this novel you've heard so much about, and… what the what? Di...
Writing Style
As we discussed in our "Tone" section, Heinlein developed a special mix of languages (called a pidgin) for his narrator, Mannie. It's mostly English but with a blend of Russian, a touch of Australi...
What's Up With the Title?
The title The Moon is a Harsh Mistress summons up a very particular image, doesn't it? You can absolutely picture the moon personified as an old-timey schoolmistress, her hair in a tight bun, a hob...
What's Up With the Ending?
What's up with the ending? We've read about four hundred pages of revolution planning, political trickery, and solar warfare, and then the post-revolution wrap-up is like four pages long. Well, sho...
Tough-o-Meter
There are some hardcore political and scientific concepts being tossed around in The Moon is a Harsh Mistress: rational anarchism, catapulting materials through gravity wells, and the inner-working...
Plot Analysis
A Lesson in Future HistoryThe first stage of the classic plot analysis is all about exposition—i.e. the stuff you need to know to figure out what's going on. During this stage, we learn who the c...
Booker's Seven Basic Plots Analysis
Anticipation Stage and CallWhen Mannie heads to the Sons of Revolution rally, we are entering the Anticipation Stage of the story. Here, our soon-to-be hero learns about the destructive powers of t...
Three-Act Plot Analysis
Act I of The Moon is a Harsh Mistress corresponds to Book 1. This section gives us the story's exposition. We discover who the characters are, the future they live in, and the conflict they'll unde...
Trivia
In the early 1950s, Heinlein moved into a home in Colorado Springs and was given the chance to have a little input in its design. Ultimately the house contained cold-cathode tubes in box molding to...
Steaminess Rating
Fans of Heinlein's work know this author is not shy about discussing sexuality in society as well as on a personal level. This mildly evocative cover of his novel Friday is actually quite tame...
Allusions
Book of Genesis 1:1 (1.29)Plato (2.26)Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (3.203; 11.112)Horace, Odes (5.97)—Specifically the line "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori."Thomas J...