Part 1Moontown

Characters
1. a. appearance
b. gentle and positive
c. Crater, by his very nature, was friendly to the core of his being. He had gentle eyes
that saw things always in the best possible light and a sweet, round face, unmarred by
worry lines. (8)
d. Crater is gentle because the adjective was used when describing Craters eyes. If Crater
had gentle eyes, the reader can infer that his whole character is gentle because a persons
eyes tell about their thoughts. If Craters thoughts are gentle, it can be inferred that his
actions are gentle, also. He is also positive because he always sees things in the best
possible light and doesnt worry much. Because Crater always sees things in the best
possible light and has no worry lines, he never focuses on the negative aspects of things,
making him a positive person.
2. a. actions
b. courageous, compassionate
c. Crater wasnt good at making decisionshe was terrible, in factbut he knew if
Thumper Tom was to have a chance, he needed to make one now. He got off his fastbug
and ran to one of the shuttles. (33)
d. The context was that Thumper Tom was stuck in the path of an oncoming roller. Crater
is shown as courageous because he was courageous enough to run into the deadly rollers
path to move Thumper Tom out of the way. As all the other people stared from a distance
because of the fear of being rolled over, Crater set his own fear aside and rushed to help
Thumper Tom. Crater is also compassionate because he was so concerned for Thumper
Toms life that he would risk his own life to move Thumper Tom out of the rollers path.
3. a. words
b. studious
c. Well, the moons surface is about 14.6 million square miles, a little smaller than Asia
on Earth, he recited. In terms of volume, about fifty moons could fit inside the Earth. It
has a complex geologic structure including mountains, rilles, basins, all covered with a
rubble of rock fragments and dust we call the regolith. (68)
d. Crater is studiousness is shown in his expertise on the moon. Because he was able to
recite this great amount of detailed information on the moon and Earth, he must have
focused closely on the information he was taught (by school or books), and studied it
immensely afterward. During this part of the book, a spotlight is put on Craters eloquent
speech. He confidently spoke clearly to the Colonel without using slang words. It can be
inferred that his articulate language is also a result of paying close attention in school or
to books that used a wide range of vocabulary.
Setting
1. a. The little mining village of Moontown, set deep within the lunar Alpine Valley, was
bathed in the bluish glow of a vast and sinuous river of stars flooding across a black
velvet sky. On the Helium-3 scrapes to the west of the settlement, the miners of the
Medaris Mining Companys third shift trudged toward the dustlocks, their bobbing and

weaving helmet lights shooting bright spokes across the dust, silicate flakes caught in the
beams sparkling like diamonds. (3)
b. These first two sentences of the book give reader their first impression of the setting,
Moontown. It gives the impression that Moontown is a beautiful mining village on the
moon. Because humans have yet to build civilizations on the moon, the story takes place
in the future. This description of Moontown plays a role in the development of the plot by
establishing a calm, peaceful exposition to make for a more shocking, exciting inciting
moment. The quote plays a role in the development of Crater by foreshadowing what he
might be like through a description of where he lives. Since he lives in a tiny mining
village on the moon, the reader can infer that Crater isnt used to luxury, and most likely
doesnt care much for a fancy life. Mining is laborious work, so the reader can also infer
that Crater is hardworking and committed to his job.
2. a. To avoid the deathly results of these outbursts, Moontowns people lived in tubes
made of mooncrete set twenty feet underground. Scrapers Row was the largest of the
tube neighborhoods and contained seventy-three tubes of residential dimensions. (38)
b. Moontown is not a completely safe place for humans to live in because of the suns
sudden outbursts of radiation. Moontown is also highly populated with multiple tube
neighborhoods. The plot is developed by the foreshadowing of some possible challenges
the characters may face. For example, the deathly results of the Suns radiation outbursts
might be foreshadowing that an important character will die from a radiation outburst, or
an important object will be affected. Craters character is developed because the reader
can infer that he is careful and cautious, or else he wouldnt be surviving in the dangerous
terrain of the moon.
Objects
1. a. Flashinpan
b. Watch that Neroburg car. You see that big knobby rear end its got? Crater had seen
it but he didnt know what it was for, although he supposed it had some function having
to do with the fuel cells. Asteroid Al soon rid him of that idea. Its to whack you Crater.
That rear end is a hammer as sure as Im standing here. Watch out for it. (49)
c. Flashinpan is that Neroburg car that Asteroid Al warns Crater about in the quote
above. Neroburg is a town on the moon that came to Moontown Raceway to participate
in the annual fastbug race, and Flashinpan was the fastbug the town entered in the race.
Flashinpan developed Craters character because it showed him that not everyone plays
fair. The hammer on the back of Flashinpan was not fair because it could destroy other
fastbugs, and no other had one. However, there were not any rules against it, so it was
considered fair. This part of the story was one of the first times out of many that the
universe wasnt as kind and honest as he was.
2. a. Helium-3
b. When the Apollo astronauts, the first Earthly visitors to the moon, brought back a ton
or so of rock samples, it didnt take long before it was discovered moon dust was
saturated with a product of the solar wind, the isotope known as Helium-3. A hundred
years later, fusion reactors, using the same principles that powered the sun, were
perfected, and Helium-3 proved to be the perfect fuel. The technology had come just in

time for a wounded, war-weary, and overpopulated Earth, desperate for clean, pure,
energy and willing to pay handsomely for it.(26)
c. Helium-3 is an isotope found in moon dust. It is the perfect fuel for the fuel-hungry
planet called Earth. Helium-3 is important to the story because it is the reason that
Moontown exists. Without Helium-3, humans would have no desire to build civilizations
on Earth, Crater would not live on the moon, and the whole story would not take place.
Writing Style
1. a. personification
b. Every so often, a burst of deadly radiation would escape from the sun and roar across
the inner solar system and scour everything in its path. If you were lucky enough to live
on a nice, fat planet with an atmosphere and an intact magnetic field, it was not much of a
problem. But if you lived on the Earths moon, which had neither one, you had a big
problem.
c. The personification of the suns radiation describes the danger of living on Earths
moon, which has no atmosphere or intact magnetic field. It describes the setting of the
story as dangerous and unpredictable, which may be foreshadowing upcoming conflicts
between man and nature. Also, because the setting is described, the reader can more
easily visualize where the plot is happening, making for a better story overall.
2. a. simile
b. The downtown or administrative tubes, a cluster of twenty business-size tubes, held
the company store, the medical clinic, the sheriffs office, the chapel, the theater, the
library, the art center, and the engineer and business offices. Connected to the downtown
tubes were observation towers where, during the two weeks of the long shadow, the
people of Moontown could see a sky so filled with stars it was as if God Himself had
placed there an infinite ocean of diamonds for them to admire. (39)
c. The first sentence of the paragraph describes Moontown as very civilized and taken
over by humans, kind of like Earth. However, the similes comparison between the stars
and an ocean of diamonds shows the beautiful nature side of Moontown. It shows that,
even though Moontown is sometimes a drab, mining-focused town, the beauty of nature
is still present, and Moontown is still a magnificent, stunning place. In a way, the literary
device is warning the readers not to get too comfortable with the setting by showing the
different sides or layers of the moon. The literary device shows that the moon is
unpredictable.
3. a. metaphor
b. He needed any emotion he could grab to cover up what kept exploding in his brain
like a double-charged detpack: jealousy. It was an awful, green-eyed, and purple-footed,
and if he let it, the monster was going to overwhelm him. (66)
c. The comparison between Craters jealousy and an ugly monster develops Craters
character. From the metaphor, it can be inferred that Craters jealousy is one of his
negative aspects that he will need to control. The quote shows that beneath the positive,
all good-seeing layer of Crater, there is a jealousy of Petro brewing that might eventually
explode. In other words, the metaphor shows self-conflict and may be foreshadowing a
larger, more impactful self-conflict later on in the story.