Editing Moonraker (novel) (section)

==Themes==
[[File:White cliffs of dover 09 2004.jpg|left|thumb|alt=A panoramic photograph of a section of the white cliffs of Dover, with the English channel in front|The "totemic significance" of the [[White Cliffs of Dover]] helps make ''Moonraker'' "the most British of the Bond novels", according to Black.{{sfn|Black|2005|p=23}}]]
Parker describes the novel as "a hymn to England", and highlights Fleming's description of the white cliffs of Dover and the heart of London as evidence. Even the German Krebs is moved by the sight of the Kent countryside in a country he hates.{{sfn|Parker|2014|pp=181–82}} The novel places England—and particularly London and Kent—in the front line of the cold war, and the threat to the location further emphasises its importance.{{sfn|Chapman|2009|p=33}} Bennett and Woollacott consider that ''Moonraker'' defines the strengths and virtues of England and Englishness as being the "quiet and orderly background of English institutions", which are threatened by the disturbance Drax brings.{{sfn|Bennett|Woollacott|1987|p=101}}

The literary critic [[Meir Sternberg]] considers the theme of English identity can be seen in the confrontation between Drax and Bond. Drax—whose real name {{lang|de|Drache}} is German for dragon—is in opposition to Bond, who takes the role of [[Saint George]] in the conflict.<ref name="Style: Dragon" />{{efn|Sternberg also points out that in ''[[On Her Majesty's Secret Service (novel)|On Her Majesty's Secret Service]]'' (1963) the character Marc-Ange Draco's surname is Latin for dragon, and in ''[[From Russia, with Love (novel)|From Russia, with Love]]'' (1957) Darko Kerim's first name is "an anagrammatic variation on the same cover name".<ref name="Style: Dragon" />}}

As with ''Casino Royale'' and ''Live and Let Die'', ''Moonraker'' involves the idea of the "traitor within".{{sfn|Black|2005|p=16}} Drax, real name Graf Hugo von der Drache, is a "megalomaniac German Nazi who masquerades as an English gentleman",{{sfn|Black|2005|p=81}} while Krebs bears the same name as Hitler's [[Hans Krebs (Wehrmacht general)|last Chief of Staff]].{{sfn|Black|2005|p=20}} Black sees that, in using a German as the novel's main enemy, "Fleming&nbsp;... exploits another British cultural antipathy of the 1950s. Germans, in the wake of the Second World War, made another easy and obvious target for bad press."{{sfn|Black|2005|p=81}} ''Moonraker'' uses two of the foes feared by Fleming, the Nazis and the Soviets, with Drax being German and working for the Soviets;{{sfn|Black|2005|p=17}} in ''Moonraker'' the Soviets were hostile and provided not just the atomic bomb, but support and logistics to Drax.{{sfn|Black|2005|p=22}} ''Moonraker'' played on fears of the audiences of the 1950s of rocket attacks from overseas, fears grounded in the use of the V-2 rocket by the Nazis during the Second World War.{{sfn|Black|2005|p=16}} The story takes the threat one stage further, with a rocket based on English soil, aimed at London and "the end of British invulnerability".{{sfn|Black|2005|p=16}}