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Monsters Are Due On Maple Street Essay

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“Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts...” (John Steinbeck, brainyquote.com) Fear greatly corrupts the peace and civility in a town in the Twilight Zone. The Twilight Zone is a TV show from the 1960s, composed of separate short stories. This is a very unique show that touches on the fatal flaws of all humans, where most shows exaggerate the admirable characteristics of humans. In The Twilight Zone, there is a short story called, “Monsters Are Due On Maple Street,” by Rod Serling, where characters continuously search for a scapegoat, led by suspicion and fear. In, “Monsters Are Due On Maple Street,” the author discusses the evil weapons of humanity, including scapegoating and suspicion. These two weapons of humanity lead to the destruction of civility on Maple Street, as neighbors turn on one another. Suspicion is one of the dangerous weapons of humanity. In this scene, a peculiar meteor like object flew over Maple Street, causing all of the power to go out. A young boy, Tommy, presents the idea that aliens are behind this. “‘They sent four people...who looked just like humans… but they weren’t.’ There’s a quiet laughter at this...that comes from a desperate attempt to lighten the atmosphere. The neighbors look at one another...concerned,” (Serling, pg. 5,6). This quote shows that the crowd is starting to become suspicious of one another. The crowd is panicked and willing to believe anything, even though there is no proof saying that someone is an alien. Tommy declares that one of the families that live on Maple Street are aliens. The crowd now believes that someone isn’t who they say they are, just because a young boy decided that that was the only logical explanation. The suspicion is shattering the neighbors’ trust in each other. This may cause neighbors to turn on each other. In this scene, one of the neighbors, Les Goodman, tries to start his car, because no one else’s cars are working. “He stops suddenly as behind him…the car engine starts up all by itself...The crowd...continues to ask questions in an air of accusation,” (Serling, pg. 6,7). These stage directions show that when Les’s car starts, the crowd becomes immediately suspicious of Les. The crowd becomes

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