The Monsters are Due on Maple Street is an episode which takes places in an American suburb when suddenly a meteor object flies over head and afterwards all the electricity on the street goes dead. As the residents become more and more paranoid, they start accusing one another of being “aliens” and in cahoots with the UFO that was seen early. The paranoia heightens until one resident shoots and kills another, at which point all out hysteria breaks out, as the actual aliens watch the town from a hilltop destroy each other. This episode aired in 1960 — ten years after Joseph McCarthy first gained traction for accusing the U.S. State Department of harboring communists — is widely seen as a direct reference to McCarthyism and the Red Scare. Continuing the …show more content…
I see the underlying message of this episode to be that while the external threat of the Soviet Union was legitimate during the time of the Cold War, the largest threat would be destroying each other from the inside out with prejudices and paranoia, the same way the residents on Maple Street did as the Aliens looked on. The final example I wish to draw on serves as an example for South African Apartheid. The Science Fiction movie District 9 starts thirty years after aliens arrive on Earth, not to wage war or to acquire resources, but to find refuge from their planet that is dying. Most humans are not concerned with the welfare of these extraterrestrials, but to figure out how to master their advanced technology, and all of the aliens — or “Prawns” — are placed in a slum city in South Africa called District 9 in which they cannot
In the “Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” by Rod Serling, there are distinct ways events and characters in the story make the plot successful. One example of this is when one of the characters named Tommy said “They don’t want us to leave. That’s why they shut everything off...landing from outer space.” In this case, this quote indicates that Tommy feels as if monsters from outer space are controlling the electricity on the street. Similarly, the plot further develops when Les Goodman’s car starts on its own, “The car idles roughly, smoke coming from the exhaust, the frame shaking gently.” Consequently, this is crucial because it shows that this supposed power outage is not an ordinary occurrence. Finally, near the end of the play, the
When fear Seizes someone, they are no longer able to make rational decisions. In the science fiction short story “Monsters are due on Maple Street,” by Rod Serling, Season 1, episode 22, fear takes over almost an entire neighborhood. The twilight zone is a very old T.V. show in which the theme of the short shows usually based on all of the flaws in humanity. The First taste of prejudice is the very thought that creates pandemonium on Maple Street.
The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” is a screenplay by Rod Serling that was televised as part of the Twilight Zone television series, a popular series that began in 1959 and is still televised today. After reading and then watching the selection, I prefer the teleplay over the episode.
In both versions there are many differences and few similarities. Rod Serling, changed updates to relate time period to a modern theme. "The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street" 1960 version is black and white and the 2002 version is in color. The 1960 version is less violent how the 2002 version is very violent. The characters change for looking and dressing alike to look nothing alike in the 1960 episode everyone is white fancy as where the 2002 episode has people who don’t care who they look like and they don’t have the same skin color.
Imagine this – you feel so alone and scared so much so that you and your neighbors accuse, riot, and even murder each other. Well, this is exactly what happened in the teleplay “Monsters are due on Maple Street” originally broadcasted in 1960, written by Rod Serling. They were all afraid that aliens would terrorize and take them over. While in the 2003 version “Monsters are on Maple Street” they all finger point to the new neighbors who moved in the dark of the night. The fear of the unknown can cause people to turn on each other.
The series Twilight Zone is a show that combines science fiction with society. Every episode ends with a shocking, unexpected twist. “The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street” is an episode that informs society about the fear of prejudice and hysteria. In this episode, a loud shadow in the sky passes through Maple Street. The shadow is actually a meteor. Unexpected and strange things start to happen like the electricity and cars turning off. The people who live on Maple become very curious on what the meteor has done to the neighbors living on the street. A young boy named Tommy tells the adults that everything weird happening is because of the aliens from outer space, which he read about in a comic book. First the
“Sheer mayhem breaks out, neighbor battling neighbor, grabbing for rifles, bricks, even the hammer from Pete Van Horn’s body,” (Serling, page 15). This describes the final scene of a provocative short story in The Twilight Zone. The Twilight Zone is a televised show set in the 1960s with short episodes in no specific order. These stories all have the darkest of themes to share about humanity’s true nature. In the short story, “Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” by Rod Serling, the author contributes to the theme that prejudice and scapegoating are weapons of humanity. When the idea of prejudice first kicks in, Maple Street gets a little taste of madness.
The plot is unrealistic in “The Monsters are due on Maple Street” because, the power does not just go off without storm presence, cars do not just start by themselves, the Aliens are not real. First things first. Look here. “The Monsters are due on Maple Street” is all about the local town people’s power and electronics going out. They start to panic when Tommy starts talking about the Aliens. Steve and Les Goodman cars starts by themselves. The town people get violent. The plot is unrealistic unrealistic in “The Monsters are due on Maple Street.” They also start accusing each other and in the end someone ends up dead. I believe this plot is unrealistic because the
The Monsters on Maple Street is an episode from the TV series Twilight Zone. The episode is about aliens from Outer Space who cut off everyone's electricity on Maple Street. The aliens wanted to see if the humans would turn on each other which is exactly what they did. The humans all started to accuse each other and at the end, they started to be violent and hurt each other. The aliens lesson or message is that without someone to blame people make up people to blame.
Charlie pulls the trigger and shoots the monster. As the group approaches the monster, the find out that it’s Pete Van Horn… and he’s dead. It “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street”, everything stops working and turns off. The people blame aliens and all turn against one another. The plot is not realistic in “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” because the car started by itself, the people blamed the power outage on aliens, and Charlie shoots Pete because he believes he’s a monster.
Boom!! Pete’s dead. Charlie shot Pete. Pete was walking around seeing if everybody's power is off. Pete was walking In the shadow charlie got scared he thought Pete was a alien. This story is not realistic because Charlie shot Pete he said he thought he was a alien. Less Goodman’s car stared out of nowhere. A meteor flew overhead they thought it was a spaceship.
One thing that people do when they do not know a certain objective is that they might start to get enraged or frightened and they can start to turn very violent. The show called The Twilight Zone, is a series of short stories that follow different groups of people that face different problems. They all come back to the main theme that humans are really monsters. In the short story, Monsters are Due on Maple Street by Rod Serling a group of people soon find out that the power is cut and they are suspicious that an alien is behind this. It shows two weapons of humanity which are suspicion and scapegoating. There are some ways that suspicion led the humans to turn on each other and how it is shown to go against humans.
What if someone you knew was not who they were? What if they were aliens or terrorists? That’s what happens in the 1960 and the 2003 version of Rod Serling’5s teleplay. In the 1960 version the neighbors are accusing each other of being aliens and taking away each other’s power from their houses and cars. While in the 2003 version they think terrorists are doing this from the recent 9/11. This shows that fear of the unknown can cause people to turn on each other.
In the teleplay “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” by Rod Serling, aliens shut down the power and create chaos on Maple Street. Lights go off in people’s houses and neighbors no longer trust each other. Through the action, the author conveys fear and suspicion.
In the drama, ¨The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street¨ by Rod Serling, the plot is advanced by the importance of the events and characters’ actions by giving it interest and dimension. Tommy tells everyone about the monsters/aliens, but nobody believes him;¨They don't want us to leave.That's why they shut everything off,¨Tommy explains about the aliens, but no one believed him but soon after, it sparked the cause of the weird things happening.Charlie killed Pete Van Horn,¨You killed him, Charlie. You shot him dead!¨Charlie grabbed the gun and shot it at a dark figure that turned out to be Pete Van Horn, after that they begin to suspect Charlie is the monster. They all blame each other more intensely,¨I tell you, it's the kid.¨As the stress