An important theme in “The Monsters are due on Maple Street” by Rod Serling is sometimes fear leads you to look for a scapegoat. In countless situations in this short story, the characters experience pangs of fear that are due the “aliens coming.” Because of their fear, it feels good to blame this situation on somebody else in the neighborhood. The first realization of something ghastly happened when Tommy mentioned his aliens story. Tommy states, on page 360, “They don’t want us to leave. That’s they shut everything off.” After some questioning from Steve, Tommy clarifies his statement by saying, “It’s always that way, in every story I’ve ever read about a ship landing from outer space. Shortly after this proclamation, the crowd gets very …show more content…
For instance, when Les’ car started by itself a group of people began suspecting Les. Steve admits his concerns when he says, “We’re all on a monster kick, Les. Seems that the general impression holds that maybe one family isn’t what we think they are.” Regardless of anything Les said, his car starting like that scared everyone so badly that they started suspecting Les to be connected to the aliens. Subsequently the group turns on Steve because of his home-radio set. Don tells Steve their concerns when he says, “Myra’s talked about how there's been plenty of nights you sort down in your basement working’ on some sort of radio or something. Well, none of us have ever seen that radio-” Undoubtedly, Steve does not want to be the scapegoat, so he gets scared for what his neighbors might think of him. Because of this, he leads them to blame Tommy. As we later find out, every character on the block is innocent; their fears got to them, and eventually led them to believe their fellow neighbors and friends are involved with aliens and monsters. “In “The Monsters are due on Maple Street” an important theme is sometimes your fear leads you to look for a scapegoat in any given
Monster Essay A substantial of people in today's society have been pressured into doing bad things with their friends. In the book, Monster, Steve Harmon was a victim of peer pressure. Many people every day are in the same position Steve was in.
“There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices-to be found only in the minds of men.” This is the message that Rod Serling tried to convey to fans of The Twilight Zone through an episode called “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street.” The episode first aired in 1960, and a new version was made in 2003 called “The Monsters on Maple Street.” In the original, the power goes out because of a meteor and avid comic book reader Tommy convinces the whole street that there are aliens among them, except for voice of reason Steve Brand. In the remake, an entire street becomes fearful of terrorists after a power outage following an orange alert, except for Will Marshall, who believes the hysteria is crazy. Both versions prove that fear of the unknown can cause people to
Pete Van Horn went over to floral street to see if anything was going on weird their. Tommy said he has read this before in a comic book the neighborhood laughs at him. Steve says wait a minute what Tommy yeah
There was the abduction of Bernie and Betty Hill, they both were driving home on the night of September 19, 1961 on a rural highway in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The Hills were a extremely couple, Bernie had made a living as a postman, Betty had made hers as a social worker,also were very active in their community and the civil rights movement. On the drive home they were on a isolated road driving through the mountains at that point is where the couple had calmed to see a bright light hovering in the sky. The object began to follow the car, they arrived home at about 5 a.m. unable to remember how they got home were they had been or anything that happened for about two hours after driving through the mountains that night. They couldn’t shake the feeling that something had happened they knew something bad had to happen. It took awhile for them to remember but eventually the couple had remembered what took place on that awful night,they had been abducted by Aliens. The night was cloudless and starry, the Hills stopped for coffee and figured that they could make it home but 3 a.m. but didn’t make it until about 5.(Quartz
“Coyote and the Enemy Aliens” is a satirical commentary that effectively expounds on the intense objectification and dehumanization of Japanese Canadians during the colonial Canadian era. By depicting the grotesque living conditions, the Japanese were subjected to, King is able to critique the racist perspectives of the Canadian society. King condemns the actions of colonial white-men, depicting them as creatures engulfed in moral blindness that strive to fabricate an ideal white world. Moreover, King vividly portrays the idea of social dynamics, expounding on the helplessness of Citizens against dominant political powers. King also introduces an idea of conformity, showcasing how citizens gradually adapt to
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
The people on Maple Street were very flustered at everything, so their human minds started to blame all their long-time friends. One of the many times they did this was when they tried to say that Steve Brand, (the person who was fixing his care while this whole incident happened), was the monster. On page 8 of the play, it quotes “there’s been plenty of times you spend hours down in your basement workin’ on some kind of radio or something. Well, none of us have ever seen that radio.” Also, Charlie was the person that really drove everybody to believe in the monster. Towards the end of the story, Charlie shoots Pete Van Horn in the quote, “Charlie swings around, raises the gun, and suddenly pulls the trigger. The sound of the shot explodes
“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
Have you ever heard of aliens landing on Earth and turning all the power off on one street? Well on “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” they do. It all starts one day when everybody was having a good time outside doing yard work and playing. Then, out of nowhere a HUGE meteor passes overhead. After that all the power goes out even the cars and radios. A fourteen year old boy, Tommy, says that the meteor was a alien space ship, and that there are four aliens among them that look just like humans. After a few hours everybody starts accusing each other, fighting, and shooting each other. Then we (the readers) find out that it was aliens all along, but they never got off the spaceship. They just turned
Sometimes thoughts can be more powerful than actions. In the story “The Monsters are due on Maple Street” the narrator says “There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, and prejudices to be found only in the minds of men.” The text’s meaning is sometimes misunderstood.
The major point in this play is to show us that everyone is innocent until proven guilty and that even when all the obvious facts point to someone don’t rush to conclusions just yet because you have to get deeper until you are 100% positive with strong facts to backup your answer. If you disagree with me then take this into consideration “What if you were the person being tried when you know you didn't do it” take that and think would I want someone to just go off the based facts? You probably wouldn't, you would want someone like juror eight to come and dig all the way down. A lot of plays are similar to 12 Angry Men, but one in particular is “The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street” these two plays connect in various topics. One of the ways
Rod Serling’s message to the readers of “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” is that humans can create danger when there wasn’t any.
In the drama, “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street,” by Rod Serling, Charlie quickly suspects Tommy because he wants to keep the focus off of him. In order to keep the focus off of him, he blames Tommy. They believed Charlie because the residents of Maple Street do not want to be the scapegoat, or the person to blame.
Rod Serling’s message to the readers of “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” is Don’t judge people off little evidence or fear. The theme begins to become apparent in the story when everything stops working, as people start to notice they get flustered. In the text Tommy says, “ In all the alien books I read they always send someone down before to prepare for landing and they look just like humans,” in response suspicions rise and everyone is high alert. In the text it says, “That Les Goodman’s car was not starting and when he finally gave up and went to the people on the street the car started by itself.” This shows that nothing was working, but his car making the Goodmans look bad and that they were the family sent first because their