The Themes Of Fear In Monsters Are Due 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

The weapon of prejudice shows how mayhem can develop out of the slightest bit of fear. In this particular scene, Les Goodman’s car started all by itself and the neighbors are suddenly aware of what they are doing and being very careful around Les and his family. Les Goodman is in his house with “various neighbors who stand around” as they talk in low voices, looking and pointing “sentry like” towards Les Goodman’s house (Serling, page 10). This evidence proves that the action of Les Goodman’s car starting all by itself can lead to prejudice. It will lead to prejudice because before this scene, the neighbors were content, but now they are second guessing everyone they know. The scene also shows that prejudice is a weapon of humanity because the people are turning one action of a car starting into a weapon, and using this weapon by gossiping about Goodman. A lot of the neighbors use prejudice in a different way too. In the following scene, Charlie just shot Pete Van Horn and his lights just mysteriously turned on in his house, “‘Why did the lights go on in your house?’ ‘What about it Charlie? How come you're the only one with the lights on now?’” (Serling, page 13). This quote shows that the way that the other neighbors are questioning Charlie, and there is a little spark of suspicion. This suspicion will lead to prejudice. Since later they believe that Charlie tried to kill Van Horn on purpose, the neighbors were quick to come to the belief that Charlie is guilty. This proves that prejudice is a weapon of humanity because

The author started by presenting the problem with monsters and how does it affect the human’s imagination. Next, Genoways presents a little bit of what happened during World War II, also “discussing the public panic that occurred after Orson Welles’s famous broadcast of War of the Worlds” (Genoways, 130). Later the author presents his legitimacy knowledge on both sides of the argument. Genoways uses examples of the real life event that happen in the United States in order to explain how the fear of the past is similar to the fear in now in days but deeper. Third, the author presents his point of view. Which is that if a human being gave in their fear will face the real possibility of losing their freedom. Lastly, he explains that humans need to find a way to being seen as a strong community, and that everywhere we go, there are

First of all, prejudice was shown by most of the people. One example is “Maybe you better tell us. Nothing’s working on this street. Nothing. No lights, no power, no radio. Nothing except one car of yours.” (Serling, 76) This quote demonstrates to this human flaw because only Goodman’s car is on and people believed that he was the alien even though people did not have any proof. An example is “Go ahead Steve. What kind of “radio set” you workin’ on?” (Serling, 81) This quote means that they are not sure to trust Steve yet

“Fear and euphoria are dominant forces, and fear is many multiples the size of euphoria” - Alan Greenspan. New York author, Alan Greenspan, here is explaining that the threat fear presents is really no different than the state of intensity caused by euphoria. In Andrew J. Hoffman’s anthology, Monsters, there is substantial evidence that both fear and euphoria are inflicted upon men, by female monsters. The two threats men typically face against women are temptation and emasculation. Thus, in mythology and folklore, female monsters exemplify the impulse of desire (sexually) for men, and male weakness. These are creature that are lusted after and yet, still feared because of their power. Men find female monsters both fearsome and euphoric and will always threaten their dominance and control.

dichotomy of fear and reason, and supports this focus by displaying examples of expertise in the

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.

Theodore Roosevelt once said, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.” What is fear? Fear can be a noun or a verb. In the noun form, it is an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat. In the verb form, it is to be afraid of someone or something that is dangerous, painful, or threatening. If one person looks into fear, then that person becomes feared. But imagine a whole society or community looking into fear. The fear not only gets larger as it spreads, but it also gets more fearful than it already is. The power of fear can be displayed in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and in Ronald Oakley’s “The Great Fear”. As fear moves on from one mind to the next, it leaves the

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.

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

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