Maple Street Les Goodman Summary

Now comes the other necessary component to the story. Scapegoating. The scapegoating in the story comes from the suspicion that is first formed at the beginning of the story which put together, creates the chaos and destruction found in the story. On page 7, the people of Maple Street just watched Les Goodman try to turn on his car and saw him fail to do so. But then, his car turns on without him doing anything which leaves everyone on Maple Street suspicious, wondering why his car turned on and the reader can see that everyone on. Maple Street is starting to form ideas in their heads about Les Goodman. Don ponders "’Well, maybe you better tell us. There's nothing working working on this street. Nothing. No lights, no power, no radio. (And

then meaningfully) Nothing except one car - yours!’” (Serling, page 7). This evidence from the text is the first accusation that was made. This accusation basically gave everyone on Maple Street the idea that it was okay to start accusing people and that they had to. It also sent a message to everyone.

That message was that anything out of the ordinary or anything weird that happens on Maple Street, is proof that that person is the monster. This may seem like a crazy thing to do, but it’s really not crazy. Humans in general just seem to have the need to know the answer to everything. And if they don’t know what the answer is or can’t find an answer, then they’ll automatically resort to scapegoating and will use that as their answer. So it may seem that what the people of Maple Street are doing is ridiculous, but it really is just human nature. On page 10, everyone on Maple Street has tried to incriminate Les Goodman, but he defends himself by saying that he has insomnia. His fellow neighbors walk away, except some stay and are still on edge. Charlie says “‘Any guy who’d spend his time lookin’ up at the sky early in the morning- there’s something that’s wrong with that kind of person...Under normal circumstances, we’d let it go by, but these aren’t normal circumstances...It’s like going back into the dark ages,’” (Serling, page 10). This quote shows that any little weird thing people do is considered evidence that they’re a

monster. It also shows that they’re scapegoating because the circumstances are different, when they’re not all that different.

They are just in a power outage where someone told them a story about aliens coming to Earth. The only thing different is that some items are gaining and losing power. But that’s still not very different because lights flicker during power outages. It’s the story that made them act this way with the scapegoating and suspicion. And the part about the dark ages is foreshadowing how the situation will get much worse because in the dark ages, there was lots of persecution. This story also seems to be telling the readers that humans form ideas in their heads about a situation based off of minor differences. In the situation happening in the story, they have a power outage with items turning on and off. Not much of a difference from a normal power outage, but yet they consider it a a special circumstance. On page 11, Steve goes to talk to Les Goodman about what’s going on and Charlie remind him that he’s not eliminated from the list of suspects yet, and them Steve reminds him that none of them are above suspicion. Then Steve says “‘...Lets pick out every idiosyncrasy of every man, woman, and child on this whole street...to get rid of all the suspects. Narrow them down for

you. Make it easier,’” (Serling, page 11). This line shows that Steve can see what everyone is trying to do. They're picking out every weird and unusual thing that each person does to try and find out who the monsters are. This also seems like the people on Maple Street take this as almost an order because they do exactly what Steve said in the quote. This only proves that people perceive situations and information differently. Everyone on Maple Street seems to be taking this whole situation seriously except for Steve who seems to be taking the situation as a joke. Steve also seems to believe that everyone understands the situation they’re in as a joke, when they really don’t think it is. This is making some of his statements understood differently than expected, which happens with everyone in all situations.
So now that the readers know about some of the early types of scapegoating happening in the story, let’s see how more types of scapegoating lead to the disastrous fallout found in “Monsters are Due on Maple Street”. On page 13, a dark figure starts walking towards all the neighbors gathered on Maple Street. Everyone thinks that this dark figure is the monster coming and they all get ready to defend themselves. The stage directions say "’We see a CLOSE SHOT of a hammer on the hip of the walking figure. Charlie pulls the trigger...The figure stumbles forward onto his knees and then falls forward on his face,’" (Serling, page 13). In this quote, a dark figure is coming up to the people gathered on Maple Street and Charlie, without any thought, shots a gun at him and kills him. Since he immediately killed the dark figure who the reader knows isn't a monster, it tells the readers that everyone on Maple Street is overcome with fear and that they are blaming everything and anything for what’s happening. This also tells the reader that in situations where there is lots of scapegoating, suspicion, and uncertainty because people are trying to find an answer to something that when their believed answer arrives, then they will not act rationally and will do the first thing that comes to their head. In this situation, it was to shoot at the figure but this could be different in other situations. On page 15, the people of Maple Street are certain that Charlie is the alien, but then Charlie accuses Tommy. So everyone goes after Tommy. But then lights start going on and off in other peoples’ houses and everyone is different people and sheer mayhem breaks out. Charlie, Man One, Woman One, Don and Les Goodman say “‘It isn’t the kid...It’s Bob Weaver’s house.’ ‘It’s the Williams’ house!’ ‘It’s the kid, I tell ya!’ ‘It’s Charlie. He’s the one,’“ (Serling, page 15). This quote shows the reader how the people aren’t even asking anymore. They’re just firing accusations at people. This quote also shows that the mob the people were in is now breaking apart into chaos because no one is agreeing on who the monster is. They are no longer thinking as one, but they are still not thinking normally. They are still trained to the topic of monsters, but since no one is agreeing anymore, this situation can officially be labeled as chaos. Chaos can only happen when humans fully give in to what is happening and when they are so consumed in fear, suspicion, and uncertainty that they are just using anything to explain what is happening. This chaos can happen to everyone because it is simply another flaw in human nature. Also on page 15, the author gives a description of what this chaos is like. The stage directions tell the reader this by saying "’...we see panic stricken neighbors with lights coming off and on their faces...people shout, accuse, and scream at one another. Sheer mayhem breaks out, neighbor battling neighbor, grabbing for rifles, bricks, even the hammer from Van Horn's body,’” (Serling, page 15). This shows the fallout of what all the scapegoating led to. It led to all of them just accusing, attacking, and frightening others through sheer chaos! This shows the effects of scapegoating. And even though these effects of scapegoating seem like something that’s terrible when reading this story, they are found as inevitable when faced with these circumstances in real life because they are human nature, which makes the thought even scarier.
The “Twilight Zone”, the several stories encompassing the fear in humans told by the mysterious Rod Serling. In “Monsters are Due on Maple Street” by Rod Serling, the author shows the reader that suspicion and scapegoating can lead to chaos and destruction. At one point in the story, Tommy tells everyone a story of aliens coming to Earth who seem like humans, but who are really aliens which causes the mood to turn into a suspicious mood which later turns into chaos (Serling page 6). Later in the story, Steve claims that no one is above suspicion and jokes around saying that they should pick out every flaw everyone has and use it to accuse them. His neighbors then seem to take this as an order and start accusing each other which starts them on the road leading to their destruction. Then finally, towards the end of the story, everyone ends up just accusing different people and sheer mayhem or chaos breaks out and soon after, destruction occurs. Sounds crazy right? Well, imagine that everyone around you was so overcome with fear that they began running around screaming, accusing, and picking up weapons that were pointing at everyone including you.