Rod Sterling's message to the readers of “Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” is to not let fear control your actions. The theme begins to appear in the story when the power on Maple Street suddenly goes out and no technology works, not even hand-held radios. Then, Tommy introduces the idea that aliens have landed and disguised as an ordinary family. After that has been explained, the scene turns to Les Goodman who is trying to start his car. Once he realizes his car won't start up, he turns and walks away. Just as he is three feet away from it, his car starts up. Man One then says, “He got the car started somehow. He got his car started! [The people stare, somehow caught up by this revelation and somehow, illogically, wildly, frightened.” Moments …show more content…
later,”The people pick this up and now their murmuring becomes a loud chant filling the air with Accusations and demands for action...]”This shows that after one single unexplained action, just like that of Les’s car starting on its own, the people started accusing Les of being an alien. Thus, showing that once they had the idea of aliens being on earth, the fear made the people start searching for a scapegoat to explain what was going on. They let the fear of the car starting on its own and aliens fog their mind, thus making the neighbors accuse someone of being someone else, even when they knew him for years. Later in the story, Les Goodman's stands on his porch defending himself, the people don’t give up and stand outside of their house at night with candles in their hand.
Steve tries to support Les when Charlie starts to accuse Steve of being too anxious when Don brings up a questioning activity that Steve has. Don says, “ There's no need gettin' so upset, Steve. It's just that...well...Myra's talked about how there's been plenty of nights you spend hours down in your basement workin' on some kind of radio or something. Well, none of us have ever seen that radio--”Everyone, then turns to Steve and starts backing away and stare at him hesitantly, not able to tell if he is an alien or just a normal person. In conclusion, when the people on Maple Street had an unexplained incident they all let fear take control of their minds and brought up any evidence to have against one of their neighbors. Just as Steve said in the story, “You're standing here all set to crucify - all set to find a scapegoat - all desperate to point some kind of a finger at a neighbor! Well now look, friends, the only thing that's gonna happen is that we'll eat each other up alive-” Or how during the Cold War all the citizens in America turned against one another and started what is now called “McCarthyism”, how everyone learned to let fear take control, and make them suspicious of everyone they turned to. Rod Serling brought this problem in this episode because it is a real-world problem that has come up so
many times in history. He wanted to let people be aware of the problem that was happening in the world at that time.
If you were in a situation where you had no idea what was going on, and someone proposed an idea that could help you, and give you some direction, would you believe them? In both stories, The Twilight Zone “The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street”, and All Summer In A Day, the theme is expressed that a single idea can turn a crowd into a mob. Something as little as one idea can turn people against one another, and get them to do things they might regret. In The Twilight Zone “The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street,” this is demonstrated when everyone is in a frenzy, and Charlie ends up shooting Pete Vanhorn. In All Summer In A Day, William’s claims lead to Margot’s condemnation, and her being locked in a closet. A combination of confusion and imagination can lead to something dangerous and chaotic pretty easily.
The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street, a teleplay written by Rod Serling, starts in the late afternoon on Maple Street USA. Something bright flies overhead and the power goes out and the people who live there get advice from a 12 year old and get scared there are aliens out there. Tommy, the 12 year old, told them about the movies and comics that he has read. The narrator is an observer that is describing what happens while everyone goes mad trying to find a scapegoat. Steve is the only person who tries to reason with everyone while they are getting suspicious and trying to blame a scapegoat. This teleplay shows some of the human flaws that the people on maple street will encounter during their little power outage.
Herd behavior is when individuals in a group make a choice and everyone else unconsciously follows them. This usually takes place when under pressure or while in danger. Either good or bad decisions can come from this. In the teleplay “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street” written by Rod Serling, the article “Why Do People Follow the Crowd” written by ABC News, and “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the three sources all discuss how mob mentality and herd behavior can negatively affect people’s morals and thinking process. Mob mentality and herd behavior will inevitably lead to a loss of integrity and common sense, since members will follow the group and not their on free will, which leads to a negative
?The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street? is a story about the paranoia of regular people. When the power and phone lines stop working on Maple Street, the residents become hostile. One boy puts an idea into their heads: that aliens impersonating humans have done it. This single thought catalysts and soon all of the neighbors are ready to hurt each other for answers. ?The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street? is a good play to see for all ages.
Frankenstein is the story of an eccentric scientist whose masterful creation, a monster composed of sown together appendages of dead bodies, escapes and is now loose in the country. In Frankenstein, Mary Shelly’s diction enhances fear-provoking imagery in order to induce apprehension and suspense on the reader. Throughout this horrifying account, the reader is almost ‘told’ how to feel – generally a feeling of uneasiness or fright. The author’s diction makes the images throughout the story more vivid and dramatic, so dramatic that it can almost make you shudder.
The very first question Kelly asks Sale is an accusation and comes across very harshly to the reader. He asks, "Other than arson and a lot of vandalism, what did the Luddites accomplish in the long run?"(243). After reading this first question, I felt a little sorry for Sale, and I was mad at Kelly for asking such an abrupt question. But my sympathy soon ended when Kelly continued on in the interview. Sale proudly explains and defends the beliefs of his group, the Luddites. But it is clear that Kelly has a strong opposing opinion. He immediately wants to weaken the character of Sale so that the reader is liable to side more with Kelly, himself. This is a very effective strategy on Kelly's part because I found myself agreeing with him more than I did with Sale.
In the episode a figure appears in the distance. “A hand fires a rifle. A fist clenches. A hand grabs the hammer from Van Horn’s body, etc.” In reaction to the figure, and still not knowing anything, Charlie gets his shotgun. Without even calling out a warning, Charlie shoots the approaching figure, which turns out to be neighbor Pete Van Horn. This shows how paranoid everyone is that even out of fear they have let things get out of hand. This led to an innocent man’s death. The man didn’t even have a chance to identify himself.
Carol Tavris was trying to get across the point that people act different in different situations. When it comes to ones personal safety then they act different. One person would get up at the first sign of danger, or go to someone’s help. But when there are other people involved and they are in a strange environment they don’t know how to act. They aren’t sure whether smoke pouring into a room or any other threatening situation is normal. They don’t want to get embarrassed or make a fool of themselves.
"Pan 's Labyrinth" is directed by Guillermo del Toro, is a magical realism drama. The screen shows the magical world of bizarre situations, a fictional out of Pluto 's daughter "Ophelia" to roam the world. To 1944 as the background, the fascist murder of guerrilla fighters as a real-world story. The whole film myth and reality are intertwined, is a complete metaphor and reflection on the Spanish civil war. One side is the little girl innocent fairy tale, while the Nazis are inhuman torture and slaughter. Two living scenes intertwined in a film, brings out a moral and human conflict. This is the child to see everything in the eyes, and what we see, it seems that the other world.
First thing to remember, Humans react to the horror by the amount of fear they have inside of them. In fact, King's short story “Strawberry spring” causes fear to the people because it’s something that would come around every eight years.(Strawberry
The boy begins the panic by saying there are aliens and that they have been living on maple street disguised as humans. He says he has read this kind of story in his comic books and this gets into the adults minds. They start getting paranoid. Nothing gets any better once the character charlie begins leading a witch hunt and starts to blame people on anyone doing anything “suspicious”. Everyone is to blame for the violence that occurs on the street. Everyone allowed their fear and paranoia get the best of them and they went along with what the boy said and even along with randomly accusing people. The one character that tried to calm the situation and could tell what would happen with leading a witch hunt and having this go any further is steve. Throughout the story he tries to lessons people 's fear and show how outrageous they all were being. But even he by the end of it fell to the fear of the unknown and his paranoia.
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
On the surface, Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook (2014) is a horror film that uses a mythical monster to torture an already broken family. It presents the creature as a monster that one could picture originating from Grimm’s Fair Tails. Kent introduces the idea of the Babadook monster through a twisted children’s pop-up book. In the keeping with the troupes of the horror film genre, the book appears on the Samuels Vanek’s (Noah Wiseman) shelf from an unknown place. When Amelia Vanek (Essie Davis) tries to remove or dispose of the book it returns to them. As The Babadook further explores the world of Amelia and Sam, the highly inhibiting feelings of grief in Amelia are revealed. They stem from the death of her husband, Oskar Vanek (Benjamin Winspear),
For instance, I grew up in a neighborhood where many outsider where afraid to come. Personally I never felt in danger because statistically speaking there where slip to no chances of me being killed or hurt unless I put myself in harm’s way. Most of the people in my neighborhood who died passed because they had ties to something gang related or was associated with something gang related and happen to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. The news was obligated to print it because it is
A car may run over you, and there's always a banana skin or orange peel, to say nothing of fallen ladders." This demonstrates a unique way to simply know something might or is going to occur. We do face the Main character which is James Clarence. ( August Heat) The Author interprets that line in the story of warning “If something happens don’t think It was an accident, because I warned you.” ( Bald Man - August Heat) In anticipation, James had met Atkinson while he walked for six miles until he found a path that he decided to take.That path leads him to the Monumental Mason worker in English and Italian Marbles shop. The man working seemed very amiable and hardworking. In addition, he greeted James as an old friend and even invited him to supper, however, when the man tells this to James, we start to assume that there's something unnatural and uncanny about him. There was just one thing simply not right about him. James didn’t know how to describe the feeling he had. As a result, the reader may transition from feeling timid to panicked, this situation will lead them to feel fearful and question him/ her -self as to why he told him such tragedy that could happen to