Have you ever experienced a group turning into a mob or people being influenced to join the mob? Everyone forcing each other and going against each other just ,because someone wants them to? The Twilight Zones, “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street” written by Rod Serling, and the book “The Wave” written by Todd Strasser, both are based around a group turning into a mob. In “The Wave” a school experiment goes wrong. After teacher Ben Ross decides he wants to recreate the Holocaust in his classroom, the project grows out of hand and in the end almost the whole school has turned to The Wave. However, this book relates ,because it shows how everyone is being pressured to join into this group. In The Twilight Zones, “The Monsters are Due on Maple …show more content…
Street”, after there is a sight of a spaceship, the residents on Maple St. start to get shaky. After lights go out and cars stop working, everyone in the neighborhood starts blaming everyone else for the unexplainable actions happening. Fear starts to influence them. The Twilight Zones, “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street”, can relate to a group turning into a mob and influence, because in the beginning when the residents on Maple Street just think that the weird things are going on are normal, however, later when fear starts kicking in and people start blaming each other for the things that are happening, a peaceful group turns into a screaming mob.
This is shown in the excerpt from the short story, “Maple Street in the last calm and reflective moments...” and the excerpt , ”We move to a series of close-ups of various people as they shout, accuse, scream...” these two excerpts show that the a group turned into a mob ,because in the first excerpt it shows how calm and peaceful everything is and how it seems as if everyone is getting along together. However, in the second excerpt it shows how a peaceful crowd could turn into a mob , because when everyone started blaming each other pandemonium broke out. This book also explains influence , because the residents are being influenced by fear to freak out. In the book it states , “[The camera pans along the faces of the people as they stare somehow caught up by this revelation and somehow, illogically, widely, frightened]” this relates ,because fear is getting into their systems and influencing them to freak out. Overall, The Twilight Zones, “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street” , can relate to a group turning into a mob and influence by
fear. The book The Wave, written by Todd Strasser is able to relate to the sentence that a group can turn into a mob and that people can be forced to join the mob or influence. It can relate , because a small classroom experiment, turned into a huge schoolwide mob. This mob is causing children to get hurt and people are being forced to join the mob. In the book it states, “What had begun as a simple history experiment had become a fad that was spreading outside his classroom” this relates to the point of a crowd turning into a mob ,because it shows how a small classroom thing is now turning into a big school-wide problem. This book also relates to a crowd turning a mob ,because in the story it states,”... and threw her down on the grass” this relates to people being forced to join the mob ,because this quote was after the main character was being forced to join the mob and stop talking bad about the project. This book also relates to influence , because everyone apart of the Wave are trying to force others to join The Wave. In the book it states, “The senior starting telling us how great The Wave was. He said that the more kids who joined , the better it would get.” this relates to influence, because this senior is trying to influence these kids to join The Wave with good things about The Wave. Overall, the book The Wave, relates to how a group can turn into a mob and influence. In conclusion, the two stories , The Wave written by Todd Strasser, and the Twilight Zones The Monsters are Due on Maple Street, can both can relate to how a group can turn into a mob and influence. Such as the classroom experiment turning into a huge mob, and fear influencing the residents of Maple Street to turn on each other. With quotes from these two stories, I was able to support my claims. Both of the authors explain groups turning into mobs and influence.
The different groups of friends were completely different from each other. There was the group that wanted to be popular and get all the girls with a party, and there was a group that had all the music records that the other needed. That was the group that was trying to make money as well. Both parties also wanted girls. The fact that these two groups had seemingly presented themselves as gangs shows how much they wanted to be apart from each other. The gangs symbolized the separatism of the youth. The catch to their separateness is that they really needed one another to get what they wanted. The one group needed music and the other group needed money. They ended up making a deal with each other, which was conspired by Bacc. The fact that they were able to come together like that symbolized that they really should be together.
Two articles, in particular, help clarify and explain this trend. The first is “The Genocidal Killer in the Mirror” by Crispin Sartwell, who explains how so many average people can be turned into hordes of willing and eager killers. In the case of Rwandan, Sartwell notes how the Hutu government ordered the mass-killings of the Tutsis for the “greater good” of it’s people, forcing the people to see the Tutsis as schemers and assassins to prevent personal injury to themselves and their loved ones. The other article, was Erich Fromm’s “Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem”, in which Fromm illustrates how many can be forced into becoming an automatized man, who simply does as he is told by his superiors, allowing him to become a killer without conscience. Fromm also discusses the importance of group mentality upon morality, and how when subjects are viewed as a group, they can be demonized and easily passed off as subhuman. Though both Crispin Sartwell’s article “The Genocidal Killer in the Mirror” and Erich Fromm’ piece “Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem” are from two vastly different time periods, the Cold War era with its apocalyptic fears and the post- Col...
In Night, he informs his reader of many examples on how a myriad of good people turn into brutes. They see horrific actions, therefore, they cannot help by becoming a brute. They experience their innocent family members being burned alive, innocent people dieing from starvation due to a minuscule proportion of food, and innocent people going to take a shower and not coming out because truly, it is a gas chamber and all f...
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.
“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”. In the book the Lord of the Flies by William Golding and the episode “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” by Rod Serling both revolve around a society who creates this monster in them that is made out of fear, paranoia, and savagery. They both show how just a small group of people can go mad and destroy everything out of fear.
Chris, for example, enjoyed being disconnected from society. He could sit through long periods of solitude without speaking to another human being and go unfazed. Chris even called himself Alex as a symbol of not belonging to anyone. In an excerpt from the novel, Into the Wild, when Gallien asked whether or not he had a license for hunting, Alex scoffed, “‘Hell no. How I feel myself is none of the government’s business. Fuck their stupid rules’” (Krakauer 6). He had set aside regulations made in society and replaced them with his rules carved from his own morals. In a way, he doesn’t want to be part of a society a man like his father had so much success and respect in. He saw the inner workings and power of a man held so high in his field; Walter could turn his household into a battlefield. Another nature dweller, Krakauer, reflected on what led him to engage in those life risking activities, something Chris never had a chance to do because his trip proved fatal. With a more experienced perception of reality, he wrote, "At that stage of my youth, death remained as abstract a concept as non-Euclidean geometry or marriage. I didn 't yet appreciate its terrible finality or the havoc it could wreak on those who 'd entrusted the deceased with their hearts" (Krakauer 155). Chris didn’t care for in a high enough degree what the loss of his life could do to those who entrusted him with it, and neither did Krakauer when he had his mind set on reaching the top of the Devil’s Thumb alone. These patterns are critical because it’s another component that ties rioters together under one cause and can help us make an educated guess on who is most likely to join
In the novel the Lord of the Flies many leadership changes occurred, and laws were enforced. The story started off when the children from a plane get stranded on an island. A boy Ralph established himself as a leader and wanted to start a community on the island but it backfired when the others did not want to help and would rather have fun. Eventually the community would split and it would fall into turmoil after that. The book shows many ways where the group or the boys affects Ralph and the community to a point where rules are cages and problems happen and Ralph wants it his way but the group wants it theirs. In the novel the Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the theme that groups can affect individuals is shown when groups of peoples
The brothers’ vigilante deviance has many causes, all stemming form the Social theory of deviance. The Labeling, Conflict and Strain theories are three of the most important theories for understanding what caused the brothers to start, continue, and stop killing the mafia. Each of the theories plays a part in causing the brothers’ to kill, but without all of them they would not have the acceptance and success that they did. These theories, even though they are meant for the real world are just as relevant for works of fiction in movies and books.
Society often pressures individuals within it to conform to different ideals and norms. This stems from the fact that individuals in a society are expected to act in a certain way. If a person or group of people do not satisfy society’s expectations, they are looked down upon by others. This can lead to individuals isolating themselves from others, or being isolated from others, because they are considered as outcasts. The emotional turmoil that can result from this, as well as the internal conflict of whether or not to conform, can transform an individual into a completely different person. This transformation can either be beneficial or harmful to the individual as well as those around them. The individual can become an improved version of himself or herself but conversely, they can become violent, rebellious and destructive. The novels Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk and A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess both explore the negative effects experienced by individuals living within the confines of society’s narrow-mindedness. In A Clockwork Orange, protagonist Alex was the leader of a small group of teenage criminals. He did not have a healthy relationship with either one of his parents or with others around him. Instead he spent most of his time alone during the day and at night roamed the streets in search of victims he could mug or rape. In Fight Club the unnamed protagonist was an outcast in his community. He chose to distance and isolate himself from others and as a result had no friends, with the exception of Tyler Durden and Marla Singer. Due to his isolation, he often participated in nightly fights that took place in Fight Club so that he could relieve his anxiety and stress. In this way, Alex and the unnamed protagoni...
Have you ever witnessed or participated in an act of mob mentality? Many people without realizing it take part in a form of mob mentality, whether it is at a sporting event, concert, or even a protest or riot; these are all forms of mob mentality. The term “mob mentality” is usually something negative, where large groups of people deindivduate themselves. People lose control and are pressured to fit in with what the rest of the crowd is doing. In the book, A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens, mob mentality has a big impact on the plot. A Tale of Two Cities, shows how mob mentality ties in with history repeating itself, portraying manslaughter and homicide, and also depicting riots.
A part of human nature is inherently chaotic and “barbaric.” These natural impulses, however, are generally balanced by the human desire for leadership and structure. In Lord of the Flies, William Golding discusses what may happen in a scenario in which there is a lack of societal structure and constraints. Golding wants the reader to understand that humans have an innate desire to be primitive- describing it as “mankind 's essential illness”- that is usually suppressed by an equal desire for order. Under extreme circumstances, humans may revert back to their most basic impulses that they usually keep suppressed due to social norms. Throughout the book, the boys’ primitive behavior is heightened by their lack of a leader and, eventually, their
Mob mentality is the idea that when a big group of people are together they loose their sense of individualism and moral constraints to follow blindly what they are told. During the French Revolution mobs were highly prevalent as many of the population were starving, poor, and angry. In A Tale of Two Cities the author, Charles Dickens criticizes mobs by showing how dangerous they can be in many scenes.
The Gathering is both a work of speculative fiction and a children’s book. Speculative fiction is a genre that involves things that do not exist in normal life and they are often allegories. The Gathering is ultimately an allegory for fascism and its negative effects but there are many aspects to the story that must be taken into consideration.
In a movie Monsters University (Dan Scanlon, 2013) the Althusser’s Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses theory can be seen through representing the influence of ideology by Ideological State Apparatus’ institutions that mostly impact on characters rather than influence of Repressive State Apparatus (Louise Althusser, 1970).