Analysis of The Monsters are Due on Maple Street by Rod Serling (Literary Essay Sample)

In the story “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street” ,by Rod Serling, The residents on Maple Street hear a  noise then all of a sudden the electricity goes out and panic spreads.The residents start to suspect one another of being untruthful of their identity and chaos emerges .Accusations and careless actions will always occur when a dispute happens.This is implied because people betray each other and people are fearful of what's going on. 

Sterling uses the characters action and dialogue to support the themes of “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street” which are accusations. A strong example of this is,  after Les Goodman gets accused of being an Alien due to his car starting and explains he has insomnia,Charlie doesn't believe him. Sterling writes,”That don't prove a thing. Any guy who'd spend his time lookin' up at the sky early in the morning - well there's something wrong with that kind of a person. There's something that ain't legitimate. Maybe under normal circumstances we could let it go by, but these aren't normal circumstances….” (pg 10 ). This dialog supports the theme because it explains how Charlie is accusing Les Goodman of lying about his insomnia. In addition to this quote, after Steve tells Charlie to stop accusing everyone, Charlie states “You sound real anxious to have that happen, Steve.I think we better  keep our eye on you too.”(pg.11). This explains how every word said can be used to accuse you.

Sterling uses the characters action and dialogue to support the themes of “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street” which is carelessness . A strong example of this is, when a dark figure approaches the crowd and  Charlie shoots it without hesitation. Sterling writes,“‘Pete Van Horn! He was just gonna go over to the nextblock to see if the power was on’-- ‘Woman You killed him, Charlie. You shot him dead!’ ‘But...but I didn't know who he was. I certainly didn't know who he was. He comes walkin' out of the darkness - how am I supposed to know who he was? [He grabs Steve.] Steve - you know why I shot! How was I supposed to know he wasn't a monster or something? [He grabs Don now.] We're all scared of the same thing. I was just tryin' to...tryin' to protect my home, that's all! Look, all of you, that's all I was tryin' to do. [He looks down wildly at the body.) I didn't know it was somebody we knew! I didn't know’” (pg 13-14).This action supports the theme because it shows how even though Charlie didn’t know what he was looking at ,he thought the worst of the worst and shot Pete. Additionally, after everyone starts to be accused,chaos appears and Serling writes “[A fist crashes at Steve's face, staggering him back out of shot. There are several close up camera shots suggesting the coming of violence. A hand fires a rifle. A fist clenches. A hand grabs the hammer from Van Horn's body, etc.”(pg 16). This explains how careless actions will occur when everyone is trying to protect themself.

In summary emotions and careless actions can be used to destroy yourself and the people around you. Accusations can destroy any type of trust that is in its way, even the best of trust can not be safe from accusations. Carelessness can cause damage to anyone and anything around you, to your family all the way to a stranger, you can give them pain from emotional to physical. Nothing can stop accusations and carelessness from causing destruction because it destroys you from the inside. But the saddest fact is this won't stay in the Twilight Zone; it is already leaking into our world, imagination to reality.