Monsters Are Due On Maple Street Analysis

Improved Essays
After reading the texts, “To what extent did the Cold War shape the American domestic life of the 1950s?”, and “Monsters Are Due on Maple Street”, written by Rod Serling. I discovered that Rod Serling never specifically cites the Cold War in his teleplay “Monsters”. Yet Mr. Serling portrayed throughout the story to illustrate a picture of paranoia, distrust, and fear that created an atmosphere of the United States during the Cold War. To begin with, the setting in the beginning of the of both texts were peaceful and ideally. However, after electricity stopped working on Maple Street people were flustered. Likewise, when the Soviet Union tested its first nuclear weapon, the U.S. was no longer peaceful, but in constant fear (Cold War, paragraph

Related Documents

  • Decent Essays

    Rod Serling’s message to the readers of “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” is to not accuse people without careful consideration. In the story a “meteor” flew above maple street. Everyone's power went dead, even the portable radios went dead. Then a little boy, Tommy started talking about aliens so everyone started accusing random people of being aliens. In the story les was the first to be accused when his car started automatically, but no one else’s car would start.…

    • 276 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Decent Essays

    In the “Monster Are Due On Maple Street “by Rod Serling, the events or character actions lead to the plot of the play, if these things haven’t happened, the ending won’t be the same. Something flew across the sky over the Maple street and they thought it was a meteor or an airplane .“That’s what it look like. I didn’t hear anything”. This is a good example of what flew across the sky that made the power go off on Maple Street. Everybody started to freak out .…

    • 135 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Great Essays

    October Sky Introduction After the end of World War II, the United States and Soviet Union entered a period called the Cold War. The Cold War was a time period that was filled with tensions, competitions, and fear. The Cold War mainly occurred due to the United State’s fear of communist ideas, as well as the Soviet’s fears of capitalism, and both country’s possessions of nuclear weapons. These two different concepts lead the Soviets and the United States into a time period full of tensions and competitions.…

    • 2529 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    During the years 1948-1960 there was a lot of hysteria considering the cold war. Many people were confused and scared because of all the animosity going on. Both Truman and Eisenhower employed the foreign policy strategy known as "Containment". This meant that the U.S. would try to prevent Communism from spreading through out Western Europe. The Cold War fear of the American people in the after math of WWII was the idea of communism spreading through out the country.…

    • 461 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    On January 20 1961, John Fitzgerald Kennedy gave his “call to action” Inaugural Address. With his famous quote, “My fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country” I feel he is telling the people of the country not to only expect things from the government but to help the government, each other and ourselves. Especially in a time of dilemma like they were experiencing due to the Cold War. His speech possesses themes of freedom, improvement, sacrifice, idealism and gives historical overview. He announces a generational change in the White house and plans to use the experiences of the past as tools for the future.…

    • 810 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Monsters are due on Maple Street The theme in The Monsters are due on Maple Street, is fear. The theme begins to appear in the story when the people do not know what is going on because nothing was working, that would usually work in a blackout like cars or flashlights. In the text, the two figures, who appear to be aliens, disclose the real reason for the blackout. The reason was that if you put people in the dark, anyone, for even just a little while, they will fear the cause of it.…

    • 312 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Mysterious Monsters on Maple Street Imagine the horror and fear of finding out that there is an alien in your neighborhood. That is what happened in the fictional teleplay, “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street”, written by Rod Serling in 1960. As well as the remake of the teleplay, “Monsters on Maple Street”, in 2003. The 1960 version is about neighbors pointing fingers at others for being aliens that caused the power outage.…

    • 403 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    During the Cold War, war damage and poverty in Europe invited Communists influence. However, in 1947, the the U.S. created the Policy of Containment that was a way to stop Soviet expansion without having to go to war. The U.S. had began to strengthen America's ability to the communist threat. Although there were numerous causes of the Second Red Scare following World War II, including fear and the spread of communism, Joseph McCarthy used fear and accusations in order to make himself stronger. Americans at home were being influenced by the Cold War.…

    • 261 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Fears During The Cold War

    • 1100 Words
    • 5 Pages

    As one major war had come to a close, another stepped forward to end the peace that seemed to be looming upon the horizon. This war was known as the Cold War and during its prime of the time 1948 to 1961 many fears arose within the society of America. In return to combat these fears, the administration of at that time President Dwight D. Eisenhower fought back with their own solutions. Three of the biggest fears that had risen from this time, were the spread of communism reaching America, the threat of a nuclear invasion upon the states, and economic instability within the government that would inevitably put the USA once again on the brinks of an economic disaster. With that said the government was forced to act and began their own form of…

    • 1100 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    CNN host, Fareed Zakaria, suggested that, “During the Cold War, we [Americans] were interested because we were scared that Russia and the United States were going to go to war.” The Cold War refers to the tense relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union between 1945 and 1991. The two sides never confronted each other within battle. Americans, however, still lived in constant fear of communism and a war with Russia. A technique I learned earlier within this class was that our society tends to turn their fears into monsters on the big screen in order to face and inevitably conquer them.…

    • 799 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    The Mishandling of the Cuban Missile Crisis Some of the most nerve-racking moments in United States history happened during the Cold War. Every day, people worried that the Soviet Union was about to launch a full-scale nuclear attack on them. These types of worries peaked in the early 1960s because of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Castro’s growing relationship with Khrushchev started to really instill fear into not only the American public, but to the entire world as a whole.…

    • 1965 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” “Bang!” Pete’s dead! Pete went to see if the lights were working on the next street over. He came back and Charlie shot him. Pete was walking toward Maple Street in the darkness, and Charlie shot him because he taught Pete was a monster.…

    • 271 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    The Cold War’s Social and Political Effect on America In world war II, America and the Soviet Union were allies. Their relationship throughout the war was tense. Due to paranoia and fear of communism from America and the Soviet Union’s resentment of America because of their delayed entry into the war, leading to many avoidable russian deaths, mutual hate and distrust of each other developed. This unfounded paranoia of both nations would, ultimately, cause the Cold War. (History.com, "Cold War History.")…

    • 1408 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    Cold War Assignment

    • 1497 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Cold War on Film Writing Assignment The Cold War began as World War II was ending, American leaders saw the power and ambitions of the Soviet Union as a threat to our national security. On August 6, 1945 marked the beginning of a new era, known as the atomic age. The dropping of the first atomic bomb over Hiroshima influenced the everyday lives of people all around the world. In the early 1950’ people feared communism and nuclear bombs threats throughout the United States during the Cold War.…

    • 1497 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    “You and The Atomic Bomb” They say, I say George Orwell, an English novelist and essayist, wrote “You and The Atomic Bomb” on October 19, 1945. Roughly about 2 months before this essay, bombs were dropped over Hiroshima not only letting the world know who has power and who doesn’t, but also leading individuals to be oppressed. With the discovery of the atomic bomb, and the difficulty and cost of developing it, the world will simply continue on a path of destruction and will eventually separate into dominating powers. It has been common to dismiss the danger of weapons, especially if it doesn’t directly affect you. The American society doesn’t take into consideration the danger of developing new weapons because, as they say, it is not them who fear it, it is them who use it as a threat.…

    • 1220 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays