The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street Summary

The plot in "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" is realistic but it features unrealistic reasoning. The reactions of each character towards the unknown and each other is realistic. However, the reasoning for their distraught being the belief of an alien invasion is quite unrealistic to reality.

This teleplay's downfall began when the residents of Maple Street experienced a total outage of power including the lights, car engines, and even batteries. The characters responded the same way any would, with fear of the unknown. Although their initial reactions were genuine, the possibility of aliens being the cause, after being introduced, is unrealistic in a literal sense. There was no real evidence to support their theory. The main form of evidence was a fourteen year old's insight on science-fiction that, unfortunately, the street's residents gradually believed.

Not only did the characters believe the young boy, but they built on his theory by accusing one of their own, Les Goodman, of being the foreigner of this planet. Because a woman had seen Goodman up late at night, gazing up at the stars numerous times, he was immediately listed as the main suspect. Goodman interjected the accusations of his peers, however, and exclaimed that he had insomnia. This is an example of how

The realism of this is uncanny. Since the people of Maple Street were convinced that an alien was among them, they took it upon themselves to accuse anyone whom they thought was out of the ordinary. Those in which the characters called "friends" were betraying each other. This was done out of fear and feeling insecure among their peers. When an unknown ingredient was added to this recipe, it took initiative by turning everyone on each other. It made this town's sweet, all-American persona, and made it bitter instead. Suspicion can turn a street of hospitable people into hate-filled