All humans have flaws that can lead to horrible things. In this case, the fear of monsters made the people of Maple Street turn on each other. They accused friends and neighbors with no proper evidence. This lead to the tragedy of Maple Street. Rod Serling shows that human flaws exist in unexplainable events in the teleplay “The Monsters Are Due On Maple” through prejudices, scapegoats, and suspicion.
There are many examples throughout “The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street” that show that prejudice is a human flaw. According to Les Goodman, “You were so quick to kill, Charlie, and you were so quick to tell us who we had to be careful off. Well maybe you had to kill. Maybe Peter there was trying to tell us something. Maybe he’d found out something
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and came back to tell who there was amongst us we should watch out for---” (“Monsters” 73). This quote shows that the flaw of prejudice in humans.
Les Goodman quickly jumps to conclusions about Peter’s death. With no evidence he suggested that Charlie killed Pete Van Horn because he wanted to hide something. He suggested that Charlie was the monster. It shows that prejudice is a major flaw in humans, and could change any outcome of a situation. Similarly, an example is when Steve says,“We’re all on a monster kick, Les. Seems that the general impression holds that maybe one family isn’t what we think they are. Monsters from outer space or something. Different from us. Fifth columnists from the vast beyond. You know anybody that might fit that description around here on Maple Street? (“Monsters” 66).” Similarly, this demonstrates prejudice can lead people to believe obscene things. We hear Steve say that someone on Maple Street was a monster from outer space. He gets this information from a comic book that a child told him about. Prejudice led the people of Maple Street to believe that there was an alien among them. They had no evidence of this. Furthermore, Charlie says,“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 person. There’s something that ain’t legitimate” (“Monsters” 70).”
Additionally, this evidence illustrates that prejudice can lead to small things becoming major flaws. Charlie exploits Les Goodman’s insomnia. He makes it look like just because he looks up at the sky when he can't sleep, he is an alien. He has no evidence what so ever to support his claim. In short,“The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street” demonstrates through many examples that suspicion is a human flaw. There are many examples throughout “The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street” that show that scapegoating is a human flaw. Steve said “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—” (“Monsters” 72).” This highlights the point that everyone just wants someone to blame. It is a human flaw that can lead to very hostile situations. Steve tries to show the people of Maple Street that if they keep on making people scapegoats they will ultimately eat each other up alive. They are all desperate to point fingers because they need an answer, and they will blame anyone just to get it. This quote shows why scapegoating is a human flaw. Based on the text, Charlie blames Tommy. He says that Tommy is the monster among them. Sally argues that Tommy can’t be the monster because he is just a little boy. (“Monsters” 75). This shows that people will make anyone a scapegoat just to get out of trouble themselves. Charlie was being surrounded by the people of Maple Street, at this point he was believed to be the monster on Maple Street. He blamed a child just to get out of that. This also led to very bad things. This quotes proves that scapegoating can be a fatal flaw on humans. According to the stage direction,“People shout, accuse, and scream. The camera tilts back and forth. We see panic stricken faces in close up and tilting shots of houses as lights go on and off” (“Monsters” 75).” This demonstrates the fact humans have a terrible flaw of scapegoating. The stage direction shows that everyone is afraid. They are all desperate to blame someone so that no one blames them. They all accuse each other of being monsters because they need someone to blame. In conclusion “The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street” demonstrates through many examples that scapegoating is a human flaw. There are many examples throughout “The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street” that show that suspicion is a human flaw. Charlie states,“Go ahead, Steve. What kind of “radio set” you workin’ on? I never seen it. Neither has anyone else. Who do you talk to on that radio set? And who talks to you?” (“Monsters” 71). In other words, the author shows readers that suspicion is a human flaw that can lead to trouble. As soon as the radio set was revealed, Charlie used it as a reason to suspect Steve. Suspicion caused them to get into a fight and argue. It is a human flaw that leads to loss of trust and people’s downfall. In a like manner, according to Woman One,“Well . . . sometimes I go to bed late at night. A couple of times . . . a couple of times I’d come out here on the porch, and I’d see Mr. Goodman here in the wee hours of the morning standing out in front of his house . . . looking up at the sky. (She looks around the circle of faces.) That’s right, looking up at the sky as if . . . as if he were waiting for something, (pauses) as if he were looking for something” (“Monsters” 67). This evidence is relevant because it shows how suspicion is an unfortunate flaw. Woman One tells us that she sees Mr. Goodman standing on his porch very early in the morning. What she doesn’t know is that Les Goodman has sleep insomnia. She suspects him to be the monster without knowing the whole story. This caused everyone on the street to suspect him. That is why suspicion is a human flaw. Equally important, Don states,“And he never did come out to look at that thing that flew overhead. He wasn’t even interested. (He turns to the group, his face taut and serious.) Why? Why didn’t he come out with the rest of us to look?” (“Monsters” 66). This shows how suspicion is a human flaw. Don suspects Les Goodman to the monster just because he didn’t come out to see the thing that flew overhead. There are multiple possibilities as to what was going on in the Goodman house that prevented him from going outside. Don has very little evidence to support his claim as to why Les Goodman didn’t come out to see what flew overhead. Suspicion is a disadvantageous flaw in humans. “The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street” demonstrates through many examples that suspicion is a human flaw. Through prejudices, scapegoats, and suspicion, Rod Serling shows that human flaws exist in unexplainable events in the teleplay “The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street. Prejudices, scapegoating and suspicion are flaws that can lead to terrible events, even deaths. In the end everyone ended up turning on each other. Even today there are these flaws that lead to conflict between people.“The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street shows that human flaws exist.
Humans have many flaws, the seven deadly sins, our morals, our mentalities, and so forth. The Chrysalids, written by John Wyndham does a very good job of portraying these flaws, throughout its story, characters, and plot. The novel The Chrysalids reveals the true nature of humanity through various situations, and characters such as, Joseph Strorm’s ignorant and strict ways regarding the true image, Spider-Man who bears a grudge toward his brother and eventually kills him, and the Sealand Lady who justifies killing the Waknuk posse because they are less valuable.
Prejudice is an issue that cannot be easily avoided in today's society. It has and always will have a huge impact on the discrimination that some people face based on religion, appearance, background, mental/physical disabilities and etc.
Eleanor Rigby asks the question, “All the lonely people, where do they all come from?” A reader can look towards the novel for the answer. In the novel, Victor Frankenstein sets out to create life, and in doing so he creates a hideous monster. He did not purposely create him to be ugly. In fact, he chose body parts to be exact the opposite, which in return, putting them all together created something monstrous. When Victor gave life to the creature he exclaimed, “I saw the dull yellow eyes of the creature open; it breathed hard, and a convulsive motion agitated its limbs” The novel answers this question by saying that maybe pe...
In the book West Side Story by Arthur Laurents there were many prejudices. Prejudice is a favoring or dislike of something without just grounds or before sufficient knowledge. There were prejudices in West Side Story that had to do with the types of people, their races and sex. Sometimes prejudice can be in small doses and can be meaningless, other times prejudice can be very serious and cause death.
Prejudice is a dreadful mindset that people can perceive from another person by their first look. As long as human race roams the Earth, prejudge mental will never cease. However long that we as people stay here on Earth is how long prejudice will last. We frustratingly try to obliterate prejudice, but it always upheaval back with maximum force. People take into consideration peoples race and ethnicity, and if it is diverse from theirs, then that person is probably prejudice towards them in any other ways, shape, or form. Prejudice has been with Mankind since the beginning of the human revolution. The simplest example of prejudice is when it comes to black and white revolution. Since colored human race were slaves in the beginning of American
Some people say prejudice is part of human nature. Others think we learn it from our elders. Either one could be true, as there are various controversial beliefs about why prejudice exists in the world. One interesting theory is that prejudice is an emotional reaction that is triggered in our brain whenever we encounter unknown people, who have different physical characteristics, different personalities, and/or different beliefs. In fact, these unfamiliar people scare us, and we start treating them differently to reassure ourselves that they cannot possibly matter to us. Another possible reason for prejudice could be negative education about others, either direct or indirect. An example of the direct type would be that you are deliberately taught to avoid certain people who are discriminate...
...blaming Satanic stimuli for unexplained phenomena"(43). Without their cultural and societal influences, it would be difficult for the readers to understand why certain events evolve and under what pretenses. At the end of the play, each person, some more than others, has developed from their sociological experience.
The Road is a phenomenal example of how raw human nature shapes peoples’ decisions. It addresses the behaviors of people neither informed nor controlled by a social order. In the essence of The Road, people’s actions are highly dependent on the person’s basic needs. A lack of basic human needs often results in the more disturbing view of human nature. (Gilbert pg. 43) Betrayal, suicide, and cannibalism are all examples of behaviors that human nature can bring out of people.
Prejudice, the act of judging someone based on outward appearance or social standing. In the 1960’s Harper Lee wrote a book called To Kill a Mockingbird, about prejudice and how hard the times were. In To Kill a Mockingbird, there are many examples of prejudice showing how morally wrong it was. There are several examples of prejudice in the book: Tom Robinson because he is African American, Boo Radley because of his standing in their society, and the Cunningham Family because of how poor they were. The following paragraphs will discuss these examples.
In the play, ‘The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street,’ by Rod Serling, the events and character actions advance the plot because the characters blame each other in regards to who or what is living upon them. For example, in the passage Tommy states, “They don’t want us to leave. It’s always that way, in every story I ever read about a ship landing from outer space.” This part of the drama indicates anxiety any curiosity in regards to the characters because they begin to wonder if what he says is actually true. The text also states, “Charlie slowly raises the gun. As the figure gets closer and closer he suddenly pulls the trigger.” This is when Charlie decides to take the gun out of Steve’s hand. He was thinking too fast, and horrifically
In the play “Monsters Are Due On Maple Street,” a character named Charlie is suspected by the neighbors. Charlie is chased down by his neighbors because they think he is some sort of alien. He then declares that the little kid Tommy is the monster. Here is how the neighbors are ready to believe him.
The horrific tales told by novels such as “Psycho” and modern day films such as “Silence of the Lambs” were not constructed entirely from the depths of the imagination. Within the gruesome stories lie an unsettling amount of truth and harbor an even darker story. This story is not one concocted in the basements of Hollywood or in the lofty apartment of a writer; instead this story was created in Plainfield, Wisconsin, and it began on, August 27, 1906.
Prejudice can be caused because of various reasons. Religion, ethnic race and social status are examples of causes of prejudice. Sometimes prejudice is caused by how we are raised. Many times parents pass on prejudice beliefs to their children. A lot people raised in the southern part of the country are prejudice against blacks. In the early to mid 1960’s, prejudice was alive and well in the south. Blacks had their own bathrooms and were forced to ride in the back of city busses. It’s hard to believe that was doing on only 40 years ago. A lot of Middle Eastern countries are very prejudice against women.
In this paper I will discuss what happens when we allow biases and prejudice to affect our actions toward others. I will then conclude my paper with what we can do to prevent or eliminate discrimination.
Everyone is prejudice in some way or another. From a young age individuals observe, or are taught discrimination against others. Whether it is because of religion, sexuality, race, gender, personality, or just someone’s way of life, everyone is biased. In many ways, who we are today, is influenced by our race, ethnicity, and culture, and overall our individual identities. Every experience, positive or negative, has an impact on how we react to something in the future. Decisions others make, can impact the way we interact with others, our personal beliefs, and all together our life experiences. Along our path of life, we meet people with different goals and circumstances they’ve encountered which make them who they are and why they do certain things a certain way. But our experiences