Monday, October 3, 2011

Xenophobia On Maple Street?

How does The Twilight Zone Episode: The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street address the concept of xenophobia?  What alarms you regarding the inhabitants actions and attitudes?  How does this episode align or differ with stories we have already read?  Other thoughts? Please respond by 2:30p.m. on Wed., October 5th, 2011.

29 comments:

  1. The people accuse each other of being monsters, afraid of each other. They are not thinking logically. The Actual aliens are not normal, though they are the classic advanced scientists, they don't want to warn us of us destroying ourselves. They are experimenting on the people, and all the electricity goes out. It all starts when the boy gets ideas about aliens. The people start believing him and then they all go wild. The aliens are just experimenting, and it proves they all have a serious case of xenophobia. Just because on car starts and they believe hes and alien.
    -Gretchen

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  2. the twilight zone makes it sound like xenophobia is a very bad thing. Its interesting how the people react and it alarms me that the people turn on one of their neighbors that they know perfectly well. People think of past events and they try to think of things that would make the neighbor sound like a monster. Its similar to the other stories because people become ridiculously afraid of the wrong thing.

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  3. All the neighbors are accusing this man of being because his car started when he wasn't even close to the car. The people aren't thinking right and the aliens are studying them when the electricity is going out. This boy tells these people a story in a comic book and they believe him and starting accusing people. This shows xenophobia because these people get crazy just because a car starts.

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  4. The episode shows the concept of xenophobia because one day everything technical wouldn't work anymore. Then when Charlie and Steve were gonna walk to town to talk to the police to see what the problem was, then Tommy was telling them to not go into town because the monsters didn't want them to. When Tommy told every one about that, people started to freak out and started to question one family who they thought was odd. The whole street was paranoid of when he would look at the sky at night. Its weird to think about when people freak out when things are starting to act weird, they always blame someone else. Like in the holocaust, Hitler blamed everything bad in the world on the Jews. I think its sad that people always has to scapegoat someone else for every action.
    Jennifer O.

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  5. This episode relates to the stories we have read because the people all become paranoid about someone/something and they treat them differently than normal people. The people all turn against each other, blaming each other and worrying about their strange habits. The actions and attitudes of the people is surprising because they treat each other as if they did something wrong even though they have lived next to each other and were friends.
    Lindsey

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  6. The way that The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street addresses xenophobia is that something strange that they have never encountered starts to happen, and all of the people on the street start to freak out and jump to rash conclusions. As soon as something the town's people cannot explain, they just start to blame everyone and try to find a scapegoat. This is just like what happens in The Crucible when all of the people in the town are accused as being witches. They even reference the Salem witch trials during this story. This episode is different than the ones that we have already read because usually it is an alien that we are afraid of, but this story shows us that people are all afraid of a human. This is mass hysteria, when something happens and everyone freaks out. This is a good story about mass hysteria and xenophobia.

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  7. when people fear the unknown, they turn against each other. paranoia rises, assumptions are made without solid justifications, and ultimately, desperate souls try to cease their angst and suspicion in the form of chaos.

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  8. As soon as the "meteor" came overhead everything on Maple Street started to change and the people started questioning their own neighbors. They question one neighbor in particular and he really get defensive about everything. The people of the area turn little things they have seen of one family into something big. The man they question tells them that they have nothing to fear that they are just starting something that they don't need to start because everybody is okay but they keep thinking something is wrong. They come to conclusions right away. Before they can figure out what really happens all they want to do is "Point a finger at a neighbor." They even kill a neighbor because they were so scared of what could happen...

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  9. Cody-
    The people on maple street dont believe that the thing they saw was an alien ship until some kid comes and talks to them about a book he read. He talks about everything not working because the aliens dont want them to leave and they have a family that has set up landing for the alien ship. They all get scared and show xenophobia because they all get scared of stangers and start to blame things on people. This aligns with muse because the boys parents hate the slug and all swarm to it to kill it. In twilight zone they all swarm to the neighbor and try to get at him because they think he is an alien. They all start to not trust anyone because they think one of them is an alien. Everyone wants to find out whats going on so bad they start to fight with one another and blame things on people.

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  10. Dustin Rockett said....
    This video clip addresses xenophobia by showing how the people of the town begin to question others and begin to turn on each other through fear of aliens or foreigners that could be potential dangerous alien monsters. The towns people start to kill each other in fear of their own safety.

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  11. These people think that aliens are on their street; Maple Street. They are all scared so they all blame each other of being and alien. They end up killing one of their friends because they were so scared. This all started with the little boy telling them scary stories that hes heard.

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  12. The people on Maple St. are very suspicious of a man that may be an alien. They try to talk to the family that is the so called "oddball" because his car starts and stops at random times. You can tell that the families on Maple St. are scared because of what they think is a metoir. I think the way they fear this alien/metior connects to the story Muse and how the father fears Icky and finally his fear takes over and he kills Icky. On the Twilight Zone episode they kill a man because their xenophobia takes over and they think it's one of the monsters. They are all so close to make assumptions and to point fingers.
    -This is Bailey S

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  13. This episode portrays xenophobia as a type of suspicion. It shows how when a group of people are afraid of something unknown they are quick to accuse those they know of impossible things in order to find a solution that will make them feel like they are in control of the situation again. i found it interesting that the people thought what the boy was saying was absurd, but then accepted everything he proposed and began to attack each other. This episode is like the other stories we had read because a group of people didn't know something about what was happening, jumped to conclusions, and ended up hurting someone they were close to. Because these stories share this theme suggests that xenophobia leads to bad things happening unless people can get over their fears of the unknown and prejudices.

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  14. the people in the neighborhood had something happen to them anad the one kid scared everyone so bad that they are all turning against each other. They are scared of what they do not know or understand so chaos ensues and a lot of damage is done. I have a feeling that no monsters are even in the neighborhood, and it turns out thats what actually happens. In a story like this humans learn that their greatest enemy is themself.

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  15. The people on Maple Street are so scared of what happened that they start believing anything. They start going against each other because of their fear of what they don't know. This is almost the opposite of Puppet Show because in that story the people of the town don't react with Garvane in a negative way, they welcome him. The people on Maple Street go so crazy that they kill one of their friends. In the end the space people were just going to let the people of Maple Street destroy themselves just by turning off their power and radios and it worked.
    -LexiM

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  16. we see that once Tommy the little boy tells what he sees in the story, that most of the neighborhood, believes and that one of their neighbors is the cause. Xenophobia is shown in the form of how people turn on each other for the fact of being scared and protecting one another. they will all point the finger, instead of looking at what each individual does wrong, they try and putt he blame on others and end up killing a friendly neighbor. Then once each person does something wrong, something strange either happens with their car or house. This story ends up relating to the others by the monsters invading our planets and us creating all of the havoc!!!

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  17. When strange things start happening on Maple street, and there is the idea that there are aliens among them, every one gets scared and blames their neighbors. Their fear of the unknown and of the possible aliens on Maple street. Their xenophobia of others creates chaos between friends and neighbors. This story is different from The Puppet Show because the people in this story react violently to their xenophobia whereas the Puppet Show characters react kindly and are willing to listen to the alien. There are usually two reactions that can happen; a person can either react violently to their xenophobia or they can react peacefully. -EliB.

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  18. zach K p1

    the kid telling the story about the comic book is bring a hysteria to the street. hysteria has engulfed the whole town. xenophobia in the town has gripped the the people so they turned on the person who is the most likely to be the "alien". but as the storys we have read the xenophobia has been not to prevalent but in the movie xenophobia is the normal reaction to this indecent. he killed the man out of hysteria and fear. its like the salem witch trials pointing fingers at people they dont like or have a grudge against. during the cold war so it brings a new way to find an enemy.

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  19. The boy, Tommy, brings in the idea that aliens are the ones that flew by and don't want them to leave.
    Everyone knocks the idea down, they don't like that there are something else there. Especially when the something else could look exactly like humans. They all turn against one family to try and blame everything on, does this say what we as humans are like? Would we all turn on one of our own out of fear? Everyone is so scared they all turn on each other, everyone tries to make an accusation to clear their own name. Humans are so afraid of something like aliens that they would go as far as to shoot their own neighbor without thinking. The aliens could have set up something like this to make everyone so afraid that they turn on each other. Why else would they turn on cars or lights one at a time? They did let them all destroy themselves, which is exactly what people would do out of fear of something like aliens.

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  20. It's scary to think if our technology starts to fail we could so quickly turn on each other. The people in the town would rather blame someone than try to figure out what is actually happening. Steve is the only voice of reason in the whole neighborhood. I would hope that more people would realize what they are doing. This story is different from the stories we have read because the xenophobia is towards other people rather than something foreign. It seems that our society is so reliant on technology that without it we blame others for our own comfort. To make us feel that we are not the problem.

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  21. The people on Maple Street are so afraid of a monster being among them that they start to turn against each other and get paranoid. It alarms me because as soon as one person suggests something suspicious everyone goes along with it and agrees without doubt just because they don't want to be the one that gets blamed. I think its interesting that its as soon as the technology stops working that they get worried. When people are waiting and anticipating something bad that is going to happen, chaos breaks out. They can't handle not having the answers to what they are unsure about. The monster was inside of each and every one of them.
    -TeddiG

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  22. Xenophobia is shown by the music definatly but more importantly by the car starting and stoping by itself. At night it is even more creepy because it is dark and their is no ways tosee anything unless they have candles. Tommy Said that their was a familky that was different than all the others so they were acusing whoever was suspicious. All in all, they all went into madness over this. - taylor s.

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  23. In the Twilight Zone Episode: The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street address the concept xenophobia by taking something considerably small and take it to the extreme.This episode differ with the stories that we have read, because everyone takes the level of xenophobia takes it to a certain level but not to extreme like in The Twilight Zone.

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  24. The people are scared and are doing the worst things possible, turning against each other. They are just over reacting and think its aliens which shows they have a serious xenophobia because they are so scared of them. It alarms me that they are having this big of a reaction over something they don't know is true, they don't have a bit of prroof. This story differs from the other stories because it shows what we shouldn't do if something like this were ever to happen.

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  25. The twilight episode "The Monster’s Due On Maple Street" depict’s xenophobia by having neighbors that have lived close to each other for awhile pointing fingers at one after another for being a monster that is responsible for all the technical difficulties. The response of the neighbors was absolutely shocking to me; one man was physically harmed"Pete Van Horn" shot dead after one of the inhabitant’s freaked out and thought he was the monster. Another thing that surprised me is none of them had enough common sense to take control and say something like let’s stop blaming each other and think of this logically. This is different from other example stories of xenophobia because it took place in a believable neighborhood that was back what look’s like the 70's instead of modern day or in the future. Lastly it’s came to my mind that this was just ordinary people; could this ever happen in a sense in real life?

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  26. The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street addresses xenophobia a bit extremely and in an overdone fashion. The distrustful attitudes of the inhabitants have too little basis and their actions have even less. It is alarming that they automatically resort to violence based on a few coincidences suggested by a young boy. On top of that, the boy's idea is the plot of a comic book. In other words, the neighbors practically try to tear each other apart based on a fictional plot. This story doesn't particularly align with Puppet Show as the xenophobia in this television program is very violent and panicked. In Puppet Show, Garvane's presence sparks nothing but conversation. Otherwise, this story is pretty similar to Muse in the sense that there is also a xenophobic overreaction in the case of Leonard's father.

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  27. This episode, the xenophobia on Maple Street is a little specious because the little boy just happens to know what is happening and who is making it happen; the monsters. People get freaked out by it then they start pointing fingers at each other. Pretty soon they are all afraid of each other, the monster and themselves too. Since so much is happening they start to second guess themselves and get afraid from everything.

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  28. The episode Monsters on Maple Street, a part of the Twilight Zone series, is the quintessential example of how xenophobia can permeate a society that is accustomed to normalcy. Because the neighborhood experienced an inexplicable phenomenon, the citizens of Maple Street set out on a “witch-hunt” in hopes of extraditing the life form responsible for the interruption of routine. I thought it was interesting that the people of Maple Street acknowledged their irrational reactions to the situation, yet persisted in their persecution of one another. The ultimate irony is that the inhabitants of Maple Street are so preoccupied with acquiring a scapegoat among themselves, that they overlook the possibility of extra-terrestrial activity

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  29. The episode portrays xenophobia by showing when humans are confronted with something different from normal they do not know how to handle it. The first thing the citizens think of are outside forces of some sort weather they be Russians or an asteroid from space. The citizens almost immediately come up with the idea of aliens. What alarms me is that the citizens almost immediately turn on one another. The people start to loose faith about each other very quickly and then they turn on each other. The episode is much like the readings in class the way that people are very afraid or even offended by things that are different from our selves.

    Caleb Wilmore

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