Tuesday, February 20, 2018
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 Mon., Feb. 26th, 2018.
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In "The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street", the concept of Xenophobia is addressed as more of a mystery rather than a concrete idea. Particularly, the idea that of a group of people, at least one of them are more than what they seem at first glance.
ReplyDeleteThis is shown in "The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street" through the residents of Maple Street themselves. After what they think was an asteroid flies over them, the neighborhood's power goes out. When one of the children of the street correlates what happened to a comic book they read, the people start to question if someone among them is an alien.
It is astounding to me how the completely random facts that the people bring up somehow is evidence that someone is an alien. The people also seem to have a mob mentality when it comes to this situation, as none of them offer counter arguments or logical explanations.
This episode offers a more interesting, in my opinion, take on xenophobia as a concept. Particularly how in this episode, we don't know who the foreign entity is while in the stories, the foreign entity is already told to us. I think it would be more fun to read a story when the reader doesn't know who the alien is.
Initially, Maple Street is described as serene, peaceful, and relaxed, it seems like the idea street to live on and raise a family in. When the idea that someone in their midst might be alien, the neighborhood begins to mob up. They are quick to anger and groupthink takes over to accuse and scapegoat people. The reactions are very extreme, one person is identified as “oddball” and suddenly all the neighbors are against him. Other people begin to describe strange behaviors that might possibly hint at their guilt. The neighbors begin to avoid the scapegoat and use his angry reactions to justify their feelings of his guilt. As other neighbors go against the mob’s actions and defend the scapegoat the blame is turned on them. This episode addresses xenophobia because it shows a peaceful street devolving into mob behavior and chaos because of the fear of something different or alien. I am alarmed that the neighbors are so willing to turn on each other and even kill each other from fear. Groupthink kicks in in less than an hour and everyone turns on each other. Unlike The Puppet Show, where the residents seem united in the face of the alien Garvane, in this episode the residents are anything but united. They are constantly infighting and quick to rip each other apart. It makes me wonder how myself and my peers would respond to scary, new things. Would we turn into barbarians as easily as the people on Maple Street?
ReplyDeleteIt shows the people are so scared of the unknown, that they will pin it on anyone. Just little things, like one person's car starting, or someone being a little suspicious. They are so willing to point the finger so that they will be safe, even if the person or thing they blamed is innocent.
ReplyDeleteThe people didn't know what was going on and were afraid of the unknown. It is a perfect example of Xenophobia because all these people are losing their minds over the unknown. I think this movie can teach us a lesson to maybe trust a little more or we will end up tearing one another to bits.
ReplyDeleteHow this relates to the xenophobia is the aliens at the end controlling the people. What alarms me is the fact that it took so little time for them to all turn on each other and what to sacrifice the other. Ultimately, I thought that it was a good story.
ReplyDeleteI was absent for the movie but what I saw is that people believed there was a monster living on their street. This shows extrapolation because of the monsters, they are obviously not real. They ended blaming each other for being the "Monster" because they were fearing that they could do something to them. This also has to do with prejudices because they chose the people that they probably disliked the most. In the end, this was an experiment to see how people react to this situation and it always turns out the same.
ReplyDeleteThe Twilight Zone Episode: The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street addresses the idea of xenophobia because during the chaotic time on Maple Street, people are against the person that they think is the alien. I found it alarming that the people in the story were so quick to turn on one another. It was kind of odd that all of the adults believed a child about a story he read and they thought it was true. This story aligns with some of the other ones that we've read because they have themes of xenophobia and aliens.
ReplyDeleteIn "The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street" shows how there is this irrational fear of these "monsters". This irrational fear of these monsters caused people to do irrational things like hurting other people and causing them to live in fear. I find it funny how these people are willing to hurt others so no one doesn't get hurt. It doesn't make sense. This film relates to other stories that we have read showing that one of the most powerful things is that people are motivated and driven by fear. They do things because of fear and not other feelings.
ReplyDeleteIt relates to xenophobia because the definition is the hate or dislike of a person different from you. And in this story the people have suspicion and thoughts on others that drives them to do crazy things. Just the thought of ¨Monsters¨ drove them to thinking that people they have known for years could be a monster. But in the end the monster is really themselves and their self destructive and bias attitudes.
ReplyDeleteThe Monsters Are Due On Maple Street address' the concept of xenophobia by showing people who think their is an alien species that is out to get them, when really it was not an alien at all. Everyone was going crazy about every little thing that was happening around them even if it was something that happened everyday. This is different from the reading Puppet Show because there is an actual alien present that people can be scared of, while in The Twilight Zone Episode there was no alien that they could see they just assumed that someone was an alien and they were determined to find out who it was.
ReplyDeleteWhat a fantastic film with such a deep message, that even the viewer falls victim to. It reminds me of the red scare a lot because when people are afraid and cant find a specific reason for their fear they always find a body to blame. In this case every time one little thing happened everyone was quick to point fingers in fear of being prosecuted themselves. A clear example of xenophobia. There was in fact an alien but it was not a member of their community but all because that kid spread a rumor of it they slowly started to tear themselves apart. "The danger of a single story"
ReplyDeleteThis film reminded me of xenophobia by people not being used to things out of the ordinary. Once someone sees something they aren't used they go crazy or some sort like that. This alarms me because if someone wants to try something new or something out of the ordinary someone else will judge or not be with it. They will just hate or something.
ReplyDeleteFirst the story starts with a nice, peaceful block, and all of the sudden an object darts through the sky and xenophobia kicks in, these people were all great friends and grateful neighbors. But in this film, it showed how the fear of something foreign could easily turn into a fight for survival, including turning on friends and family.
ReplyDeleteThe show Monsters Are Due On Maple Street addresses the concept concept of Xenophobia because when one kid tells the people on there street someone is watching them they all start to be irrationally afraid of them and picking things apart about each person. This shows the idea because of the fear they have of the unknown and how they all start to turn on each other.
ReplyDeleteThe film "The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street" shows an accurate definition of Xenophobia through the fear and hatred of foreign objects. The actors and characters don't have reasonable evidence of who the monster is, however they are still willing to quickly point fingers. This shows that the fear people have for foreign objects clouds their judgement and dominates their thoughts. It is very alarming that the neighbors and characters are so quick to just assume that these foreign creatures are the enemy. More importantly, its interesting to see that the neighbors would just point fingers to escape the blame themselves. They are so scared of their neighbors turning on them that they feel their only solution is to join them and point the figure somewhere else. This film relates to the "Puppet Show" because the characters in both texts are so quick to assume that the foreign creature is an enemy. The idea that foreign creatures are the enemy is fairly direct throughout the film as the characters fear is accurately displayed. The fear plays a big role since the society is normally peaceful and calm. This shows as the fear can come into a town and completely destroy their foundation and way of life.
ReplyDeleteBased on my understanding, xenophobia is a mystery, people believed that a monster was living on there street, which as not real of course, that relates back to the mystery part.
ReplyDeleteThe Monsters Are Due On Maple Street shows how fast chaos can descend. Humans are very quick to blame, and this story takes advantage of it. The "monster hunt" starts out as a joke, or a way to calm the child who suggested the idea down. Just a small notion can blow up, and, in this case, get someone killed.
ReplyDeleteIn this episode of the twilight xenophobia is portrayed as mystery and that is what makes everyone go crazy, because no one knows what to do. Aliens would alarm me, if people were acting weird or strange I would get suspicious. Just like The Puppet Show everyone was working together, in this show no one is working together.
ReplyDeleteMaple Street offers an excellent example of xenophobia and does a wonderful job of bringing to light the idea that although there is this fear of the outside, that sometimes our biggest fear really should be ourselves. The entire neighborhood was put on alert by simply the inability for some of their household items to work. Everything was fine until they all started talking and then they were able to become so wrapped up in the picture at hand that they ended up destroying themselves. I find it interesting that the "aliens" knew this and were capitalizing on that fact. It makes me wonder if aliens would really be trying to destroy us as a race or if they could actually just be generally kind people.
ReplyDeleteXenophobia is the fear of anything foreign or weird, Any small thing in the movie everyone freaks out and draws the situation way out of hand. This is a perfect movie to explain Xenophobia as it shows how the majority is fearful to a great extent of what they dont understand
ReplyDeleteWhen the "film" began, Maple Street seemed like a calm, relaxing, and enjoyable placed to be. As they all heard a sudden noise, people seemed discombobulated. Tommy, a young boy, said that it may have been an alien spacecraft, yet nobody believed him. Many strange occurrences started to happen on the street, and people began to believe Tommy.Because of the idea of foreign beings being somewhere in the neighborhood, people began to point fingers toward every neighbor. This demonstrates a strong concept of xenophobia, for the knowledge of foreign beings creates fear and paranoia among the citizens. I am a bit alarmed that they threw rocks at Charlie, for he was injured even though the alien's identity was not completely evident yet. This film can connect to Forbidden Planet, for both films involve paranoid people trying to find a target.
ReplyDeleteOverall, I thought the film did a great job of showing the idea of xenophobia. All of the people in the story started loosing it and killing everybody else who they knew, all of their neighbors and close friends because they were scared that someone in the neighborhood might be an alien. The fact that they would all go and do that is bizarre to me, I would hate for that to ever happen now. The story relates a bit to harlequin in the fact that they don’t like the people who were different because they didn’t like the harlequin or the fact that there might be aliens. There is a difference though that the people in monsters due on maple street were lots more violent about their feeling toward the different man. The main idea of xenophobia in the film is that people are scared of people who are different from them. Even the smallest little thing like a light turning on can cause people to become so scared of something and start accusing people to be aliens.
ReplyDeleteI thought that the episode addressed it very well, because all the neighbors were afraid of everyone outside their home, and the definition of Xenophobia of a fear of outsiders.
ReplyDeleteIn this episode of the Twilight Zone, the residents are fearful of what is unknown. In this case, it is the issues they've observed with their power, cars, etc. Instead of banding together and trying to solve the problem, they find reasons to accuse each other. All of a sudden, every resident on Maple Street is afraid of their own neighbors, believing them to be different than themselves.
ReplyDeleteIt alarms me that all it takes for a group of humans to self-destruct is the planting of a single idea that, maybe, some of them are different. Nobody stops to contemplate the fact that these differences might not be a bad thing; it is simply assumed that these differences will result in destruction.
This episode reminds me of The Puppet Show because it follows the same theme of an alien race planting fake humans/citizens in the society before the invasion occurs.
In the film "Twilight Zone", xenophobia appeared when a usually quiet and peaceful street started becoming startled by loud noises. When one boy suggested it was aliens, this introduced Xenophobia into this film. No one was quite sure what was going on in Maple Street, and the fear of the unknown directly correlates to xenophobia.
ReplyDeleteIn the film "Twilight zone" Xenophobia was shown in a quiet and peaceful street but then it turns that the more loud noises it caused a big commotion of people thinking it was aliens
ReplyDelete