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? After we watch the episode, please respond to this post during class.
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ReplyDeleteThis episode of the twilight zone the things that alarm me is that this could actually happen with people you know people jump to conclusions and kind of trust no body. There is a lot of labeling throughout the episode. -Noah Stark
ReplyDeleteAfter watching that episode of the show not only am I worried for that street, I'm worried for other people. I've seen and heard this story many times and it never ends well. The fact that it takes a power shortage to make lifelong friends kill each other is not only alarming but pathetic.
ReplyDeleteI think that it shows xenophobia because once they heard the word alien, or monster, they completely started freaking out and pointing blame on each other. They showed so much fear, even though to be completely honest, there was nothing to be scared of. I think its crazy that the aliens weren't trying to harm anyone, they were just showing that the humans are the biggest issue, and they are only scared of themself.
ReplyDeleteAfter only simply watching the first couple of minutes of this Twilight Zone episode, I could tell the characters were already going to be set up for a troubling situation. The neighborhood of Maple Street was a picture perfect street. Everyone was married, happy, and seemed to be fitting into the “gender roles” of the time. They were living in the allusion of a life where nothing goes wrong. I believe this heightens the concept of xenophobia. When everything is already so perfect and simple, it makes the fear of anything else abnormal even greater. The greater diversity of people and personalities there are in an area the lower the idea of xenophobia comes. One scene that caught my attention was when Steve was talking to the man whose car was able to start by itself, and Steve said something about how anything different from themselves was like a monster like. It was an interesting idea to think that these people thought anything different from them was a monster. This episode is based entirely on the fear of the idea of something. They have no factual evidence of anything, but they are still running around in fear, accusing their neighbors of being other beings. Therefore, I find this episode very different from anything I have ever seen before. Usually, in the movies and tv shows I watch there is another being that is clearly different, and from there the characters become scared of what is different. In this episode though, they are all scared of the idea of different right from the beginning instead of waiting for different to come. I have never seen so much fear, suspicion, betrayal, and accusations all made in one episode. It is interesting to see how gullible people are when they are filled with fear and faced with so much unknown. The idea portrayed in the end that we will destroy ourselves I believe is very plausible.
ReplyDeleteThis episode addresses the concept of xenophobia through the human character's common need for a scapegoat. Every ridiculous instance of difference from the collective leads to suspiscion. This leads the group to go far as blaming a child and killing a man. It's a commentary on how quickly humans blame the supposed outsider. It aligns with Green Lantern/ Green Arrow which was a comic series shedding light on racism, drug use, and xenophobia in general on a distant planet. -JK
ReplyDeleteI was surprised by how quickly the people turned on each other after learning that there were impostors among them. They assume each other are aliens and at least one human is killed by their friends just because a kid read a graphic novel. Aliens are believable, but I was alarmed when they all trusted the kid that one of them was one of the aliens. They could very well all be innocent. -Skyler Gruidel
ReplyDeleteThe Twilight Zone episode addressed xenophobia really well. In the episode aliens turn of power on the street of the inhabitants. Eventually the inhabitants think aliens did this and they live on their street. The inhabitants were afraid and started targeting other people.
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