'The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street'

Don’t Follow the Crowd The term “herd behavior” can be interpreted in many different ways, but is usually noticed when people change their beliefs and morals which they believe in to topics that others believe in due to the fear of being alone. In the teleplay “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street” written by Rod Serling, the article “Why Do People Follow the Crowd,” written by ABC News, and the short story “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, scenarios where people act in violent and in unnecessary ways in order to fit in with a crowd, are plotted. Having negative effects on people, mob mentality and herd behavior convince people of all types to change their personal qualities to traits that a group processes

In the teleplay “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” written by Rod Serling, the residents of Maple Street accuse eachother of being a demon from space, due to the fear that they each have of the unknown. For instance, a resident of Maple Street named Charlie shot his neighbor, Pete Van Horn, mistaking him for an alien, that rumor said was could be someone who they thought was their neighbor. This action Charlie committed was promoted from the fear of the unknown, which most people in the crowd also feel, but are too scared to say or do something about it. When people stand in a crowd, they all represent one identity instead of each one as an individual. This is because people felt that if they spoke out in front of others, they might be wrong, and be looked upon as someone weird or unpopular. This causes the whole group to concur with any brave person that dares to speak in front of a big group of people. People think this, because of a natural

Similarly, in the article “Why do People Follow the Crowd” reported by ABC News, studies reveal the portrayal of people fearing the fact of being wrong when faced against a whole group that supposedly has a different plan. While taking tests, determining the mental state people have when they are told different ideas, the committee found that,” people actually believe what others [tell] them not what they [were seeing] with their own eyes” (ABC 26). This portrays how people naturally want to fit in the crowd even though they know it might not be the right choice to make. Because this is apart of human’s nature, people can conflict bad habits and ideas upon others, causing unfortunate events to occur causing the whole community to perish due to a silly mistake. Even though they might be sure of an answer in this case, they still aren’t positive, which causes them to start doubting themselves, therefore changing their mindset. Furthermore, in the Short Story “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” written by Gabriel García Márquez, the townspeople abuse an old man with enormous wings due to his abnormalities