What Is The Moral Of The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street

During the mid-1940s to the mid-1950s popularity towards the “Red Scare” of communists in the United States led the government to investigate and prosecute people suspected of involvement with communism. It was a time of suspicion, betrayal, and fear. The United States government and its citizens lived in terror of subversion–Russian spies attempting to undermine United States authority and power and enforcing communism. The film, The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street, (an episode from the television series, The Twilight Zone) mimics circumstances and situations United States citizens faced during the “Red Scare.” This film makes a plethora of analogies, comparisons, and allegories referencing the behavior and actions of citizens during the

First, there was a power outage, everybody was worried and gathered outside. While facing all the neighbors, they begin to question each other, already creating biases and opinions on who they think caused the power outage. In order to regain power, they send someone to check another neighborhood; while he is away the people decide the appropriate decision to make is to call the police. Thus, some thought it was unnecessary to call the police, claiming that it was “useless.” This scenario sets up the plot of the story which mimics United States citizens questioning their own people, trying to uncover their true identities. During this time citizens were weary and suspicious of everyone, they lost their trust and did everything in their power to find anything that would make them guilty of espionage. For example, one of the resident’s cars was not working and once they got out it turned on by itself. Situations such as these made it easy for the Maple Street residents to blame and point fingers at their own neighbors without any solid

Soon they came to the conclusion that “they” are monsters sent from a different world into the neighborhood to bring the downfall of their society. This example is a clear comparison of the communist spies infiltrating the U.S. government. “They” hid in plain sight and disguised themselves to look like everyone else. The term “monsters” is used in order to mock the Russians and label them for what they really are. To continue, the “monsters” on Maple Street purposefully blended into the rest of society as the same human race, upholding similar physical structures, and living as a normal family containing: a mother, father, and two kids. Furthermore, all those who were accused defended themselves, wanting to explain their situation in an attempt to clear their names. Yet, the residents continued to point fingers using anything they found out of the ordinary to blame each other labeling them as guilty. Throughout the episode, everyone rapidly loses trust in one another, one man goes as far as to say that the situation was “some kind of madness.” There was no freedom or pardoning for anyone. Every single resident was found guilty of something, they became angry that they were accused, yet they were still “desperate to point