The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street

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The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street
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1. Physical and Atmospheric Setting before the
aliens come

• Physical
• Saturday afternoon, Maple Street, October
• Picket fences, football game on, lawns being
  mowed, sprinklers rotating
• Good Humor man selling ice cream
• Atmospheric
• Peaceful, idyllic small town life

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2. Physical setting after the aliens come

• A bedlam
• An outdoor asylum for the insane
• Dark
• Bodies draped over porch railings
• Windows broken
• Street lights smashed
• Screams and shouts of anger
• Atmospheric setting horrifying

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3. Events that caused the setting to change

• 1. meteor flies overhead
• 2. everything stops
• 3. Tommy mentions Martians
• 4. Ned Rosens car starts by itself
• 5. Darkness falls
• 6. Killing of Pete Van Horn
• 7. lights begin to go on and off

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1. Characters

• Steve Brand leader and thinker/ruled by logic
• ex-marine, take charge kind of guy p. 286
• Charley Farnsworth accuser and bully/ruled by
  passions/instinct
• fat, dumpy, wears loud Hawaiian sport shirt,
  easily scared, selfish, wants to save his own
  skin, compared to animals p. 282

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Characters continued

• Tommy Bishop unintentional instigator
• Ned Rosen scapegoat, feels like an animal at
  bay (feels hunted and trapped)
• Mrs. Sharp accuser/gossip
• impatient, short tempered, loud mouth p. 281

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1. Complication?

• Occurs when the meteor flies overhead and
  everything stops.

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2. Conflict?

• Man vs himself townspeople try to control their
  own fears but eventually fear gets the best of
  them and they turn on one another. Their
  uncontrolled fear leads to the next conflict.
• Man vs man illogical suspicion of others leads
  the townspeople to turn against one another

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3. Crisis?

• Shooting of Pete Van Horn crossed the line into
  violence people released their emotions and now
  cant stop fear from spiraling out of control

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4. Climax?

• Occurs when everyone turns on each other and
  kills each other

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5. Falling action?Resolution?

• Falling Action occurs when the aliens discuss
  how they take over the world. Take away their
  machines and plunge them into darkness and watch
  fear overtake them. P. 301
• Resolution Wednesday afternoon new residents
  move in ones with two heads p. 302

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6. Evidence

• A persons idiosyncrasy
• Looking at the sky Ned Rosen
• Working on ham radios Steve Brand
• Liking Martian stories Tommy Bishop
• Cars starting by themselves
• Lights going on and off

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1. Gain control

• Take away things we think are necessary like
  machines, phones, tvs, etc., let darkness set
  in, and watch fear take over. Let mankinds
  fears motivate them to turn on one another.

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2. Theme

• Fear and suspicion can cause peaceful people to
  turn on one another.
• Mankind is its own worst enemy.
• Prejudices can kill, and suspicion can destroy,
  and the thoughtless, frightened search for a
  scapegoat has a fallout all of its own.

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12. Historical times

• Japanese Internment Camps
• Post 911 profiling
• McCarthyism
• Salem witch trials

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13. Figurative language

• Maple Street was a bedlam. It was an outdoor
  asylum for the insane. metaphor
• A 12 year old boy had planted a seed. And
  something (Fear) was growing out of the street
  with invisible branches that began to wrap
  themselves around the men and women and pull them
  apart. Metaphor p. 287
• A fever had taken hold now, a hot burning virus
  that twisted faces and forced out words implied
  metaphor p. 300

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• The nail on the coffinone dumb, ordinary, simple
  idiosyncrasy of a human being and that was
  probably all it would take. Metaphor
• He (Ned Rosen) was an animal at bay. Metaphor
  p. 292
• Charlie Farnsworths piggish little eyes flapped
  open. Implied metaphor
• Charley squealed. Implied metaphor

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• Charley whinnied. Implied metaphor
• Charleys horse whinny. Implied metaphor
• Charley trots over. Implied metaphor

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• Like a hippopotamus in a circus simile p. 299
• A hundred yards away the figure (Pete Van Horn)
  collapsed like a piece of clothing blown off a
  line by the wind. simile p. 297
• Why, its like going back into the Dark Ages or
  something! Simile p. 293
• Charleylooked like a piece of uncooked dough,
  quivering and shaking in the light of the
  lantern simile p. 297

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• They blinked foolishly at the lights and their
  mouths gaped like fishes simile p.28
• People stopped as motionless as statues simile p.
  299

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• Fear whipped at the back of his brain.
  personification p. 300
• Sick engine was getting deeper and hoarser
  personification p. 287
• Feeling the suspicion that flowed from the people
  personification p. 292
• The dull, dumb, blind prejudice of the man
  personification p. 294

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• No clickety-click onomatopoeia p. 281
• Everyone on the street looked up at the sound of
  the whoosh onomatopoeia p. 281