The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street

1. The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street

2. 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

3. 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

4. 3. Events that caused the setting to change • 1. “meteor” flies overhead • 2. everything stops • 3. Tommy mentions Martians • 4. Ned Rosen’s car starts by itself • 5. Darkness falls • 6. Killing of Pete Van Horn • 7. lights begin to go on and off

5. 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

6. 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

7. 1. Complication? • Occurs when the “meteor” flies overhead and everything stops.

8. 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

9. 3. Crisis? • Shooting of Pete Van Horn – crossed the line into violence – people released their emotions and now can’t stop fear from spiraling out of control

10. 4. Climax? • Occurs when everyone turns on each other and kills each other

11. 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

12. 6. Evidence • A person’s 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

13. 1. Gain control • Take away things we think are necessary – like machines, phones, tv’s, etc., let darkness set in, and watch fear take over. Let mankind’s fears motivate them to turn on one another.

14. 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.

15. 12. Historical times • Japanese Internment Camps • Post 911 profiling • McCarthyism • Salem witch trials

16. 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

17. The nail on the coffin…one 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 Farnsworth’s piggish little eyes flapped open. Implied metaphor • Charley squealed. Implied metaphor

18. Charley whinnied. Implied metaphor • Charley’s horse whinny. Implied metaphor • Charley trots over. Implied metaphor

19. 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, it’s like going back into the Dark Ages or something! Simile p. 293 • Charley…looked like a piece of uncooked dough, quivering and shaking in the light of the lantern… simile p. 297

20. They blinked foolishly at the lights and their mouths gaped like fishessimile p.28 • People stopped as motionless as statuessimile p. 299

21. Fear whipped at the back of his brain. = personification p. 300 • Sickengine was gettingdeeper 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

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