"The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street"

Rod Serling

Name_______________________________________

Pre-reading

  1. Where did Serling grow up?
  2. What did he write in order to avoid censorship?
  3. What television show did he write?
  4. What did "The Twilight Zone" combine?
  5. What award did he receive?
  6. What other two shows did Serling write and direct?
  7. What genre is "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street"?
  8. What is fading in?
  9. What is panning?

 

  1. What mood is set by the opening of the screenplay?
  2. What are nebulae?
  3. What is the fifth dimension?
  4. How does the narrator’s last line in the opening contrast with the description that preceded it?

    5.  

     

  5. What makes this line suspenseful?

    6.  

     

  6. Why does Van Horn leave?

    7.  

     

  7. Why does Tommy think that Steve shouldn’t leave? What is his theory about the strange occurrences on Maple Street?

    8.  

     

  8. What are sunspots?

    9.  

     

  9. Are Steve and Dan convinced by their own explanations? Why are they trying so desperately to explain what is going on?

    10.  

     

  10. What is unusual about the people’s laughter? Why are they laughing in this way?

    11.  

     

  11. What are the fifth columnists?

    12.  

     

  12. About what is Steve worried? What does he want to stop?

    13.  

     

  13. What is Steve’s attitude toward the neighbors’ growing fear of Goodman?

    14.  

     

  14. What nightmare is beginning on Maple Street?

    15.  

     

  15. What makes Charlie’s comment ironic? In what way have the people on Maple Street gone "back into the Dark Ages"? Who has led them there?

    16.  

     

  16. How do Don’s comments confirm Steve’s fears? What is happening to the neighbors’ tolerance for differences or idiosyncrasies?

    17.  

     

  17. What is a kangaroo court?

    18.  

     

  18. What is a ham radio set?

    19.  

     

  19. Again, what is ironic about Charlie’s statement? Who actually sends one of his neighbors into a grave?

    20.  

     

  20. What are your feelings toward Charlie at this point in the play? (pg 257)

    21.  

     

  21. How would you answer Steve’s question?

    22.  

     

  22. What comment is being made by the aliens about human nature?

    23.  

     

  23. Who, according to the aliens, is the most dangerous enemy that people can face? What qualities make the enemy dangerous?

    24.  

     

  24. What is fallout?

    25.  

     

  25. What are the neighbors’ first reactions to Tommy’s story? How do their reactions change and why?

    26.  

     

  26. Why do the neighbors consider Les Goodman’s nighttime activity odd? What does their reaction to Goodman’s nighttime activity reveal about their level of tolerance for differences?

    27.  

     

     

  27. Why does Charlie do what he does to Pete Van Horn? What is the real explanation of his action? What is the explanation suggested by one of the neighbors?

    28.  

     

     

  28. What causes the neighbors on Maple Street to turn into a mob?

    29.  

     

  29. Who are the real monsters in this play?

    30.  

     

  30. What is the setting?

    31.  

     

  31. What is an analogy?