The Monsters are Due on Maple Street Rod Serling

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The Monsters are Due on Maple Street Rod
Serling

• Science Fiction
• Adapted from Tomorrow Scholastic Literature
  Anthology

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Drama

• Classroom Discussion
• Message of the text
• Background
• Detailed discussion of the text
• Word Formation
• Word Study
• Play, Act scene,

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Classroom Activities Discussion

• What is the literary genre of this text?
• Can you name a few other books of science
  fiction? What do they have in common?
• Plot and dramatic conflict
• Climax

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Message of the text

• Title
• Literal meaning of Monsters alien/ETs
  (extraterrestrial beings)
• Implied meaning monsters actually live in our
  own hearts.

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Message of the text

• Three fatal human weaknesses
• Our deep suspicion and distrust of one another,
• Our eagerness to find a scapegoat,
• Our readiness to turn into a mob.
• It implied that if we human beings want to be
  really safe, we must kill those monsters in our
  hearts we should try to understand and trust
  each other to be less eager to assign blame, and
  to resist the kind of group (mob) mentality which
  too often results in violence and tragedy.

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science fiction
Early science fiction 18th-century Jonathan
Swift's 'Gulliver's Travels?????', had
strange alien creatures, (not in a real
sense) Voltaire's 'Micromegas' (1752) imagined a
trip to the moon. Mary Wollstonecraft Shelleys
'Frankenstein' (1817) merits being called a
science-fiction. ?????(????? Mary Wollstonecraft
Shelley, 1797-1851, ????????, ??????, ?????,
???????????)
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science fiction
In the decades after 'Frankenstein' partly
science fiction Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan
Poe, and Herman Melville in the United States
Honore de Balzac in France and Samuel Butler
and Edward Bulwer-Lytton in England.
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science fiction
Later in the 19th century Jules Verne raised
science fiction to new heights and paved the way
for the more innovative writings of H.G. Wells.
The novels of H.G. Wells were published
between 1895 and 1908.
H.G. Wells
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• 20th century (until the late 1930s).
• After this time science fiction went in two
  directions until the late 1930s.
• Europe produced a more pessimistic science
  fiction because it had just gone through the
  tragedy of World War I.
• US, relatively untouched by the war, was more
  open to optimistic fantasy stories. In the United
  States most science fiction was published in
  cheap pulp magazines (so called because of the
  cheap quality of their paper) and written by
  dozens of hack writers for large audiences.

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By the late 1940s the American pulp magazines had
been superseded/replaced by better monthlies.
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction was
founded in 1949 and Galaxy Science Fiction in
1950. The end of World War II It inaugurated
the atomic age, and the space age was shortly to
follow. Science fiction burgeoned as literature
and soon found its way into movies and
television. The television series Star Trek
attracted a large following. The Star Wars series
of motion pictures gained huge audiences.
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Science-fiction clubs had emerged in the 1930s
and the first "world" convention/meeting was held
in 1939. By the 1980s the World Science Fiction
Conventions were drawing thousands of people
yearly. Literary awards are given annually for
the best science-fiction works. The Hugo award,
named after Hugo Gernsback, was established in
1953 and the Nebula award in 1965.
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Background

• The author Rod Serling is one of  the leading
  television playwrights today in the United
  States, best known for his science fiction TV
  series, The Twilight Zone. His religion is
  Judaism(???).He married a protestant(???), Carol
  Kramer, which disagreed with the intention of
  both families. He was enlisted in the United
  States Army after graduation. Beginning in May
  1944 he served with the 511th Parachute Infantry
  Regiment of the 11th Airborne Division in New
  Guinea(????? )and during the invasion of the
  Philippines he was awarded the Purple Heart for a
  severe wound to his knee. The war was also a
  permanent mental suffering he would suffer from
  flashbacks, nightmares, and insomnia for the rest
  of his life.

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• He co-wrote Planet of the Apes(????)
• more movie scripts and teleplays. Seven Days in
  May(??????), 1964 which showed Serlings passion
  for nuclear disarmament(???) and peace. Serling
  said, "If you want to prove that God is not dead
  first prove that man is alive."

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Detailed discussion of the text

• The Monsters are Due on Maple Street
• Question
• Who are the monsters? Are they really responsible
  for all the troubles that happen on Maple Street?
  Where are the real monsters?

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Detailed discussion of the text

• to be due to be expected to happen or arrive at
  a particular time
• The train is due in 25 minutes.
• The meeting is due to start at 10 oclock.

??????????? The plane is due at London at five.
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• 1. a Good Humor man
• a man who sells Good Humor products or works for
  Good Humor company

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• 2. Another man waters his lawn.
• (n. v.)
• The workers are landing goods from a ship.
• She slowly backed the car into the garage.
• Before we move in we have to paper the room
  first.
• Would you please book a ticket for me?

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• 3. A flash of light plays on his face,
• If light plays on something, it shines on it and
  moves about on it.
• 4. the manstands there speechless.
• The sun was burning hot.
• He was lying there, fast asleep.
• Three months later, she came back home, penniless.

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• 5. We will get this all straightened out.
• straighten out to settle a difficult situation
  by dealing with the things that cause problems or
  confusion.
• We still need to straighten out a few things
  before we sign the contract.
• It will take a while before the two countries can
  straighten out their difference.

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• 6. Whatever gave you that idea? (emphatic)
• What on earth gave you that idea?
• A policeman came? Whatever did he want?
• It cant be done? Whatever do you mean?
• 7. Why, there is no telling the sort of stuff it
  can do.
• Why (interjection) His son is so young. Why, he
  is not yet six.
• It is impossible to know what has happened or
  what will happen next.

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• 8. Seems that the general impression holds that..
• Most people believe that
• hold (formal)
• a practical joke
• a trick that is intended to give somebody a
  surprise or shock and make other people laugh

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• 10. I just dont understand it any more than
  any of you do!
• I dont earn any more than you do. Why do I have
  to pay more?
• I dont like him any more than you do.

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Episode Summary

• After the power goes off on Maple Street, the
  inhabitants start to believe there is some kind
  of alien invasion, and keep accusing each other
  of being an invader. Eventually, one of the
  inhabitants of Maple Street is shot and it turns
  out nobody on Maple Street was a Martian(???),
  the power cut and other strange events were
  caused by aliens outside of Maple Street.

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Word Formation

• Awful adj. Awfulness n. Awe v. n.
• Comic adj. Comic n.
• Concern n. Concern v. concerned, concerning
  adj.
• Conscious adj. consciousness n.
• Crash n. Crash v.
• Criminal n. criminal adj. crime n.
• Desperate adj. Desperation n.
• Exchange v. exchange n. exchangeable adj.
• Gossip v. gossip n.
• Impression n. impress v. impressive adj.
• Lighten v. lightening n.
• Menace v. menacing adj. menace n.

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• Optimistic adj. optimize v. optimism n.
• Persistently adv. Persistent adj. persist v.
  persistence n.
• Precisely adv. Precise adj. precision n.
• Reluctant adj. reluctance n. reluct v.
• Residential adj. reside v. residence n. resident
  n.
• Sense n. sense v. Sensitive, sensible,
  sensual, sensory adj.
• Space n. Spatial adj.
• Weird adj. weirdness n.
• Whirl v. whirl n.

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Word Study

• consciousness, conscience
• consciousness of responsibility ???
• collective consciousness ????
• lose /recover ones consciousness ??/????,
• according to ones conscience ???
• have a clear good conscience ????
• ???????,?????????
• His conscience troubled him after he took the
  money.
• A quiet conscience sleeps in thunder.
• ??????, ??????

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• concern v.
• to have to do with or relate to????????
• Attend to what concerns you. ??????????
• an article that concerns the plight of homeless
  people.
• to be of interest or importance to ????????????
• This problem concerns all of us.???????????
• This concerns the healthy growth of the children
  deeply.
• ????????????????
• to engage the attention of involve
  ??????????
• We concerned ourselves with accomplishing the
  task at hand.
• to cause anxiety or uneasiness in ??????????
• We are all concerned for about her safety.
• ?????????????
• concern n.
• The managing director's only concern was how to
  improve the quality of their products..
• ??????????????????

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• crash, gossip, whirl
• The cars crashed into each other.
• The car hit the tree with a crash.
• Gossiping and lying go together.
• You shouldnt listen to gossip.
• The earth whirls on its axis. ???????
• My brain whirled. ??????

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• residential, resident, residence, reside
• Their residential building is located next to the
  park.
• The real resides in the people.
• He has a residence in the country.
• City residents complain that migrant workers have
  threatened to take already scarce urban jobs.
• the resident population adj. ????

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• in a sense ????????????
• make sense ? ?????????
• make sense of ?????
• There is no sense in ?????
• He sensed that his proposals were unwelcome.
• A sense of humour is a great asset for a person.
  (?)

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• the senses (the five senses) ??
• a sense of sight hearing, smell, taste, touch
• a sense of humour ???
• a sense of duty ???
• sense of righteousness ???
• the sense of locality direction ????????
• a man of sense ?????
• common sense ???
• good sense ????
• keen dull sense of smell ???????
• have plenty of sense ????

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• sensesensible, sensory, sensitive, sensual
• If you are _____, you will say nothing to your
  boss.
• She is _____ to what people think of her.
• Some religions condemn ____ pleasure as evil.
• There is something wrong with his _____ nervous
  system.

sensible
sensitive
sensual
sensory
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Verne, Jules (1828-1905)

• the father of science fiction French author
• In 1863 he achieved his first real success with
  the publication of Five Weeks in a Balloon, 1869.
• He forecast with remarkable accuracy many
  scientific achievements of the 20th century. He
  anticipated flights into outer space, submarines,
  helicopters, air conditioning, guided missiles,
  and motion pictures long before they were
  developed.

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His most popular books Journey to the Center of
the Earth (1864 trans. 1874), From the Earth to
the Moon (1865 trans. 1873), 20,000 Leagues
Under the Sea (1870 trans. 1873), Mysterious
Island (1870 trans. 1875), and Around the
World in Eighty Days (1873 trans. 1873).
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Around the World in Eighty Days is a novel about
the adventures of Phileas Fogg and his servant
Passerpartout. One day while Phileas Fogg is with
some friends, he reads in a newspaper that it is
possible to travel around the world in eighty
days. No one believes this is true, except
Phileas. Then Phileas bets them that he could
make the journey in eighty or under days, and
then leaves along with his servant immediately.
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The thing Jules Verne concentrates most on during
Around the World in Eighty Days is how precise
Phileas Fogg is. In the beginning, Mr. Fogg fires
his servant because the water he brought him to
shave in was four degrees of the correct
temperature. When Mr. Fogg hires Passerpartout,
he instructs him exactly when to prepare
breakfast, exactly how hot his water should be
and many other silly things. When Phileas is
talking to his friends after making his bet he
told them exactly when he would return and
exactly where he would be.
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One thing about Around the World in Eighty Days,
is this entire notion of taking eighty days to
travel around the world. When Jules Verne wrote
this book, he probably had no idea about how much
the world would advance. Today, with the
technology we have, we can physically travel
around the world in about a day. But also today,
we have the power to travel around the world in
about eight seconds with computers.
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• A Journey to the Center of the Earth
• is about an eccentric/odd old scientist named
  Professor Hardwigg that finds directions to the
  center of the earth in a old book. He sets out
  along with his nephew Henry, and a Icelandic
  guide named Hans to Iceland, where he enters a
  dormant volcano, that supposedly leads to the
  center of the earth. After many weeks of
  traveling, they come to a huge sea in the middle
  of the earth. Eventually they get out, by getting
  caught in a lava stream of a volcano that is
  about to erupt. When they come out, they find
  themselves thousands of miles away from their
  starting point.

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Summary   After a mysterious roar and a flash of
light, all the homes on a suburban street lose
power. Whats more, the batteries in cars and
radios go dead. People come into the street and
discuss the situation. A boy says that in a
similar situation hed read about, monsters from
outer space were responsible. When one neighbors
car starts, people accuse him of being
responsible for the blackout or in league with
those who are. They begin pointing the finger of
blame at one another, and the accusations lead to
physical violence. In this story we will define
conflict, identify two forces in the main
conflict, and identify other conflicts in the
play.