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Sean Maseng l

Sean Maseng
9/24/15
Mr. Lotz
Monsters on Maple
ELA 8 ACC Street
Rod Sterling once created a Twilight Zone episode, on how humanity can be easily

convinced of someone that is guilty, with the slightest amount of doubt. The reason he wrote it

was because, at the time, Senator McCarty was throw people in jail, because he thought they

were communists, and had no evidence to prove it. In The Monsters are due on Maple Street

Rob Sterling shows the audience how the lightest bit of doubt can turn people into a mob.

Throughout human history instances like this have occurred, for an example, The Salem Witch

Trials. In this essay I will tell you how The Monsters are due on Maple Street is similar to The

Salem Witch Trials.

In The Monsters are due on Maple Street, the residents are all doing their daily

routines, mowing the lawn, working on their car and so on. Then all of a sudden a meteor goes

over their head, and all the power goes out. At first they are all calm and they are forming a plan,

then a local teen tells the residents that it was monsters that were doing this. At first they thought

that he was crazy, then some of the cars turned on their own and some of the house lights turned

on. Then all of a sudden all the residents started accusing each other.

This episode is like The Salem Witch Trials, because in both they take a weird situation

and make it like they are cursed. Secondly, in both they accused each other for either being a

monster or being a witch. Third, in both instances they both end in a fatality. Finally, they both

show how humans can have a mob mentality with the smallest amount of doubt.

One of the differences in the episode is that, the residents on Maple Street are trying to

find a monster and the Salem Witch Trials are trying to find a witch. The second difference is,

that the people on Maple Street only fought for a few hours, and the Salem Witch Trials were
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almost three months. Lastly, the person killed on Maple Street was shot by a gun, and the people

in the Salem Witch Trails were burned at the stake. There are many differences between the two,

but these are the main ones.

The Salem Witch Trials are not the only times in history that this has happened. Like I

had said before, McCarthyism, but also The Red Scare, the AIDS Scare in the 1980s, and many

more. This is something that has been repeated throughout history that humans have doubted

each other enough to kill over small things. This is how Rod Sterling The Monsters are due on

Maple Street and the Salem Witch Trials are similar.