Selfishness In 'The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street'

Jai Kaleka
Mrs. Kutz
English 1
1st Semester Final Essay

Selfishness can be a good thing, however most of the time it isn’t. “Binti” by Nnedi Okorafor is about a girl who leaves her home to attend a prestigious university and on her spaceship ride there, she is attacked by the medusae. Ultimately, she is spared by them because she is a harmonizer. The medusae were only there to get the chief’s stinger back. In the end everyone gets what they asked for, and Okwu(a medusae who also attends the university). In “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street” , made by Rod Serling,is about a street whose power goes out and a little boy named Tommy says it is aliens and that they are hiding among them. So everyone starts questioning people although there

The people of Maple Street are gathered outside and everyone sees a human creature so Charlie kills him when everyone questioned why he did it he said. “I don't know why I shot him I was supposed to know he wasn't a monster or something only trying to protect my home"(Serling, 1). Turns out he killed his neighbor Van Horn and says that he did it to protect himself and his home. This is selfish because he didn’t think about the greater consequences which were his friend being dead and could only blame himself. Charlie is trying to escape his neighbors and is stopped and he says “Jack Ryder no man lying dead in the street and you kill them what does partisan mean all right, let's hear it what are you waiting for” (Serling, 1). This shows the theme of selfishness because he is directing attention away from himself and onto other people so he can clear himself. He is only caring about himself. As already stated the archetype for humans is the Everyman. The book just started and we are getting to see the setting the narrator says “Maple Street USA play Summoner a tree line little world of front porch glider barbecues the laughter of children send the bell of an ice cream vendor” (Serling, 1). This shows the archetype because the quote is telling us how everybody is doing relatively the same thing which is having a barbecue or for the kids to play. Everyman thinks that everybody is the same and in this book everyone is. Secondly, when we see the actual aliens that are still in outer space one says to the other explaining “all we need do is sit back and watch this place is not unique the world is full of Maple Street I will go from one to the other and let them destroy themselves” (Serling, 1). This also shows the everyman archetype because it is showing how every human is the same. This is shown because the alien says that all humans are