The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street

“The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” is primarily concerned with the fallout of culturally pervasive paranoia. The episode presents the formation of hysterical mobs as a natural result of paranoia: Terrorized people band together and egg each other on; the situation escalates, and the mob’s activities become increasingly impulsive, irrational, and aggressive. What began as a search for the cause of the power failure becomes a search for someone to blame. This, in turn, breeds more fear: The people of Maple Street come to fear a hidden interloper, but they also fear being falsely accused by their peers. To protect themselves from reprisal, neighbors begin accusing one another. For example, when Charlie is cornered for shooting Pete Van Horn, he deflects blame onto Tommy to save himself. What results is a vicious cycle that escalates until it destroys Maple Street.

The culture of scapegoating that develops on Maple Street also results in compulsory conformity. The aliens are described as looking “just like humans…but they [aren’t]” (6). When hunting for the aliens, the neighbors begin searching for odd behavior in their neighbors. Les Goodman is the first suspect because his car starts by itself.