The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street

“CHARLIE: Well, why don’t you go downtown and check with the police, though they’ll probably think we’re crazy or something. A little power failure and right away we get all flustered and everything.

STEVE: It isn’t just power failure, Charlie. If it was, we’d still be able to get a broadcast on the portable.”

This exchange establishes that Charlie and Steve initially approach the street’s power failure in a cooperative and rational way. It also informs the viewer that this bout of power failure is unusual because it affects electronic devices that don’t rely on the power grid to work, like a battery-operated portable radio.

“That was the way they prepared things for the landing. They sent four people. A mother and a father and two kids who looked just like humans…but they weren’t.”

Here, Tommy introduces the true conflict of the episode. This description of aliens as covert interlopers is what sparks paranoia on Maple Street.

“WOMAN: How come his car just up and started like that?

SALLY: All by Itself. He wasn’t anywhere near It. It started all by itself.

DON: And he never did come out to look at that thing that flew overhead. He wasn’t even interested. (He turns to the faces in the group, his face taught and serious) Why didn’t he come out with the rest of us to look?

CHARLIE: He always was an oddball. Him and his whole family. Real oddball.”

In this brief exchange, Les Goodman’s neighbors become suspicious of him. Most notable is Charlie’s observation that he and his family have “always” been “oddballs.” For want of a scapegoat, he quickly convinces himself that the Goodmans are notably different from the rest of the community and therefore worthy of suspicion.

“WOMAN: (A little reluctantly) Well...sometimes I go to bed late at night. A couple of times…a couple of times I’d come out on the porch and see Mr. Goodman here in the wee hours of the morning standing out in front of his house…looking up at the sky. (She looks around the circle of faces) That’s right, looking up at the sky as if…as if he were waiting for something. (A pause). As if he were looking for something.”

This monologue compounds quote #4. Here, the woman equates the harmless act of looking at the night sky with proof that Les is not what he seems to be. This quote emphasizes the lengths to which a paranoid person will go to identify a potential threat.

“You scared, frightened rabbits, you. You’re sick people, do you know that? You’re sick people—all of you! And you don’t even know what you’re starting because let me tell you…let me tell you—this thing you’re starting—that should frighten you. As God is my witness…you’re letting something begin here that’s a nightmare!”

Here, Les Goodman rebukes his neighbors for their terrified aggression. As the first victim of Maple Street’s witch-hunt, Les is able to see the true nature of their search for a scapegoat.

“Maybe under normal circumstances we could let it go by, but these aren’t normal circumstances.”

Charlie says this in reference to Les’s habit of looking up at the night sky. What would otherwise be a normal and harmless thing to do has been blown out of proportion due to stress and confusion.

“CHARLIE’S VOICE: (shrill, from across the street) You best watch who you’re seen with, Steve! Until we get this all straightened out, you ain’t exactly above suspicion yourself.

STEVE: (whirling around towards him) Or you, Charlie. Or any of us, it seems. From age eight on up!”

This is the first time Steve directly confronts Charlie for his paranoia. He explicitly frames the neighborhood’s search for answers as dangerous and invasive. Prior to this, Steve was a more passive participant, both in the monster hunt and in defending Les.

“Show them nothing! If they want to look inside our house—let them get a search warrant.”

Charlie begins to suspect Steve of being an alien because he owns a HAM radio set. When Mrs. Brand invites Charlie to come see the radio for himself, Steve forbids it. This moment is an expression of Steve’s liberal values: He defers to the American justice system and leans into the principle of “innocent until proven guilty.” This implicitly frames the neighborhood inquisition as counter to American values.

“STEVE: […] You’re standing here all set to crucify—all set to find a scapegoat—all desperate to point some kind of a finger at a neighbor! Well now look, friends, the only thing that’s gonna happen is that we’ll eat each other up alive—

CHARLIE: (in a hushed voice) That’s not the only thing that can happen to us.”

This disagreement is the discursive crux of the episode. Ultimately, Serling is using dialectical storytelling to explore the importance of security versus liberty.

“No more talk, Steve. You’re gonna talk us into a grave! You’d let whatever’s out there walk right over us, wouldn’t yuh? Well, some of us won’t!”

Charlie’s line here grants his argument some nuance. He isn’t being aggressive for no reason; he believes this taking offensive action is the best way to protect himself and his neighbors. Though he is proven wrong at the end of the episode, this moment makes Charlie a more sympathetic character.

“But he knew! He was the only one who knew! He told us all about it. Well, how did he know? How could he have known?”

This line refers to Tommy “predicting” alien infiltration. This argument is fallacious because the conclusion (“Tommy is an alien”) relies on the unproven premises that (1) there are aliens on Maple Street (2) they are exactly as Tommy described them.

“MAN ONE: (shouting) It isn’t the kid…it’s Bob Weaver’s house.

WOMAN: It isn’t Bob Weaver’s house. It’s Don Martin’s place.

CHARLIE: I tell you it’s the kid.

DON: It’s Charlie. He’s the one.”

This sequence presents the complete breakdown of order and civility on Maple Street. What was initially an attempt to collaboratively solve a problem has spun out into a much bigger problem: a street-wide riot.

“FIGURE TWO: Then I take it this place…this Maple Street…is not unique.

FIGURE ONE: (shaking his head): By no means. Their world is full of Maple Streets. And we’ll go from one to the other and let them destroy themselves.”

This line frames Maple Street as a microcosm for humanity. In this way, “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” is revealed to be a cautionary tale and not an isolated anecdote.