The Monsters are Due on Maple Street

“The Monsters are Due on Maple Street” was one movie that I found really entertaining in this class. It was one that definitely kept me thinking about what was going to happen, and why so many things were happening all at the same time. Though it may seem that these people acted out too much because of something stupid or crazy, I think it describes people perfectly.

Being in AP Psychology has given me a good insight on some of the reasons on why people do what they do. A term in psychology that is commonly used to describe memory is something called Source Amnesia, which is a condition people have with attributing to the wrong source of an event that we experienced, heard about, read about, or imagined. It is at the heart of many peoples’ false memories, because, for example, we tend to remember and believe what we want to believe which is why there are always two completely different sides and stories told in court about the same exact event. Also in psychology, there is a term called the Spillover Effect, which directly associates with fear, anger, or excitement. In an aroused state of fear, anger, excitement, or any other emotion involving a high amount of energy, people can become violent, form mobs, and cause damage as a ‘mob mentality’. People act out in a time of fear as a natural fight or flight symptom found in every species of the world. Like wild animals, when backed into a corner of uncertainty, we will attack each other, and our own morals.

These statistics relate to this story because it shows us an example of humanity’s own mentality. The people of Maple Street become frightened by their abnormalities, and begin to feel backed in a corner. Then, the kid in the story causes a catalyst effect by telling his town what he once read in a comic book creating it into Source Amnesia. People automatically became certain that what the kid said was happening to them, and they became so terrified, they butchered one another through the Spillover Effect.

In the end, the aliens were never on Maple Street, but rather, standing back and watching people accuse one another and go crazy. It was smart of them because like they said, every street is the same. Every street is Maple Street. To me, that is basic science of the mind. They are right however, because every person has those effects of blaming someone when something is uncertain, or if they don’t have answers.