Themes, symbols, and motifs are valuable aspects of any literary work, and they add richness to stories. Part of the Common Core ELA standards is to introduce and explain these complex concepts. However, abstract ideas are often difficult for students to analyze without assistance. Using a storyboard, students can visually demonstrate their understanding of these concepts, and master analysis of literary elements. For best practices, see our supplementary article with specific lesson plan steps on setting up your classroom and activities to teach themes, symbols, and motifs.
In the classroom, students can track the themes that The Monsters are Due on Maple Street uses to teach lessons to the audience and illustrate them.
Fear and suspicion can cause normal, peaceful people (neighbors and friends) to turn on one another. Despite having known each other for some time, idiosyncrasies drive them to re-examine how well they know their neighbors.
Ever noticed how mankind pulls itself down? This theme is present in this story and throughout history.
When people make prejudgments they are often irreversible. Once a thought is put into someone's mind, it is hard to root out. This is why prejudices are so dangerous. In the residents' search for a scapegoat, suspicion and prejudice lead to dire consequences.
Throughout the story, the author creates metaphors around the people acting like animals. This symbolizes the loss of control humans have once hysteria and paranoia take control. They become no better than animals, living by instinct rather than rationality.
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Student Instructions
Create a storyboard that identifies recurring themes in The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street. Illustrate instances of each theme and write a short description below each cell.
Ask the students to identify and list down different themes present in the narrative. Students can use a plot diagram to analyze how all the themes are developing in the story by dividing the narrative into different stages and highlighting the changes and development.
Ask the students to identify characters with conflicting or different points of view. This frequently intensifies suspense and moves the narrative along. Take note of how these conflicts are resolved or how they affect the main conflicts of the narrative. Students can also connect these perspectives to broader themes in the story.
Consider whether the story has any evidence of the author's personal perspective. Students can also reflect on how the author has conveyed his own ideas and opinions by projecting them through different characters present in the narrative.
Analyze how each perspective contributes to the story's overarching ideas. Think about how they expand on and complicate the story's treatment of these ideas. Ask the students to discuss how each perspective shapes the story and what would happen if a certain perspective was absent from the story.
In order to understand the development of different perspectives, ask the students to role-play the story. Students can choose their own characters, write a script according to the story, and act it out in front of the whole class. This will help them understand different situations from the perspective of different characters.
The main driving force behind what is happening on Maple Street is fear. A power outage first causes locals to feel anxious, but as suspicion spreads and terror increases, neighbors start to turn against one another. The fear then develops into paranoia and causes all the residents of Maple Street to become the real monsters.
The citizens' anxiety and mistrust are heightened by paranoia. They start to believe one another to be "aliens" in disguise, which causes disputes and accusations inside the neighborhood. This is an important development in the narrative as it shows the fragility of society and human beings.
The story makes the argument that when faced with uncertainty or a crisis, people have a propensity to betray one another. It draws attention to our propensity for irrationality and the harmful impact of fear.