The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street, By William Golding

The Test For Humanity

On a cloudy afternoon a group of fishermen were on a boat in the middle of the ocean doing their job. What they did not was that an immense thunderstorm was near the corner. The storm caught them shipwrecking the boat they had and landing on a deserted island just with the crew hoping someone pass by the island and help them to get back to their homes. Well, that is almost what happened to kids on the book Lord of the Flies by William Golding, but there’s so much behind the words that will mean something else. Also, on the episode “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” from the Twilight Zone by Rod Serling they go through in a very similar situation. Last but not least the episode “Das Bus” from The Simpsons by David
S. Cohen was inspired by the book Lord of the Flies.
The Book Lord of the Flies have influenced the creation of the two episodes one from the Twilight Zone and one by The Simpsons and who knows, if the book was never written we will still
have those two episodes.
All the works have the same objective which is to test if humans are either evil or good. The book Lord of the Flies was the first one showing the answer to this question. The book is remarkably good that other people got inspired by it. The connection they have is the question, are humans good or evil.
In Lord of the flies a group of kids from six to twelve years old where on a plane that crash on to an island and kill every adult leaving the kids on their own. Ralph a fair tall good-looking boy and Piggy an overweight kid with glasses but with great mentality of what is going on were the first ones to get introduced. Later on Jack who has a militaristic and strict attitude, Simon the one who understands what the beast in the island really is and finally Roger the boy who likes to hurt other for his own pleasure. These kids and more were trapped in this island for months and with a beast that no one could explain what it is except for simon. Because of the beast Ralph and Jack have different perspectives. Ralph was thinking long-term meanwhile Jack was thinking short-term. By the end of the book the kids have killed others and every have gone bad except for Ralph who still was thinking right. What Golding want it was to test the children if by the end they become evil or they remain as angels.
In The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street have almost the same plot as the Lord of the Flies, well yeah because the episode was aired six years after the book was published.
The episode and the book have many similarities, sure Stirling have gotten many ideas from the book and it is because he did. On maple street everyone was having a normal day until an ovni landed near the street making everyone wondering what was the object that just passed by. On the next day every car, radio, telephone or electricity could not turn on. Every wondered what was going was there when a pair of adult want to go check if other neighborhoods have electricity but a kid Tommy who have read many alien comics suggest that aliens have taken the form of humans and they don’t want to leave the neighbourhood where they are right now. Later at night they start to accuse each other they are the aliens because on some houses the lights went on. An old man that since the morning went on his own to check other neighbors if they have electricity comes back but later killed by Charlie with a shotgun thinking that he was the alien and that was trying to protect everyone from it. By the end of the episode they show the aliens not even with the neighbours but in a cliff. They were turning on and off electricity with a device. One of the aliens state that there is no better way to conquer the planet than making people become their own enemies. And that is also what happened in Lord of the Flies the kids become
their own enemies.
Finally in the episode “Das Bus” from The Simpsons in mostly of the episode there is a huge reference from the Book Lord of the Flies.The schoolkids were going on a excursion in the bus. Bart and Nelson want it to play which fruit goes faster to the front of the bus Milhouse also want it to play with his grapefruit but the grapefruit got stuck behind the brake pedal. When Otto was trying to slow the speed he could not do it because of the fruit, pushing against the pedal result the fruit burst open and blind Otto he then lost control of the bus and fall down the bridge. The kids survive and found themselves on a island and Otto swam far on the ocean. When the kids were accusing Mihouse for what happened Bart pick up and blow a conch to state order just like in the book of Lord of the Flies Ralph found a conch. MIlhouse then found what it seems a monster. After Bart brought some snack from the sunken bus and brought it to the superfice. Everyone was sleeping when MIlhouse decided to eat two sandwiches and a bag of nacho cheese chips, he then fall asleep and the monster ate the rest of the snacks. This could have referenced Piggy of how much he ate until he could not even. After when Milhouse had a trial he is announced innocent because there is not enough evidence against him. Everyone get angry at him and started to chasing MIlhouse, Lisa and Bart. Nelson painted his face with ashes from the fire and the other kids which they now became a tribe also the ululate.This referenced the Tribe Jack had -which is Nelson in The Simpsons- and how he painted his face with ashes and when the ululate to hunt down Ralph. The episode was made in fact from the book Lord of the Flies.
After all the book Lord of the flies is the connection all these works had in common. The testing for human behaviour.