Fear + No Rules = Chaos!

Today's blog is about themes. Theme is the author's message.

Fear is one of the themes of Lord of the Flies by William Golding. The characters, British schoolboys, got out of control when they were scared and they did things they normally would not do, such as murder another boy. In the beginning of the book, they were afraid of the scary animal noises, darkness, and “the beast”, which is a mysterious ape-like creature. In the end of the book they were afraid of each other and death.

This passage illustrates the fear of the beast:
“He handed the conch to Eric, the nearest of the twins. ‘We’ve seen the beast with our own eyes. No-we weren’t asleep-’
“Sam took up the story. By custom now one conch did for both twins, for their substantial unity was recognized.
“ ‘It was furry. There was something moving behind its head-wings. The beast moved too-’
“ ‘That was awful. It kind of sat up-’
“ ‘The fire was bright-’
“ ‘We’d just made it up-’
“ ‘-more sticks on-’
“ ‘There were eyes-’
“ ‘Teeth-’
“ ‘Claws-’
“ ‘We ran as fast as we could-’
“ ‘Bashed into things-’
“ ‘The beast followed us-’
“ ‘I saw it slinking behind the trees-’
“ ‘Nearly touched me-’
“Ralph pointed fearfully at Eric’s face, which was striped with scars where the bushes had torn him.
“ ‘How did you do that?’
“Eric felt his face.
“ ‘I’m all rough. Am I bleeding?’ ” (Page 100)

Rules are another theme since there were no rules or grownups to guide them, they did whatever they wanted. There was no jail, there was no timeout, no detention.
“The fair boy began to pick his way as casually as possible toward the water. He tried to be offhand and not too obviously uninterested, but the fat boy hurried after him.
“ ‘Aren’t there any grownups at all?’
“ ‘I don’t think so.’
“The fair boy said this solemnly; but then the delight of a realized ambition overcame him. In the middle of the scar he stood on his head and grinned at the reversed fat boy.
“ ‘No grownups!’ ” (Page 8)
With rules, people are forced to make good choices or they get a consequence. In the book, there were no consequences for hurting someone. At the end of the book, the only person who followed the rules, Ralph, was rescued. The others, who were trying to kill Ralph, did not get rescued.

Power, Evil, and Savagery

I will focus on symbols in this blog.

By my definition a symbol is a concrete noun that represents an abstract noun. A few symbols I came up with are the conch shell, the pig’s head, and the beast.

I think the conch shell symbolizes power and leadership. It symbolizes power because it belongs to the chief and the chief blows it to start a meeting. During a meeting, only the person with the conch can speak.

The beast symbolizes the evil inside of everyone. It symbolizes evil because no one knows what it looks like. You can’t see the evil inside yourself. Evil takes over when the boys think they see the beast. They kill what they think is the beast and later find out they killed Simon.

The pig’s head represents the bad side of freedom. The boys are away from society. They’re wild and out of control. They killed one of their own. The pig’s head represents savagery.

“‘Pick up the pig.’

“Maurice and Robert skewered the carcass, lifted the dead weight, and stood ready. In the silence, and standing over the dry blood, they looked suddenly furtive.

“Jack spoke loudly.

“’This head is for the beast. It’s a gift.’

“The silence accepted the gift and awed them. The head remained there, dim-eyed, grinning faintly, blood blackening between the teeth. All at once they were running away, as fast as they could, through the forest to the open beach.” (Page 137).

In this passage, the characters are savages. They became savages after living without grownups and rules. Fear transformed them into savages.

Bloody Murder!

Today I will be focusing on main events because important things happened.

On page 127, Jack got so angry with Ralph that he decided to break off and form his own group because they argued about the beast and who could kill it. I thought Jack would leave Ralph’s group. I think Ralph being separated from Jack is important to this story because without an opponent, the island would be fun and happy. Instead, there is a challenge between the two leaders which makes the book more entertaining and suspenseful.

Many of the hunters joined Jack. Later, Jack invited Ralph’s group to feast on a pig they caught and killed. Meanwhile, a few hunters loyal to Jack stole burning wood from Ralph’s fire. Jack angered Ralph, but Ralph went to the party anyway. No one could see at the party because it was very dark. Simon crawled in on his knees but no one knew it was him. Jack mistook him for the beast and yelled “Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!”(page 152).

“The blue-white scar was constant, the noise unendurable. Simon was crying out something about a dead man on a hill.

“Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood! Do him in!

“The sticks fell and the mouth of the new circle crunched and screamed. The beast was on its knees in the center, its arms folded over its face. It was crying out against the abominable noise, something about a body on the hill. The beast struggled forward, broke the ring, and fell over the steep edge of the rock to the sand by the water. At once the crowd surged after it, poured down the rock, leapt on to the beast, screamed, struck, bit, tore. There were no words, and no movements but the tearing of teeth and claws.”

I think this passage means the boys were scared. They did not think as they acted, just did. I think the author stopped calling Simon by his name and started calling him “the beast” because the boys thought he was the beast.

I was surprised Simon died so early in the book, I sort-of liked his character. I don’t understand why the boys who killed him did not recognize that it was Simon. My guess is they were blinded by fear. At professional games some people get excited and go crazy. The boys were excited and couldn’t control themselves. These situations are alike because they are both pressured by a group of people.

The Beast

Today I will blog about what happened in the book so far. I’m in the middle of the story. All of a sudden, exciting events started popping up.

So far, the boys who survived the plane crash formed a colony. The boys elected Ralph leader. Jack tried to elect himself as leader but he failed. They built a fire to signal ships but the fire went out. Instead of taking the blame for the fire, Jack bragged about killing a pig, which they ate. The boys painted their faces and pretended they were army men. These events happened in the first four chapters.

In chapter five, the little kids, called “littluns”, had nightmares about beasts. Then twins “Sam n’ Eric” saw a beast on page 98 when they were in charge of keeping the fire lit. They were horrified and reported quickly back to camp. “Sam looked at Eric irritably. The intensity of Eric’s gaze made the direction in which he looked terrible, for Sam had his back to it. He scrambled around the fire, squatted by Eric, and looked to see. They became motionless, gripped each other’s arms, four unwinking eyes aimed and two mouths open. Far beneath them, the trees of the forest sighed, then roared. The hair on their foreheads fluttered and flames blew out sideways from the fire. Fifteen yards away from them came the plopping noise of fabric blown open. Neither of the boys screamed but the grip of their arms tightened and their mouths grew peaked” (page 98). I think it is weird that Golding did not describe the beast. I think he’s not describing it to make the story more suspenseful.

Ralph and Jack led an expedition and found the beast. “In front of them, only three or four yards away, was a rock-like hump where no rock should be. Ralph could hear a tiny chattering noise coming from somewhere-perhaps from his own mouth. He bound himself together with his will, fused his fear and loathing into a hatred, and stood up. He took two leaden steps forward.

“Behind them the sliver of moon had drawn clear of the horizon. Before them, something like a great ape was sitting asleep with its head between its knees. Then the wind roared in the forest, there was confusion in the darkness, and the creature lifted its head, holding toward them the ruin of a face.

“Ralph found himself taking giant strides among the ashes, heard other creatures crying out and leaping, and dared the impossible on the dark slope; presently the mountain was deserted, save for the three abandoned sticks and the thing that bowed” (page 123).

I wonder why the author didn’t go into more detail about the beast.

Scary Island!

In this blog I am going to be writing about the setting of Lord of the Flies and why it’s important to the story.
Lord of the Flies is set on a warm, tropical island. There are palm trees all around, thick undergrowth through most of the inner island. The climate is hot during the day and gets cold during the night. It’s the kind of place that you see in a horror movie. It’s lit by a moon at night and it’s cold enough to make you get goose bumps. “Soon the darkness was full of claws, full of the awful unknown and menace. An interminable dawn faded the stars out, and at last light, sad and grey, filtered into the shelter. They began to stir though still the world outside the shelter was impossibly dangerous. The maze of the darkness sorted into near and far, and at the high point of the sky the cloudlets were warmed with color. A single seabird flapped upwards with a hoarse cry that was echoed presently, and something squawked in the forest. Now streaks of cloud near the horizon began to glow rosily, and the feathery tops of the palms were green” (page 99).
This book’s “scary” setting is important because it creeps the reader out and makes the reader feel uncomfortable. In the book, the setting makes the characters feel anxious and they can’t sleep. Golding is trying to make the reader feel like they’re in the story. The author makes me wonder what I would do if I were on the island.

Jack vs. Ralph (+ Piggy)

Today I will be blogging about the main characters because they are starting to struggle for power. I will be writing about the three main characters, Ralph, Jack, and Piggy. I will be exploring how William Golding describes these characters, what they do, say, and think.

In the beginning of the story, the author describes Piggy as the “fat boy” (page 8). Piggy’s actions show he has a passive personality and is a goody-two-shoe. Here’s an example: “The fat boy waited to be asked his name in turn but this proffer of acquaintance was not made; the fair boy called Ralph smiled vaguely, stood up, and began once more toward the lagoon. The fat boy hung steadily at his shoulder” (page 9). Piggy talks about his asthma and how he can’t run because his auntie told him not to and he seems to follow all the rules. When “the fat boy” tells Ralph his old school nick name, Piggy, Ralph starts cracking up and laughs really hard. Piggy is annoyed at first but manages a slight grin.

Golding calls Ralph the “fair boy” in comparison to Piggy. Ralph is almost the opposite of Piggy. He likes the freedom of no grown-ups. Golding describes Ralph as strong, muscular. His actions and thoughts show he does whatever he wants. “He was old enough, twelve years and a few months, to have lost the prominent tummy of childhood and not yet old enough for adolescence to have made him awkward. You could see now that he might make a good boxer, as far as width and heaviness of shoulders went, but there was a mildness about his eyes and mouth that proclaimed no devil” (page 10). He has the personality of a leader: calm, strong, and popular.

Jack is the meanest and most arrogant. He is the leader of the choir and likes the fact that he can do whatever he wants. While Piggy is telling Ralph the names he knows, Jack come up to him and says “You’re talking too much. Shut up, Fatty” (page 21). This line of dialogue shows Jack’s personality.

It may be many pages before I find out who will win, Jack or Ralph. I’m not really sure why Piggy is a main character, but I think I will find out soon enough.

Welcome to my blog about the "Lord of the Flies"

What would you do if you were on an airplane that crashed on a deserted tropical island? How would you feel when it got dark? Would you be scared? What if there were no adults around? What would you do for food? How would you hunt? Where would you sleep?

Imagine the island. It’s hot and mountainous. There are some palm trees. All you can see for miles and miles is water on every side. Animals hide in the trees and you do not know what kind they are or if they will attack you. There are no grocery stores, cell phone towers, schools, houses, gyms, or parks. No Wilshire Market to go to after school to get candy and soda. No Dollar Tree to go to and buy anything you want. No video games, no MySpace or Facebook, nothing.

This is what happens to a group of British schoolboys, ages six to twelve, at the beginning of the book "Lord of the Flies". For the next couple of weeks I am going to be blogging about this book. William Golding wrote the book. I am doing this blog for an 8th-grade novel project at a middle school in Oregon.

The main characters are Ralph, Piggy, and Jack. Ralph holds the conch, which means he’s the leader, and he gives orders to everyone on the island. Piggy found the conch but could not blow it, because he has asthma. Piggy gave the conch to Ralph and he blew it. Jack is the leader of his choir. The choir is not a choir that performs music, just a group of people under one leader. Jack is also friends with Ralph in the beginning of the book.

So far, I would recommend the book, although not much has happened yet, except for the plane crash. I am currently on page 85 out of 180. The book makes me think of what I would do if I were stranded on an island with no adults.

I would hike the mountains and explore the land and trees. I would swim in the ocean and play at the beach. I would have a great time until it got dark, then I would start to get scared. I would realize that I need to find food and create a shelter. If I didn’t have a knife, I would try to carve a rock from a bigger rock to make it sharp. I would use the sharp rock to hunt animals or try to make some sort of trap. I have never hunted before, so I would not be very good. I would try to find a place where rocks provided protection from rain and scary animals. I would get freaked. I would even start praying! (I PROBABLY WOULD NOT SURVIVE VERY LONG!!!)

Compared to me, the characters were pretty happy when they landed. They were free from grownups and school. They liked their freedom until night came and animal noises creeped them out. They were hungry and tired. They built a fire to signal ships. The friendships started to fade the longer they were on the island. Ralph got angry quickly when a ship passed by and the fire happened to be out. He blamed Jack, who was in charge of the fire. Jack did not accept the blame for the fire because he was out killing a pig, which was the only food they had.

I think that Ralph and Jack will become enemies. Jack and his choir will be their own civilization. I think this because Jack is acting like he wants to be the leader. I think this will make the book interesting and fun to read. The title, especially the part that says “Lord”, makes me think that there will be a struggle for power. I am not sure about what “Flies” means yet but I think it has to do with control over the island.