Lord of the Flies-Part 3

These past couple of weeks in English we read up to chapter nine in Lord of the Flies. We looked explicitly at how Golding further characterizes Jack, Ralph, and Simon and how the characterization of these boys adds to the development of the plot.  We started with Ralph, and looked at how Golding describes him dreaming of feeding the wild ponies twice, making it a significant insight to Ralph’s character. The wild ponies remind Ralph of his past, when he was in a civilized atmosphere. It also shows that he misses home and longs for the peacefulness of his old life. Dreaming of his past keeps him sane to a degree. It also displays how the bastion between wild and civilized has been lost, as Ralph has now become the uncivilized creature.

In chapter eight, Ralph forgets for a moment about the purpose of the fire. Towards the middle of the book, Ralph expressed his worries about forgetting why the fire was necessary, like the other boys did. That was foreshadowing this moment, and perhaps future moments where Ralph will also regress in his morals and stable mindset to become like the other boys, only interested in hunting and having a good time. Golding shows that even those who seem above man’s ‘essential illness’ can fall into a more primal state.

We explored the significance of the choir boys putting on their black caps again and how Jack’s reaction reveals more about his character. They put them back on after Jack officially breaks from the group and forms his own, comprised of mainly the original choir boys. The caps show that they are thoroughly loyal to Jack. Before, with Ralph as leader, they may have taken off the caps out of a fear of being viewed as different or unloyal to Ralph, but now they can look and act as a group again. Jack, when seeing the black caps, is extremely happy that he has followers once again. Jack obviously needs to be follows in order to feel important; this portrays his insecure nature.

                Finally, we discussed the reason for Simon’s death. Simon is the only boy in the island who understood the situation and life in a deeper, more philosophical sense. Contrarily, he was also the most misunderstood boy on the island, one who the other boys would not miss. Golding chooses Simon to die because if he lived, there would be a chance of the boys preserving some sanity, but since he dies, no one would miss him. The way he is killed is significant because it displays how primal and savage the boys have become; they did not even stop to think that the ‘beast’ they were killing was one of them. 

This relates to the movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest in that the main character, Randle McMurphy, is the ‘voice of reason’.  He, like Simon, is the only one who truly understands what is happening to his peers: the institution is only worried about the control they have over the patients, and none of them are getting better. Just as the patients in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest are crazy, so are the boys on the island. The island is metaphorically like the institution, because they are all trapped. And just as Randle is lobotomized in the movie and expunged from the plot, Simon is killed. Jack and Nurse Ratched are also quite similar: both are hungry for power, so much so that they are oblivious to the suffering they are putting the others through.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Flew_Over_the_Cuckoo's_Nest_(film)

As we reach the climax and end of the novel, we can truly see the toll the island has taken on the boys.

Lord of the Flies-Part 2

This week in English we read chapters 4 through 6 of Lord of the Flies. Much happens in these chapters that increase the intensity of the boy’s dire situation. They become more chaotic and unruly, and lose focus of their main goal: getting off the island. Jack’s hunting group abandoned the fire (it was meant to give off smoke as a recue signal) completely, and although they managed to catch a pig, they let their chance of being found slip away.

Ralph calls an assembly and points out all the rules that the boys neglected. He reestablishes what needs to be done. Also during this meeting, the concept of a ‘beastie’ was brought to light. All the boys have a fear of a ‘beastie’, but there has been no proof that it exists. In class we compared both Ralph and Jack’s speeches to the boys about the beast. When Ralph is making his speech, he does his best to dispel the fear, rationally explaining why they have no reason to be scared. He speaks with the calm authority of an adult telling a child why there’s no monster under the bed, and also identifies with them by saying that he’s sometimes scared too. Jack is more aggressive in his speech. He speaks like a bully to the children, intensifying their fear more than anything else. This proves how Jack is trying to rule by fear. He wants to show the littluns that he’s not afraid, and that he’s a better leader than Ralph.

We also discussed how Jack’s character has changed over the course of the novel so far. In chapter four, we see Jack’s character develop into a more savage state. He looks more primitive with long hair, dirty skin, and a painted face. We get another glimpse at Jack’s insecurities as he rejoices over the sight of his face looking like a stranger. This new face gives him courage to act on his motivations: he wants to prove to the others and himself that he is strong. This motivation is what encourages him to abandon the thought of rescue, which was once a shared goal among all the boys. In this chapter we also see a development in the conflict between Jack and Ralph, as Jack still holds a grudge against Ralph for winning the position of leader over Jack. Jack’s mannerisms in this chapter become more violent, as we see that he is no longer afraid to physically hurt Piggy. He makes motions with his knife as is he wants to use it against not just pigs, but some of the boys as well. Jack’s avarice has become stronger, and his wicked selfishness and irascible nature has become more apparent.

The boys overall have regressed into a more primitive state as they are isolated on the island with no adults to guide them. The absence of a higher authority has led Jack to try to rule by fear. In relation to the boys’ situation, a book called Lucifer Effect was written about an experiment that was conducted at Stanford University.

http://www.lucifereffect.com/

Students were chosen to play the role of either an inmate or a prison guard, and after merely six days, the experiment was shut down because the guards became too violent and the inmates were severely depressed. The book explains the experiment’s results and what it says about human nature.