Peer Responses!

My Peer Responses were done on three different blogs with the links below:
http://dystopiannovellordoftheflies.blogspot.ca/2013/04/map.html?showComment=1365557949706#c1484462336393827474: Susan's Blog

http://lordoftheflies14.blogspot.ca/2013/04/section-4.html: Eric's Blog

http://lordofthefliesclassic.blogspot.ca/2013/04/journal-entry-1-ralph.html: Leon's Blog

:)

Glossary

Glossary

1. Contrite: feeling or expressing pain or sorrow for sins or offenses

Ex. Simon's contrite face appeared in the hole.

2. Frond: compound leaf of a fern or palm 

Ex.  When these breezes reached the platform the palm fronds would whisper, so that spots of blurred sunlight slid over their bodies or moved like bright, winged things in the shade.

3. Disinclination: a certain degree of unwillingness

Ex. There had grown up tacitly among the biguns the opinion that Piggy was an outsider, not only by accent, which did not matter, but by fat, and ass-mar, and specs, and a certain disinclination for manual labor.

4. Swathe: wrap in swaddling clothes

Ex. Ralph was already clambering over the first smashed swathes of the scar.

5. Creeper: a long plant that grows along a surface (ex. the ground, or up walls or trees)

Ex.Then the piglet tore loose from the creepers and scurried into the undergrowth.

                   

6. Pinch(Slang): to steal, or take without asking

Ex. "You pinched Piggy’s specs...you've got to give them back"

Quotation #4

"The world, that understandable and lawful world, was slipping away." Chapter 5, pg. 82

This quote in the story was at the pre-climax, when Jack was on the steps to becoming the island dictator. This line was symbolic after it was given to text when the conch was crushed, and Piggy had died.  This line showed, that the beginning of all that happened on the island, everything was fine, there was a plan, there was a mission, there was law and there was order, everyone knew what they were to do, and it didn't matter if they did it or not, all that mattered was if it had been clear that the objective is to get home. But then we were introduced to Jack's changes, and his savagery, and aggressive behavior towards living things. After many of his endeavors  Jack and his followers, started to twist the order on the island, and as soon as Jack started to kill people, his objective, the "islands" objective changed to "Start a civilization here, where there are no leaders to stop you, and become the leader of your island". This though misted out the fact of getting home, and introduced fear of being killed, and at all times plotting to kill/or bring peace amongst each other. 

A connection I could make to this quote was from the Harry Potter series when Dumbledore had died. As Dumbledore was living, society was established, Hogwarts was being run properly and there were laws and rules in place. But after his death, the enemy came and started to run Hogwarts as if it was a boot camp, and illegal spells were taught with no rules or laws to stop them.

Another connection I can make was from my experience as a pre-teen. This was when I my brothers were 7 and 2. My parents had gone out to do some shopping and they asked to take care of them, and everything was going great, they had lunch, they were clean, and they were tired. So, I put them to sleep, and started with my homework. Suddenly, I heard a knock on the door, which startled me, as it was only half an hour since my parents left. So I looked out the window and saw no cars. So I didn’t know what to do, but I came downstairs and looked, to my surprise I had seen my parent’s family friends. They came with their 7 year old child, and I told them that my parents were out to go shopping, and as soon as they heard that they told me to wait here with their son, as the go to the shopping mall to my parents, without even knowing that my brothers were home too!

So I told the boy to just watch television, while I did my homework. But as soon as I got upstairs, BOOM, the sound of the television was so loud, and when I heard shrieks from my brothers’ bedroom I knew I was in trouble. They woke up kicking each other and ran downstairs crying, and since they were asleep, they forgot that mom and dad were gone so they started crying. I tried stopping them, but in front of the door, was the boy, and seeing them crying, he began to cry as well. So I called my parents because I knew I had lost control of the situation, and I needed help.

Quotation #3

“You’re no good on a job like this.” Chapter 1, pg. 21

This line was said when all the boys on the island had settled and regulated. This was when Jack, Ralph, and Simon were to go on an expedition to explore the area of the island. As they set off Piggy tagged along knowing that he was eligible since he was the first to be with Chief Ralph. This was when Ralph directed the line toward Piggy, and as an addition Jack also said that “We don’t want you”.

Now this happened because of many reasons. At the beginning it was only Ralph and Piggy, so whatever was done, needed to be done together, but after the newcomers joined, people could be evaluated on by their physique and intelligence. As Ralph and Jack were big tough boys, and Simon was quick and agile, Piggy could not meet up to their standards and was rejected.

This scenario is seen everywhere, anywhere in everyday life. People apply for certain roles and responsibilities and are rejected due to their physique/appearance being ineligible to get the job. For example: Unless the short skinny boy with nothing but skin and bone, can shoot better than everyone in the sport of Basketball, he would be ruled out right away, as he is not physically eligible to compete with the others. Piggy was the short skinny boy(symbolism) and Ralph, Jack and Simon were his competitors.

This also happens in the book “The Fear” by Charlie Higson. Where the scenario is taken to higher extremes, when a fat short boy who was 8 years old named Small Sam was very immature and was being a “dead weight” to his mates. So whenever the group tries running from the enemy, they have to slow down and wait for Small Sam, which is a hazard for everybody. So one day Sam was hurt and was limping and since the enemy were decayed humans, they wanted to eat kids. The others rejected Sam as a person and left him behind to get rid of the dead weight and also get further away from the enemy. Again, this was a very extreme example, but it gives the same stereotypical message. That people are always judged right away before being evaluated thoroughly and can be ruled out at first look. 

Quotation# 2

"The desire to squeeze and hurt was over-mastering." -Chapter 7

This was when they went out to look for the beast, and they haven't known of its true existence. Ralph believed that he had found it, but it was just a boar. This is when the line came in, as all the boys started to jab Robert. The line then came from Ralph when he tried to get in on the action and jab at Robert.

This happened because the boys were now in shock and trauma because they fear the "beast" and this trauma cause much anger and is leading them into becoming a savage. As  Ralph is shown screaming at the others when he was not listened to, that showed he was hesitating in fear. Ralph changed a lot under stress, because he wanted to lead the kids home, and wasn't prepared to cope with such problems. This happens a lot in life. When someone takes a role and then doesn't understand the dangers and responsibility that comes with that role until the unexpected scenario appears. For example, there have been many people who enlist as policemen just be able to enjoy the thrill of catching bad guys and getting paid, while eating donuts. Though they didn't enlist for the heroic part of the profession, where they could die any day, but whiling protecting their city. 

Quotation #1

"'Maybe there is a beast....maybe it's only us.'" Chapter 5, pg. 80

This quotation is huge in this story. This is one of the hidden messages that Golding wanted the readers to hear.  This is because throughout the book, there have been rumors of the beast and the "beastie" which has gotten everyone afraid and alert as they live on the island at all times. When this line was said, Golding wanted the message to be clear, there is always a beast hidden inside of ever person, as there actually was no beast, the thing that everyone was afraid of in the book, was their own actions.

Once there was a time in my life, when my cousin had told me that there was a monster in the house. During this time I was very small, and I was very wreck less, clumsy and I never cleaned up after myself. So as I remember, I was asleep after a full afternoon of shenanigans and while I was asleep, my uncle and aunt came with my 16 and 14 year old cousins. Since I left a mess in the house, my cousins were responsible, and as a teenager I wouldn't even want to clean up after a child like me(in the past). So they waited for me to wake up, and they told me that there was a monster in the house, and he left a mess, which I would have to clean up, or else he would eat me. Now, as a kid you wouldn't even want to think about being eaten, so while I was cleaning up, I didn't even notice that I had done such a mess. This experience shows that people can do "beastly" things without even knowing it, there is always going to be a rebel in every person, and as the boys tried to create a civilization, they unleashed that beast.

Another connection I can make is of this book I read called "The Enemy" by Charlie Higson. This book is another dystopia, where the world goes bad, as every person over the age of 14 die, or turn into a decayed zombie. So while some remaining kids try to figure out how this epidemic happened, a character, Jack says a similar line "maybe this was meant to happen, maybe it was just waiting to be unleashed, and now anyone who passes the 14 year old time limit will perish..." This also gives a sense that these sorts of beasts are in you, they just need to be released and triggered by the right things at the right time.

Journal Entry #4 (Simon)

Simon

Now that we have been here on this island for a couple of weeks everything starts to get worse. The littluns fear an imaginary beast and the biguns, even Ralph, fear Jack. But it is another thing that makes me feel afraid: Today they (Jack, his hunters and Ralph) did something that reminded me of religious rites. They danced and chanted and pretended that Roger was a pig and pretended to stab him with their wooden spears. Robert cried with fear but they didn't seem to care. Even Ralph, who is one of the more intelligent ones on this island, took part in this game. Today there was a kind of excitement in the air that drove people mad.
What would they do if they had really killed him? Would they even care? And, yet more important, what are they able to do? Will they really take a littlun, like Jack said? Will they kill a human being?


I hope that we will be rescued soon. I can’t cope with this any longer. To be on an island together with foolish boys who think that they are adults and that their actions are reasonable. I don’t know how to tell them any longer that we won’t be rescued if there is no fire on the mountain. And there will be no fire as long as they believe that there is a beast on the mountain. How can I show them that the beast only exists in their imagination? That the only beasts in this island are some of us? What can I do to help the littluns and Piggy?

This is the journal of Simon, another boy who was stranded on the island. Now, Simon was a very symbolical person, he saw things differently throughout the story. The setting of the journal was after the introduction to the beast had already happened, which was a huge part in the story. It also talks about his reaction to Ralph and the others' action on Robert, when they were re-enacting a hunt. Simon was the person who was also very sensible in the book, though he may be a little delusional, he knew what to do, and how to do it. 

I just thought of Simon as a boy who frowned towards conjured up things like the "beast". He also reacts negatively towards nonsense like what Ralph and his group did towards Robert, which the hurt him, forgetting that Robert was human and not the sow.