Lord of the Flies
By Bennet Montgomery
Welcome Ms. Barnes/Students of 8F, to my blog about the Nobel Prize winning book Lord of the Flies.
I think I should start by introducing the characters. So, here is a list:
- Ralph
Ralph is elected leader of the boys at the beginning, but he loses control of the boys over time and anarchy descends. Ralph also created most of the rules of the group at the beginning. In the story, Ralph represents the concept of "order".
- Jack
Jack was Ralph's competitor for the role of leader of the group at the beginning. Jack spends most of his time hunting pigs and does not support strict rules, unlike Ralph. Jack starts out as the leader of a group known as the "choir boys", which gets integrated into the main group of boys at the start of the story. In the story, Jack represents the concept of "chaos".
- Piggy
Piggy is not this character's real name, but it is the name given to him by the group. Piggy is one of Ralph's biggest supporters, as he recognizes that Ralph's penchant for rules is the group's only chance at being rescued from the island. Piggy is the smartest child in the group. Piggy represents the concept of "intelligence"in the story.
- Simon
Simon starts out in the group known as the "choir boys". But, once Ralph is elected leader, he follows Ralph's orders to the letter. Simon is a very helpful person who is apt at following orders. Simon represents the concept of "loyalty" in the story.
All other characters in the story are minor and make a minor impact on the story.
Next, I will give a summary of the story up to chapter 6, "Beast from Air".
The book starts with a plane crash which strands a group of boys on an island. At first, you are introduced to only 2 characters: Piggy & Ralph. Piggy and Ralph eventually stumble upon a conch shell, which they blow into to attract other boys to their location. This is when Jack and Simon are introduced, along with all the minor characters.
Their first order of business is to elect a leader of their group. A majority of the children vote for Ralph over Jack, so Ralph assumes the leadership position.
The next thing the boys attempt to do is establish law and order on the island. All though the children agree to the laws, they do not follow them very well and neglect their duties, leaving Ralph and Simon to do the work.
It all starts to fall apart when a rumour spreads of a "beast" in the forest. That is as far as I have gotten.
In terms of the overall design and layout of Bennet's blog, I find it to be relatively simple, yet it conveys clearly the messages identified in the novel. Although I have heard about Lord of the Flies more than twice, I am not extremely familiar with the book. Bennet chose to include a cute, if you will, introduction to his blog. One suggestion is to think of other ways of organizing the characters, summary, and so forth, rather than in a 'step-by-step' fashion. Although it may seem effective in getting the viewer to better understand by break down the content, a step-by-step arrangement, in the case of a novel reflection, may disturb the overall flow of the information. Another suggestion for Bennet, the same thing as for Emma, is to give the audience room to interpret the blog him/herself at first, rather than introducing him/her to the characters and so forth in such as direct fashion. The book review was smoothly blended in with a summary of the text. Often the most important parts of a text are the beginning and the end, because it is in those sections that the audience will have their strongest impressions. In this case, Bennet does a very effective job in inspiring the viewer to think about the society around him/her. He tries to question the audience about the existence of our world as a safe, pleasant, and above all, 'ideal' place.
ReplyDeleteThe map that Bennet put in (unfortunately, he couldn't make his own) not only reflects the relationship of different locations as outlined in Lord of the Flies, but being 3-dimensional, it takes itself to a new aspect of serving as a canvas in which places can be identified. In novels, this can particularly be useful when a large part of the story takes place at different heights of a mountain, for instance. The quotes are good, except that it may be useful if Bennet narrows down the longer phrases, so that the viewer is able to focus on the main idea, or purpose, of the speech. This helps to increase the general sense of understanding among the audience. The journal entries reflected a relatively high degree of thought and creativity, although they somehow seemed 'flat' and lacked a 'third dimension'. It would have been nice to see a stronger sense of action and enthusiasm as in Emma's blog. Reading the glossary, it was quite interesting to see that Bennet used pictures to illustrate unknown or unfamiliar words. This is effective in providing a visual element for the audience so that the words can be better understood. This is one example of where one can go 'above and beyond', and set a new standard. Overall, Bennet's blog seems neat and relatively thoughtful. Some suggestions are to be slightly more organized (the glossary was somewhat 'all over the place', if you don't mind) and to make the background more attractive so that it captures the viewer's attention.
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