Picture Time!

It just occurred to me that my blog is quite lacking in pictures! So here are some:

 

This picture is actually from the movie "Lord of the Flies". In this specific scene, Jack and his hunters have just killed a pig. Jack is the boy in the front, behind him is Roger. The pig's head was detached and placed on a stick by Jack and his gang of hunters. This skewered pig's head is named Lord of the Flies by Simon. As Simon descends into insanity, he has imaginary conversations with the pig's head.

 I included this picture because it contains to important figures in the story: Jack's hunters and the Lord of the Flies. Jack's hunters are important because they allow and encourage Jack to rebel and set up an anarchic tribal government. The Lord of the Flies is important for two reasons:
1. It is the title character (I'm not sure if character is the right word, though).
2. The violent death of the pig that became Lord of the Flies traumatized Simon to the point of insanity.

Picture source: "The Lord of the Flies." The Lord of the Flies. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Apr. 2013. <http://www.martinfrost.ws/htmlfiles/april2007/lord_flies.html>.



 This picture is of Ralph blowing the conch. In this scene, Ralph is attempting to rally the children and call a meeting. Throughout the entire book, meetings are called using the conch.

 I chose to include this picture because it depicts two important things: Ralph and the conch. Ralph is important because he is the protagonist in the story, and the majority of the story is told around Ralph. The conch is important because it represents the concept of free speech in the story. The conch is given to a child when they wish to speak. No one may speak while the person holding the conch is speaking. This system allows even the smallest of children to voice their opinions without being interrupted or intimidated by larger children such as Jack.

Picture source: "William Golding’s Lord of the Flies: Conch Symbolism." SchoolWorkHelper. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Apr. 2013. <http://schoolworkhelper.net/william-goldings-lord-of-the-flies-conch-symbolism/>.


 This picture is from the flash game "Lord of the Flies" available on the Nobel Prize Committee's website. In this image, it shows the island and pretty much every bad thing that happens throughout the story. From the forest fire to the pig's decapitation.

 I chose to include this picture because it illustrates almost the entire story in one picture. Although not all the events in the image occurred at the same time, they did all occur at some point during the story.

Picture source:"Burners.Me Burning Man Commentary Blog." BurnersMe Burning Man Commentary Blog. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Apr. 2013. <http://burners.me/2012/05/page/12/>.

 In this image, Simon has gone over the brink of insanity. It is at this point that he starts talking to the pig's head, also known as the Lord of the Flies. As you can see, Simon is quite scared, but he believes in what he is seeing.

 I chose to use this image because it is a chilling (and accurate) representation of Simon's insanity manifesting itself in the pigs head. Of all the images of the Lord of the Flies available on the internet, this is one of my favourites.

Picture Source:  "Simon - Lord of the Flies by ~ Xxcheesexgeniusxx." Background Pictures. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Apr. 2013. <http://background-pictures.feedio.net/lord-of-the-flies-by-mastermime-on-deviantart/deviantart.com*download*149139662*Lord_of_the_Flies_by_mastermime.jpg/>.

Lord of the Flies

a book by William Golding

 Lord of the flies is a modern classic, created by nobel prize winning author William Golding. The main theme of the novel is the idea that the line between order and disorder is a very thin one. 

 In the novel (as I have said before), a group of children are involved in a plane crash and are stranded on a tropical island. For some reason, instead of finding food or water, the first order of business of the children is to set up a standing government. The children elect a boy named Ralph for the role of leader. Ralph's opponent during the election is Jack, a boy prone to hate and jealousy.

 Little is known about Ralph, but Jack is very open about his past. Jack is the prefect of a boy's choir group known as the "choir boys" for the duration of the story. Jack secretly resents the decision of the group for choosing Ralph over him for the position of leader.

 The boys then decide that it is time to find food. While the main group does this, Jack, Ralph, Piggy and Simon decide to go explore the main mountain on the island so that they can prepare a signal fire in the event that a ship and/or an airplane pass by, so that the boys may be rescued. It is at this point that Ralph decrees that the signal fire be maintained at all times, and that there will always be someone watching it to make sure it doesn't go out. That plan doesn't work; trust me, I have read the book.

 Upon arriving back at the camp, the boys run into more trouble in the form of general disorder. The boys get into worse and worse messes, from fire to death to ritual slaughter to Jack's hostile takeover. But no matter what happens, and no matter how improbable the possibility of escape becomes,  the question remains: Are they going to get out of this alive?

In a previous post, I gave a brief explanation of the characters central to the story. But, I didn't give a very detailed description, and I didn't mention any minor characters at all, so here we go:

Ralph: Ralph is the protagonist of Lord of the Flies. The story is told mainly from Ralph's point of view. Ralph is a physically fit child in the early stages of pubescence, and is generally modest about any talents he possesses that are not central to survival on the island. Ralph is the finder of the conch, a tool which the boys use to maintain order (it's complicated, I'll explain later). Ralph can be seen as a metaphor for Order in the story.

Jack: Jack acts as the antagonist towards the end of the story. Jack starts the story as the leader of a group of boys  known as the choir boys, a group composed (as you probably guessed) of choir boys from the same school/organization. Jack does not respect the rules imposed by Ralph, and occasionally goes out of his way to break them. Jack does not think creating a signal fire should be the boy's priority. Jack can be seen as a metaphor Disorder in the story  (until he becomes a dictator type figure).

Piggy: Piggy is Ralph's closest ally for most of the story. Piggy is an overweight child who somehow manages to stay overweight even when on the island. Piggy was with Ralph at the beginning of the story, and remains loyal to Ralph until it is no longer possible for him to do so. Piggy possesses a pair of glasses referred to as "specs" throughout the story. Thanks to the convex nature of the glasses, the boys are able to start a fire. Spoiler alert: Piggy dies.

Roger: Roger is Jack's closest ally. Roger doesn't play a very large role until near the end of the story. At that point, he descends from casual support of Jack to full out fanatic support of Jack, to the point that he is willing to murder Jack's opponents. Roger

Simon: Simon starts out in the group of the choir boys. He immediately bonds with Ralph when Ralph comes into power. Simon is cunning and will always be loyal to you... as long as you're in charge. This is shown when Ralph is expelled from the group and Jack gains power. Instead of remaining loyal to Ralph, Simon chooses instead to side with the (traitor) Jack.

Samneric: Although 2 different people, Sam and Eric (or Samneric as they are colloquially referred to by the group). Samneric do not do much during the stories. They only feature twice during the story:
1. Samneric are the first to see the man that the children refer to as "The Beast" (explained later) while tending to the signal fire.
2. Samneric warn Ralph that Roger and Jack plan to use their new "army" to kill Ralph.

The "littluns": the littluns are all the children that survived the plane crash that are too small to actually perform any laborious or political activities.

"The Beast": "The Beast" starts out as a myth among the littluns. Eventually, the larger kids (you know, kids who actually matter) start to take it seriously. In reality, The Beast is another survivor of a plane crash (whether it is the same plane crash that the children were in is not specified). The Beast is the only Adult on the island until the last chapter. Jack uses fear an reverence for The Beast The Beast doesn't exactly do too well during the story, you know, in case you actually cared about such a minor character. The Beast can be seen as a representation of a superstition's power to sow disorder.

The Conch: The Conch is a conch shell (as you probably guessed). It is found by Ralph at the beginning of the story. The Conch is used to allocate turns to talk. When a person has the conch, it is that person's turn to talk. There is a scene in the book where Jack throws the conch to the ground and renounces its power. It's at that point that the group tips from the peaceful order of Ralph's rule to the violent disorder of Jack's dystopian dictatorship of deadly domination (Yes! Ha Ha Ha! I have wanted to do that since the creation of this blog!).

The dead pig/lord of the flies: the lord of the flies is the impaled head of the dead pig that Jack and his choir boys (renamed to the hunters at this point). Simon starts to descend into insanity when he witnesses the hunter's display of insane brutality. Simon starts to have imaginary conversations with it, and refers to it as the "Lord of the Flies"

The choir boys/the hunters: the choir boys start out as the loyal followers of Jack, and remain loyal (with the exception of Simon, who offers his loyalty as if it were candy). Eventually (with the consent of Ralph), the choir boys are renamed to the hunters and take up their namesake activity (hunting). The choir boys lead Jack's "army".

 All though it may not seem like it, Lord of the Flies is a dystopian novel. Why? Good question! To answer that, we must first ask ourselves: "what is dystopia?" Dystopia is the antonym of utopia; dystopia (not to be confused with apocalyptic fiction) is the ultimate bad time; dystopia is a society characterized by depression, suppression, and oppression. But why is Lord of the Flies dystopian? I am so glad you asked. Lord of the Flies does not start out completely dystopian. The children start out with a functioning society, but it slowly descends into chaos. The book is a summary of utopian civilizations and there descent into dystopia. The society becomes dystopian when Jack takes over. Whereas Ralph's nation was a nation of tolerance and free speech (the conch system insured that everyone was heard) that focused on being rescued; Jack's nation was a nation of darkness, of oppression. Although societies like that can be orderly just as well as utopian nations (if not more so), they almost never are. Jack's nation metaphorically destroys free speech when Jack smashes the conch, his attempt to kill all who oppose the word of Jack, and hold up a nation using the  genetic superstition inherited by the human race from our forefathers. Jack's nation is a model dystopia, it has virtually every social justice issue.

In conclusion, Lord of the Flies is the epitome of dystopic novels, the ultimate warning of the thin line between social order and social collapse. Lord of the Flies is the ultimate representation of all that I have been warning people about for years! The inevitable collapse of our society into a figurative hell. Lord of the Flies is a prophesy of our failure, the herald of our doom, and there is nothing we can do. That is why I have written this mighty biblical tome of a second entry.

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.