Question 8

entry of your choice

I am going to write about what I would do if I was in Ralph's situation. First of all, if I was in the island that is beautiful and small, I would be excited and enjoying it with my friends. I have always wanted to be in a small island with my friends and hang out. It would be great if it was just fun and enjoyable, but some people lost their innocence and turned dark against their friends. If I heard about Jack who used to be my friend and how he turned violent, I would be scared and sad. I would be thinking about the good memories that we had and saying why did he turn like that? If I was Ralph, I would first talk to Jack and try to get him back to normal. I will talk him through the memories and moments that we had together. If that doesn't work I would give up on him and make my own group with people that are willing to be like me. I don't think that I would turn like Jack because I have always hated being violent and I will never be someone like Jack. I will keep trying to get Jack back normal and if it doesn't work, my friends and I will have to attack him or something to make ourselves safe.

Question 7

are there any settings in this novel which you have found to be beautiful? or disturbing? or memorable? describe these settings and comment on why they were meaningful to you.

I liked the setting of the novel when it described the island. It reminded of a small island with stunning ocean and trees. In addition, it was like being in a paradise. Author did a great job on creating this island into a paradise. Anyone would want to go to this island where you can just chat with your friends and watch the palm trees and emerald ocean. As the author said, the boys were able to explore the island within few hours, so I am guessing that the island is not that big, but I think it is a small island that contains everything that you need. It contains wonderful environment and nature. It allows the readers to imagine the little fishes swimming in the stunning ocean. It made me wish to go there with my friends and just be in the nature for few days. However, the tragic things happen in the novel. The boys divide themselves into two groups and become violent towards each other. In my opinion, the author created this environment where there is a small beautiful island but it has tragic stuff happening inside it so that it looks more ironic.

Question 6

please choose one passage from the novel that is significant to you. why is this passage meaningful? please type it into one of your entries and comment on what you think about the passage

"I was choosing a place," said Jack. "I was just waiting for a moment to decide where to stab him."
"You should stick a pig," said Ralph fiercely. "They always talk about sticking a pig."
"You cut a pig's throat to let the blood out," said Jack, "otherwise you can't eat the meat."
"Why didn't you - ?"
They knew very well why he hadn't: because of the enormity of the knife descending and cutting into living flesh; because of the unbearable blood.

This passage was the passage that was most significant to me. This was not because it was memorable or beautiful, it was because it was very shocking. If you read this passage, as you see, Jack did not have any feeling towards killing a living creature. He just didn't feel anything and he was willing to kill it without any difficulties. I can't believe that human can do such a bad thing to living creatures. This passage described the situation so well that you can see what is going to happen and it is kind of sick to see what they were talking about. It was disgusting to imagine cutting into living flesh and see the unbearable blood. Author did a great job on describing it and allowing the readers to imagine the picture of it. Because it was so cruel and violent, it was significant to me.

Question 5

what is the mood of this novel? do you find this novel saddens you in any way? why?

The only I can think of when I think about the mood of the story is 'dark'. From the beginning to the end, this novel has a mood of savage and dark. Boys were divided into two groups and they were killing each other. I don't think there is no happiness in this book and it only contains dark and dull stuff inside. Even though it was dark, I personally liked it, not because it had violent stuff in it, but because it was very meaningful to me. I was able to realize about us humans and how we have that savage and cruel side of us. When I read this book it saddened me in somewhat special way. I was shocked by the actions that the boys were doing and I couldn't believe that people were that cruel enough to kill other people without any sympathy towards the others. It was sick to see how they killed their "friends" without any feeling inside of them. It is dark because this book is about how they lost their innocence and let their evil side take control over them.

Question 4

what is the climax of this novel? what happens? how do the events of this novel make you feel?

The climax of the novel is when the boys encounter their violence and kill Piggy. It was their first time to show their violence and evil sides by killing Piggy. Piggy, who has once been one of their best freinds, was killed with the boys' intention. When Piggy called Jack's tribe a savage tribe, Jack gets Ralph's men and he traps them. As a result of that, Piggy is killed by Jack. And Ralph and his boys learn how cruel and cold hearted Jack is. They learn this in a very hard way by loosing one of their friends. Ralph runs away from Jack and he later relizes that the evil was coming from Jack himself, not the outside. As I was reading this part, I was getting angry and frustrated on Jack's actions. I could not believe how someone could kill their friend without any pitty or compassion. I was feeling sympathy towards Ralph and Piggy for being in the same island as Jack. When I read the part where Piggy was killed, I was very upset by Jack's actions. Jack and his boys were loosing their innocence and civilizations and letting the evil sides come in to them and let the evil sides take control over them. Roger lost sense of being sympathy and he did not feel anything when killing. He was forgetting about the rules and he was enjoying killing other people and he let the savage take the control over him. I also felt sad because Piggy and Ralph were the ones that were representing the democracy group, but Piggy death meant that there were no more democracy. These were the reasons why I felt bad for Piggy and Ralph.

Question 3

who are the main characters in the novel? do you like them? why or why not? what is special about them? what do they reveal about the universal human experience?

My favorite character, also the main character of the story, is Ralph. He is my favorite character because he doesn't become cruel or violent like other boys. He is twelve year old English boy who was elected as the chief among the boys and he tries his best to communicate with the boys and build civilization. He reveals us about the nature human being of civilizing with other people. And also he was brave enough to stand up for himself and go to the other tribe and acuse Jack of playing a dirty trick on him. I liked the way that he was able to be brave enough to stand up for himself and acuse the other tribe's chief. In addition, I like how he wanted to give up his position because he thought that it was too much for him. Most of the people with the power abuse their power because they have the authority to do anything that they want. However, Ralph is so righteous that he doesn't think that the chief job is not good enough and he wanted to give it up.

The character that I did not like was Jack. Jack became cruel and he feels satisfied with the violent actions that he does. He desires to kill more people and he does not show any pity when Piggy dies because of him. He also threatens Ralph that he will kill him if Ralph did not go with his ideas and society. He says things that are so cruel and things that hurt other people so easily. He does not have any problem with being violent. That is the reason that I do not like Jack.

Question 2

Are there are any current situations in the world that relate to the novel? What are they, and how do they relate? Does the novel shed any light on how current situations could be resolved or "fixed"?

Yes, there is a similar situation in the real world that relate to the novel. Just like it was in the book Lord of the Flies, there are people in this real world right now that commit murder and take other peoples' valuable lives. In the novel, the boys were divided into two groups and they started killing each other because of the disagreement that the two groups had. I think it is a human nature thing that murder is out there in the world. It is just like TV show "LOST". In that movie, people kill each other. I do not know why that there is such thing as murder but I think it is a human thing. We do bad things and since no one is perfect, I think there is thing thing called murder and people kill each other. People within the society have to follow the rules and be able to respect people that are with their society. When they don't follow the rules, there will be consquences and the society won't be a healthy society. In order to make a healthy society, people must have order and appropriate behaviors. This novel forshadows what would happen if there is no law and if you don't obey the rules.

Question 1

What is the major theme of this novel? Why is this theme important to a teenager living in 2007?

The major theme of the novel, Lord of the Flies, is the nature bad side of humans. This book shows how people can be cruel and kill other people. In this book, the boys were divided into two groups with two different societies. They kill each other because of the desire to destroy each other's society and make their own society more powerful. I think it is just a human being that people want to destroy other people's ideas for their own benefit. Savagery is something that humans cannot deny. We all have that inside our body and I think that it is a nature thing that we cannot get rid of. The author starts the savagery by the hunting of animals and it gets worse and worse and boys start to kill each other. In my opinion, we need to have rules and laws so that we can be in control of our savagery and not do anything bad that we will regret. I think that this is very important to people in modern society. Teenagers these days play games that are violent and we have all kinds of video games, books, and computer games that deal with violence. We, including myself, satisfy our desire of becoming violent by playing these games. And there are some teenagers that actually kill other people in real world and they do not realize that it is different from games. They cannot get out of their fantasy and they think that they are still inside the game. We have all kinds of medias and things that increases are savagery. I think that we need be in control of ourselves and we will be able to have a safer environment and better society without much of violence.