Focus on characters

Hey readers! Since I have already made a post about the characters in “lord of the flies”, I thought I would make one about their relationship to each other, and my personal opinion on each one of them (the main ones).

First of we have Ralph and Jack, they are our main characters and the ones whom got the most influence in the story. As I have said before Ralph is our protagonist and Jack our antagonist. Early in the story, we see a clear difference between them, when Jack wants Ralph’s seat in the leader position. Therefore, Jack has had it out for him from the start. Nevertheless, what kind of a relationship is this? They did not hate each other in the start, they were friends like every one of them, but as the story progressed they grew further away from each other, and Jack became villain in the story, while Ralph had the position as the hero. My personal opinion on them is that their story is that the characters really fill their roles well. Jack for instance, is a god in his role; he becomes a villain that anyone would be terrified off, and Ralph rather fills his role well. He definitely is not a superhero, but he tries and that is what really matters.

Then we have Piggy and Roger, which I would say is the right hand man for Ralph and Jack, Piggy being Ralph’s and Roger being Jack’s. Piggy is a chubby kid with glasses (as I have said before), he is not very brave, but when push comes to show he helps Ralph in serious matters. He was Ralph’s advisor and probably his best friend and the same is Roger to Jack. So you can kind off understand their relationship to each other, much like Ralph and Jack’s. As Ralph and Jack right hand man’s I think they also fill their role, it is kinda dull that I repeat that, but it is the truth. They help the main characters though advising them and helping them in difficult situations.

Then we have the last of them Simon, Sam and Eric. Not much to say here, but what I already mentioned a previous post. Simon is the neutral one, keeping to himself, not really picking sides or fights. Not much else to say about him, he is a kind person, and likes to help others. Then we have Sam and Eric, which are twins. They are inseparable, and allied to Ralph. They pretty much look alike, and do what Ralph tells them. They do not agree with Jack, and are for keeping the peace. However, what I like about them is their devotion to Ralph. How they keep their mouth even under torture. Not much else to say, then all of these characters fulfilling their role, as they should and did.  

Focus on social studies

Hi readers! In this post, I will be discussing how “Lord of the Flies” relates to social studies. First off, how does it relate? Politics. Politics is something we talk a lot about in our social studies class, 

especially the politics in America and the UK. Now why does specifically politics relate to “lord of the flies”? The reason for this is the small civilization our protagonist Ralph is trying to make. When the boys first arrived to the island, they did not really know what to do with themselves, so naturally they chose a leader to guide them (tell them what to do). They started voting; there were two people they could choose from, Ralph or Jack (antagonist). Eventually Ralph was the one chosen for the job, and he started giving the boys tasks, which helped them with their longing for going home. The way this relates to social studies is how they chose the leader in a democratic way, the one with the most votes won the “Campaign”, and how there were two parties; Jack and Ralph.

Another thing in this novel that relates to social studies, is how later in the story the boys separated into two groups. Where then Jacks group starts becoming aggressive towards Ralph’s group, which then could have created a “civil war”. The reason I say “civil war” is because I rather compare it to the American civil war, which we have gone through in class, and is relevant to the social studies class.

As I did mention how they somehow created this democratic voting system, I did not go far enough into their civilization they are trying to build. Ralph as there leader gives the boy’s tasks, two of this tasks are to make a signal fire, and a hut for the small kids. With the small steps they are trying to create this civilization, even though their attempt fails, it still has a resemblance to how civilizations where formed through history.

These are just a few examples on how this novel by William Golding, ties into social studies. Thank you for your time, and please stay tuned for more updates. 

A Small Biography about William Golding for my devoted readers!

British author Sir William Golding was born on the 19^th of September 1911. He is the novelist whom wrote the classic “Lord of the Flies”, and for this, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1983.

As well as being, a writer Golding had other occupations, such as: A lecturer (English and Philosophy), actor, sailor and a musician. In his early life, he went to a school, which his father was a schoolmaster, Marlborough Grammar School. As a child Golding was quite frustrated, and according to Biography.com Golding described, himself as a brat and even went so far as to say “I enjoyed hurting people”. Which then, might have given him some inspiration to how, “Lord of the Flies” turned out.

At an age of 23 years old, Golding published his first book, a book about poetry entitled “Poems”. However, in later years Golding felt some regret that they had been published, and according to william-golding.co.uk, Golding supposedly bought a second-hand copy of them so he could tear them apart.

Despite being very fond of teaching, Golding, quit the job and joined the royal navy. During his six-years on a boat, he started to develop a liking to the boat and the seas. In WWII, Lieutenant Golding, were put in charge of the rocket-launching craft, under the sinking of the Bismarck. This experience made him realize what men a capable of, and proved to be fruitful material for his fiction. After the war had ended in 1945, Golding went back to his life of teaching and writing.

During the last few years of his life, Golding quietly spent them living with his wife, Ann Brookfield, at their house in Cornwell. After his life ended of a heart attack on June 19, 1993, Golding had published 18 books. 

Chapter 8 through 12 short summary

Chapter 8 through 12 short summary

Chapter 8, Gift for the Darkness.

Continuing from chapter seven the next morning, the rumours about the monster had all the boys scared as they meet up at the beach. Jack uses the conch shell to assemble to boys, to tell them that the monster is real and how much of a coward Ralph is, and proposes to vote him out of leadership. Jack’s request does not go through; because of this, he becomes furious and storms away from the beach claiming he is leaving the group and that anyone who wants should join him. Ralph does not know how to react to this situation; however, Simon suggests that they should go together to the mountain to search for this “Beast”. The boys did not like this idea, but Piggy’s idea to recreate the signal fire got the boys hopes up and set them to work. As the night comes some boys sneak off from the group to join up with Jack, Piggy assures Ralph that they do not need these deserters.

With more boys joining Jack’s group, he declares himself chief, and gathers the boys for a hunt. They find and kill a sow, and proceeds to impale it on a spike for an offering to the beast in the forest. With blood dripping down on the sow’s teeth, the boys run off.

Jack’s hunters group up on the beach where Ralph is and picks up burning wood from the signal fire, Jack then proceeds to offer the boys to join him at his feast tonight. Because the boys are so hungry, they really get tempted to join him.

Under the raid, Simon gets away from the camp and return to his favourite place on the island, the place he previously was marvelling at the nature’s beauty. He stumbles on the sow’s impaled body and starts to imagine it talking to him; it spoke to him in the voice of Lord of the Flies, telling him that he will not escape the island, shocked Simon faints.

Chapter 9, A View to a Death

With blood running from his nose, Simon wakes up in is quite hazy about what happened. He walks down the hill and finds the dead pilot hanging from the parachute stuck in the tree. Watching the dead pilot Simon realizes that the boys probably had mistaken him for a beast, so to prove this to them he got him down from the tree, and proceeds to walk to Jacks lair to tell the boys about what he has seen.

As the feast is progressing, Jack comfortably sits on his throne and issues commands. After the feast was done, Jack reaches out to Ralph’s boys and issues them an invitation to join him. Most of the boys do join him, even though Ralph continuously tries to dissuade them. Jack then orders the boys to dance the “wild hunting dance”.

Hyped about the hunt the boys start roaring and it becomes some sort of a frenzy. Simon emerges comes out of the forest, but the boys mistakes him for the beast, and starts to attack him. Simon desperately tries to tell the boys who he is but they do not listen Simon dies from their attack.

With the storm hitting the island, Simon’s body drifts out into the ocean, where it then disappears.

Chapter 10, The shell and the glasses.

The day after the storm, Piggy and Ralph feel ashamed of their behaviour the other day. Ralph then reaches for the conch shells and yells about the murder they have done, Piggy denies this. Almost everyone had left Ralph’s group to join jack, the only exception to this is Sam and Eric, and a few littluns. The others had joined Jack in his HQ at Castle Rock (the mountain on the island).

At Jacks kingdom he rules with absolute authority, randomly punishes the boys for his own purposes. He even goes as far as to beat up a boy named “Wilfred and warns the others about Ralph’s small group. He also suggests that they should have guard themselves from the group because he can never truly die. Jack also suggests that they should raid Ralph’s camp and acquire more flaming wood to go hunting.

Jacks hunters descend upon Ralph’s lair, beats Ralph badly, and proceeds to steal the power to make fire from piggy, his glasses.

Chapter 11, Castle Rock.

Without Piggy’s glasses, Ralph’s boys are unable to light a fire, Piggy then suggests that they should hold a meeting to talk about their options. Ralph then blows the conch shell, and the remaining boys gather up. They stupidly decide that their only option is to go to Jack’s castle and reason with him.

Outside Jacks castle, Ralph is meet with armed guard telling him to leave the area. Jack then emerges from the forest and tells Ralph to leave, but Ralph did refused to leave telling him he will not without piggy’s glasses. They then start to fight, in the struggle Ralph tries to reason with him, but he will not listen. Jack then tells his hunters to capture Sam and Eric and tie them up, this enrages Ralph and he once more attacks Jack. They proceed to fight for a second time. During this struggle, Piggy tries shouts out reasons why this is madness and that they need rules and such things. While this is happening Roger pushes off a rock from the mountainside, and it strikes Piggy to his death. Jack throws his spear at Ralph, and the other boys join in. Ralph manages to escape into the forest, but Sam and Eric were captured. They both got tortured and were told to join Jack’s tribe.  

Chapter 12, Cry of the Hunters.

While hiding in the forest, Ralph reflects upon these recent events and realizes that all hope for a civilization is gone. He then finds the Sow’s head/skull, and takes the spear that was impaled into its body to use against Jack. During the night, Ralph sneaks down the mountain, to the camp at Castle Rock and finds the twins guarding the entrance. Sam and Eric give him food, but does not join him. They tell Ralph about Jacks plans to send them after him the tomorrow (the next day).

The next morning Ralph wakes up hearing Jack yelling. He is torturing one of the twins for Ralph’s location. The boys tries to break into the thicket (dense forest) where Ralph is hiding, but they find out that it is too dense to get through. Ralph then smells smoke and realizes that Jack had set the jungle ablaze in order to smoke him out. Ralph manages to fight himself past the boys, and runs into the forest trying to find a place to hide. He manages to run all the way to the beach, where he collapses from exhaustion.

Ralph looked to look into the skies, and then he notices a naval officer in front of him. The naval officer tells Ralph that he notices the forest fire, and came to rescue the boys. Jack’s hunters then reaches the beach, and stops right in their tracks then they see the officer. The officer, assumes the boys are have been playing games, but is shocked when he hears about what has really happened here. He is really shocked over how fast these English school boys had managed to lose all sense of reality being on this island. The officer had then rescued the boys. 

My opinion on these chapters and other stuff

In these last few chapters we see alot of development in these boys. for example: Jack and Roger, they have gradually developed into these savages whom lust for blood. This has made the book so much more intresting though, because of the action and survival these boys have to go through on a day-to-day basis. Also the book is not hard to read, there might be some instances where it gets harder, but nothing to complain about, all-in-all the experience has been good,

Chapter 4 through 7 short summary

Chapter 4 – Painted faces and long hair

In the start of chapter four, the schoolkids seem to have created a daily rhythm. Their mornings seems nice, with unruffled weather and an ocean scent. However, by afternoon, the sun becomes quite hot and some of the schoolboys take a nap, even though they have troubles with strange images flickering on the water’s surface. Piggy is not fooled by this though; he says that they are just mirages created by the sunlight that reflects on the water. By night-time the island becomes cooler, which is frightening and difficult for these boys, especially for the littluns (the younger children). The littluns, whom spends most of their day playing with each other and eating fruit, are troubled by nightmares, and often talk about this “beastie”.  Because of their large consumption of fruits, the boys often have diarrhea and general stomach issues. Roger as an older boy get the urge to bully theses littluns, so he and his friend Maurice, group up and starts trampling down the littluns sand castles. Roger even goes as far as to throw stones at these poor kids, although he is careful not to actually hit them.

While this is going on Jack, finds himself obsessed with the thought of killing a pig, probably because of his failed attempt. He calls for hunt, and groups up several boys for the task, they camouflage themselves with clay and charcoal, and proceeds to enter the jungle.

Jack and his hunters return from their trip, covered by blood and singing victory songs. They have been able to kill a pig, and put it on a stake. Ralph as is quite angry because their irresponsibility and shouts at Jack. However, because of their newly acquired bloodlust, they barely hear Ralph complaining. Piggy as Ralph’s friend step in and starts a conversation about Jack and his squad’s immaturity. Because of this, Jack slaps him and one of his lenses fall off his glasses, then Ralph steps in and it becomes an intense argument. Finally, Jack admit his failure of the signal fire. Ralph then uses Piggy’s glasses to light a fire, and they roast their newly captured pig. Ralph then declares he is calling a meeting.

Chapter 5 – Beast from Water

At the start of this Chapter, Ralph has a moment to himself and reflects over how much life is improvised and general things about his body that he gets frustrated about. Later that day he blows the conch shell and the boys gather. At this meeting, Ralph talks about how the boys have failed to follow the group rules, and that they have not done what is required of them. Such as gathering not working at the shelters, and not gathering drinking water etc. He also mentions the importance of the signal fire, how it will help them be rescued. As the meeting progresses, one of the littluns claims that he has seen a beast, and that it arises from the water at night. Jack tells the boys that he and his hunting squad will put up with the challenge, and kill this beast.

After the meeting is over, Ralph tells Simon and Piggy that he might relinquish his position as the leader, but the Piggy and Simon tells him that guidance is quite needed.

Chapter 6 – Beast from Air

As the boys fall into slumber, a raging battle between military airplanes unfolds in the clouds. However, since the ones whom was suppose to keep a watch “Simon and Eric” fall asleep they actually do not notice the bright flashes in the clouds. One of the pilots in the battle seems to have evacuated from his fighter plane, and parachutes towards the island. The pilot seems to be dead and his chute was entangled in some trees, forming a fearful shadow creature on the ground.

As Sam and Eric awakes from their sleep, tend to the signal fire and makes it brighter. The lights from the fire casts a shadow upon the parachutist, and Sam and Eric mistakes it for a beast, so they rush back to camp. Ralph immediately calls for a meeting and Sam and Eric proceeds to tell about their experience. Shocked and afraid for the monsters, the boys organize a search for monsters on the island, and arm themselves with wooden spears. The search soon led to a part of the island that none of them have been before, and Ralph goes to investigate this alone, but then Jack join him in the caves.

While Jack and Ralph is exploring the tunnels, the group climb the hill and begin to play games, which leads to them losing their purpose for this search. Ralph comes back, and reminds the boys of the true purpose for their exploration. They boys proceeds to follow Ralphs orders and goes back to the other mountain to rekindle the signal fire.

Chapter 7 – Shadows and Tall Trees

As the boys are travelling back to the other mountain to light the signal fire, they find the time to take a short brake to eat. Ralph takes this opportunity to drift off in his imagination, and thinks about how undisciplined these boys are, and how the ocean blocks their passage home.

Later in the day, Jack hunters find pig poop, and proceeds to hunt for pig as well as the beast. Exhilarated by this hunt Ralph finds himself quite impressed over his own marksmanship, because he was able to scratch the boar. However, the boar escapes. Finding themselves not satisfied by the hunt, they re-enact the hunt by using a boy named Robert as pig. The boys nearly kill Robert, and then Robert suggests they should use a pig next time, but Jack thinks using a littlun would be a better idea. Ralph calms the boys down and reminds the boys that this is only a game.

As the night falls upon the boys, Ralph proposes that they should wait until morning since it would be too hard to hunt in the night. Nevertheless, Jack challenges Ralph to go hunting. Trying to reclaim the other boy’s respect, Ralph accepts the challenge. They proceed to climb the mountain and then they encounter a shadow formed as a giant ape. They boys quickly hurry down the mountain to warn the other boys.  

Personal opinion on these chapters:

Every chapter seems to create new challenges for these boys, which is fun to read. It only get more exciting for each chapter, and I am looking forward to reading more.

Please stay tuned and comment in the comment section below. 

Chapter 2 and 3 short summary

So far, I have read three chapters, here is a small summary of two of these chapters.

Chapter 2 - Fire on the mountain 

At the start of this, Chapter Jack and his friends return from their exploration. Ralph summons the other boys, and Ralph and Jack agrees upon organizing a hunting party to be gathering meat. Ralph also tells the other boys that the conch shell will be used for determining who will be speaking at the meeting. While discussing things like that their trapped on an island, and that there might be monsters there, Ralph comes up with an idea that they can make a large signal fire on the top of the central mountain. With a little help of Piggy’s glasses and some dead wood, they are able to create a large fire. The fire quickly dies down, and Jack and his hunters volunteers to keep the fire going. With this sad attempt to keep the fire going, Jack and his hunting friend set ablaze a couple of trees. While this was going on one of the youngest boys on the island, manage to go missing. Struck by shame the boys seem to pretend that nothing happened.

Chapter 3 - Huts on the beach

With a handmade spear, Jack hunts a pig through the jungle, but somehow the pig manages to evade him. He comes back to the beach irritated, where he sees Simon and Ralph, attempting to build huts for the youngest ones to live in. As the huts are quite vital for their survival, Ralph is irritated that he is not able to complete them. He also points at that most of the boys are not doing any work, and accuses that Jack and his friends are using the hunting as an excuse to evade important work like building huts. While Ralph and Jack are arguing, they find out that they should go to the lagoon and take a bath to cool themselves. Simon takes this chance to look in the jungle alone. Simon helps the younger ones out and then he continues into the jungle. Eventually he finds a beautiful opening with birds and flowers. He just sits down and breaths in the fresh air. This is where the chapter end.

So far, this is all I have read, but as always, I say I do indeed look forward to reading more of this book. Please stay tuned for more updates on the book Lord of the Flies. 

Lord of the Flies - Characters 

A short summary of the main characters in the novel “Lord of the Flies”.

Ralph

Ralph – He is our protagonist, and a twelve-year-old boy. The other boys, whom were chosen to deliver out tasks and such things, elected him leader. He got is mindset upon building some sort of a small civilization on this island with these boys, until they are rescued. Ralph pretty much represents the civilized instincts, which Jack (the antagonist) is the total opposite off (savage).

Jack – He is our antagonist (bad person); the narrator describes him as “tall, thin and bony”. He is one of the oldest among the boys and the leader of the hunting party (set to task by Ralph). He wants Ralph’s position as leader and is willing to do cruel things to see his goals fulfilled. Jack is quite good at manipulating the other schoolboys, and uses them for his own misguided purposes.

Piggy – He is Ralph’s friend and lieutenant. He is an intellectual boy (also wears thick glasses), but can be quite whiny. He is the rational one among these boys, and some might say he is quite scientific too.

Simon - He is the shy one among the boys, but probably the kindest among them. He is neutral when it comes to the societies on the island, he does not agree with Jack’s behavior and irrational thinking, but he also imposes Ralph’s to called civilization. He is the most good willed among them.

Roger - Jack’s friend and lieutenant. He is Jack’s equal when it comes to cruelty, and is one of the oldest among the boys.

Sam and Eric (twins) – These two are twins, and Ralph’s friend/allies. They are constantly together, and therefore often called by the boys “Samneric”.  

This was just a short character description, hope you can appreciate it and please stay tuned for more Lord of The Flies updates. See YA!