Lord of the Flies) 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.

There are two settings I found in the novel Lord of the Flies, one for beautiful setting and one for disturbing setting.

The first setting I found is described at the beginning of the story, when right after the airplane was crashed; Ralph and Piggy met and which described when Ralph reached out of jungle. He discovered the place where there was shore fledged with palm trees, with grasses, coconuts, and the shimmering water upon the ocean. There were coral reef and the sea color was dark blue. He was admired by the beauty of this island. The setting described in here is adorable. Since it is the beginning of the story, the author had illustrated the setting that is not yet destroyed to show pure human nature itself. Personally, I love the picture of sunsets so it is one of the reasons I chose this setting.

The second setting I found to be disturbing is described in the part of the climax.
When Jack and Ralph had conflict between them, their emotions rose to a high tension too.
“The twins lay hidden behind the tribe and the anonymous devil’s faces swarmed across the neck. Ralph turned and ran. A great noise as of sea gulls rose behind him……Then he was crashing through foliage and small boughs and was hidden by the forest.”
The setting narrated here is related to the actions of the main characters. The sea gulls crying indicate the chaos between children’s world. At this part, they had loose the sense of humanism already as shown in the setting.

Lord of the Flies) Question 6

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

『“What are you doing out here all alone? Aren’t you afraid of me?” Simon shook. “There isn’t anyone to help you. Only me. And I’m the Beast.”
Simon’s mouth labored, brought forth audible words.
“Pig’s head on a stick”
“Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill!” said the head. For a moment or two the forest and all the other dimly appreciated places echoed with the parody of laughter. “You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you? Close, close, close! I’m the reason why it’s no go? Why things are what they are?”』(Chapter 8: Gift for the darkness, page 143)

I chose this passage from the novel that is significant to me. This passage is the conversation of Simon and the Lord of the Flies. Lord of the Flies is mentioned here for the first time. Simon is the thinker and finally Lord of the Flies appeared in him. I was curious about the title and how is it going to be related to the story. Lord of the Flies was part of him. That means the Lord of the Flies had always existed in him. He also says he is the Beast. I think the Beast is just a figure of what we are afraid of. The Lord of the Flies, Simon’s brain, was controlling this child. Simon dies after he went back to the shelter. His death is related to what Lord of the Flies said. Simon didn’t win over it. He didn’t win over his self-confidence. He knew facts before than the others but didn’t know how to express his thoughts. The reason I chose this passage is I am a bit like Simon. Sometimes I think too fast so I know how am I going to react. Actually, I may have known the answer and I had right answer, but I didn’t express it so it’s same as don’t knowing it. Maybe my head was the Lord of the Flies, that controlled all over itself.

Lord of the Flies) Question 5

What is the mood of this novel? Do you find this novel saddens you in anyway? Why?

The overall mood of the novel is negative. The author described moods of this novel as dark, eager, angry, uncomfortable, anxious, and cold. Those moods came from the setting, actions of the boys.
Also I find this novel makes me sad, anyway. This novel makes me sad because I could recognize our world. This is not a perfect world, like the gardens of Eden, in the bible. The world we living today is fallen world. Everyday, every time, in the world, there are numberless people die and numberless children born. The society of the boys described in the book is the world we live. We live in a world of suffering. In the novel, Simon and Piggy takes the suffering. Also Ralph takes the suffering although he didn’t get killed, he was anxious about being chief, and worried that what would Jack do to him. Everybody takes the suffering in the novel, and also in the world. The size (?) of suffering varies on each person, but everyone takes it. The suffering I am talking about is like a pain. For example, a child wants to be a best piano player in the world. It takes much pain as much as her dream is big. She may feel tired sometimes. But without taking the suffering, she will be give up and fail. As I mentioned before, human has good and evil side, both sides has to be exist. It applies same for a child who wants to be a best piano player in the world. There must be pain to be successful, and vice versa. To explain simply, I will use math, in the ratios-good : evil= result : pain

Lord of the Flies) Question 4

What is the climax of this novel? What happens? How do the events of this novel makes you feel?

I learned that climax is the point of highest interest, highest emotion, the most action, and the point at which the main character makes the most important decision or realization.. Actually, I am not sure exactly where the climax begins in this story, but I think when one of the littlun in Jack’s group steals Piggy’s glasses, and that was the special process that led to the climax part. As the story warmed up throughout the climax, it became wild and characters became wilder than the beginning like the true nature inside human has revealed finally. Anyway, after Piggy lost his glasses, he couldn’t see anything without his glasses. So Ralph, Piggy, and Sam and Eric decided to go to Jack, not only for finding glasses, but also about the fire. They went off to the Jack’s groups. Then Ralph and Jack come to a crash here, and this is the part of climax, when they both argue about the fire and Piggy’s specs. Ralph’s temper got into high pitch because Jack didn’t listen to him. Finally they got into a fight. While they were struggling and hitting each other, Piggy did unexpected thing. He held up the conch and started to say, “I got to say, I got the conch! Who is better to have rules and agree; or to hunt and kill?” the way he acts like an adult. Suddenly, Roger held up the giant sized rock and threw it to Piggy. Piggy died without even knowing it. Then Ralph‘s tension tied and he exploded. But Jack doesn’t feel sorry at all, he acts crueler to Ralph. Jack orders his tribes to take Sam and Eric into his group and Ralph ran away. These events are awful; I feel terrible about the boys. I don’t understand why they are killing each other. They need to help each other in this kind of situation.

Lord of the Flies) 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?

The main characters in Lord of the Flies have different kinds of personalities and each of them is used to symbolize individual’s role in the society. The main characters are Ralph, Piggy, Jack, Simon, Roger, Sam, and Eric. They are divided into two groups: Ralph, Piggy, Simon, and Sam and Eric vs. Jack and Roger.

I like Ralph’s group than Jack’s, because he really cares about being rescue that they use fire on the mountain. Also they lead the group and set up rules to be followed by other boys. Piggy is the follower of Ralph who tries to work out problems formed among the boys. Simon, whom I most like, is thinker of the group. He is very good but he is killed afterward by all of the other boys who were caught up in a savage dance.

However, I don’t like Jack and Roger's group. They are just interested in hunting, killing the others, and they don't care about being rescue. Jack seems to be always in emotion of anger and savagery. He was the leader of his choir group at first, but later on, he overtook Ralph’s authority. Roger, who has no mercy, killed Piggy with the tremendous rock by smashing it! And I think Sam and Eric are neutral, not on the either side of Ralph, or Jack. They are twins doing everything together. They were on the Ralph’s side but eventually, they were tied up by Jack and Roger’s order.

Each group of boys reveals the universal human experience. Ralph’s group reveal democracy system and Jack’s group reveal anarchy.

Lord of the Flies) Question 2

Are there 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"?

Lord of the Flies was written around in 1954, which was the time period of World War II. He may have influenced by the wars happening in the world at that time. He put his own views and thoughts into the novel by using symbolisms. He conducted main characters into an extreme situation and described our human nature. As shown in the novel, the conflicts have among the boys made me think about the Iraq War happening in the world right now. I don’t know much about it so I researched a little bit of information.
Iraq war is the result of conflicts of both informal and formal between the Iraq military and union of multinational forces which began with the invasion of 2003. The United States and the United Kingdom were the two major components of the occupation that invaded Saddam Hussein's government.
For some people say that Iraq war is just an energy war. Potentially, Iraq has lots of oil energy, and the geographic feature of this country is profitable. It is located in Middle East, bordering the Persian Gulf, between Iran and Kuwait. Especially Iraq holds about 20 percent of total oil production in the world which is considerable portion.
In other words, it is the war of fighting with the greed. But the result in greed toward profit doesn’t only show corruption of human civilization, it is also like the catharsis of healthful will to present our human greed. To clarify, the greed that boys have toward authority in the novel is related to the result of the war beyond human’s greed. So I would say the novel don't shed any light on the current situation, which is "fixed" by illustrating the human nature itself.

Lord of the Flies) Question 1

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


William Golding, the author of the Lord of the Flies, has presented several themes to make us to think about in the novel. The major theme in this novel is that everyone makes up the society. Without one of the elements, especially rules, we will loose the sense of duty, value, and what is right or wrong. We will loose humanity like the boys in the story, if we loose these elements. This theme has brought a major significance to a teenager living in 2007, who needs to understand the basic terms of humanity. While I was reading this novel, I found out the new sense of humanism. I had read the books that are about adventures, life, school, or love, etc. I had read the books that are just fun to read and have simple subjects, before I grabbed this book. However, when I started reading this book, I was kind of shocked and confused with the actions of the characters. I wasn’t expecting there would be killing people each other especially the main characters were children (even though it was all about symbolism). This book had brought me a new sight and ideas of human nature. Every human being has both evil and good side. I always thought good books have to show good things. On the other hand, the author is trying to teach us about the negative side of the human. I also wonder why he put children as main characters, why not adults. Because Children don’t have an abstract brain like the grown-ups do, while they are not fully grown. So I guess he had tried to reveal pure sense of human nature like in the children’s world.