As always with you guys, I like what I am seeing. I will be sending each group a comment on their introductory paragraph through Google Apps. Which reminds me–please be sure to include me in your sharing of the document.
Some have asked if they can submit their second paragraphs already. Yes, you may do so as a comment to this post–but be certain you are keeping in mind the order of topics mentioned in your essay map–elements of the body paragraphs must follow in order and number. Also, remember that you may want to write more than one body paragraph on an element. While the minimum requirement for the overall paper is five paragraphs, including additional body paragraphs is STRONGLY ENCOURAGED.
January 14, 2008 at 4:40 pm
Kurstyn Taylor A, and Ryan M:
The first material used for the boys’ survival is their clothing. This material shows that the boys are civilized. As the story moves on, clothing isn’t much of a sign that shows the boys are civilized, but it is a tool that is used for their survival. Piggy’s glasses, for instance, are used to create fire throughout the story. The fire is used to signal a ship for rescue and used to cook meat for the hungry boys. Another example is the choir’s black hoods, which separate the hunters from the other boys. This relates to survival because having a group of recognizable hunters gets everyone meat and protection from the beast. The third example is the boy’s shirts and pants that (although they aren’t always worn) will somewhat protect their bodies from the sun and from thorns or sharp branches. Even though sunburns or cuts will not kill a person, it will make life on an island difficult. Without clothing, these stranded boys would have a difficult time learning to utilize their survival instincts on this island.
Thesis Statement: Using the materials around them a group of boys learn to utilize their survival instincts.
January 15, 2008 at 3:25 pm
Innocence is something everyone is born with. You are innocent as a child, but for the boys in Lord of the Flies, innocence is a little bit different. Stranded on the island, the boys’ innocence that they started with begins to change, and only Simon can see this and he and Piggy remain innocent. There are three different stages of this change; when they are innocent, changed, and completely savages. The boy’s change in their innocent stages is clear as the book progresses!
In the beginning the boys are innocent because they have been raised in a civilized society. When the boys first land on the island they are all called together by the conch and are given rules to follow. They struggle trying to keep following civilized instincts such as live by the rules, and be peaceful. All the boys are innocently running around playing and exploring together. They organize rules and a chief to make order and keep civilized and peaceful. They all realize that they need to work together and get along to get rescued and survive.
January 15, 2008 at 7:03 pm
Survival
Imagine being on an island with no civilization and no technology. There are many cons to Ralph and jacks ideas of survival like trying to find food or building fire. Imagine the many hardships that may take place. Survival is useless without teamwork. One con to jack is that he doesn’t stress as much as he should about shelter, but instead he use all there energy on hunting for pigs. Also Ralph had problems of focusing with matters of hunger and using the environment to his advantage. In addition to the main characters are the followers. The children weren’t focused on the matter at hand and thus survival became a poor goal. When you’re in the wild there are four things that you have to stress about, heat, shelter, food, water.
The leader of hunting is Jack but he fails to agree with Ralph when it comes to rescue. After the two split up, Jack becomes savage and focuses only on food. While he focuses on food, he neglects the importance of a rescue fire. Instead he uses the fire that he stole from Ralph to cook food, so then the fire became useless. Also existing, the problem of water shortage would arise. Ralph had told Jack that the castle had very little freshwater, yet Jack completely ignored him and then had to fetch water elsewhere so that his tribe may remain healthy. Another crucial fact that Jack forgets is that there is safety in numbers. When Jack’s tribe begins assault on Piggy and Ralph, they are basically driving out the important quality of logic and wisdom. Without knowledge survival is nearly impossible. With Jack eliminating shelter, knowledge, and freedom of recourses survival is somewhat slim.
January 15, 2008 at 7:15 pm
The loss and replacement of societal norms effected all of the boys, but it effected Piggy and Simon the most. This loss cost both of the boys their lives. Piggy stayed sane through out the book. Piggy was a misfit who was disliked by the general population of the island, and the only boy to keep the original set of norms. The other boys on the island disliked him so much that they rolled a rock on top of him. Simon went insane like the others, and replaced his set of societal norms. Simon startled the group while delivering news of the beastie, and was run off a cliff.the impact of societal norms on the characters was tremendous.
January 15, 2008 at 7:43 pm
At first they worked together but because Jack and Ralph both wanted to be in charge or be a leader type figure, they slowly stopped acting as civil as they could. They’re island society begin to slowly collapse. Barbaric actions led to destruction and transformation in all these kids. The never ending fighting got in the way of finding solutions among the boys. Many of the boys did come out of their shell and become more social and hardworking. At the same time many boys wanted more alone time and to be left more to themselves because most of them had never been a situation like this. This situation put a lot of tension between the boys , many were starting to relieze that no one was coming for them and many didn’t know how they were going to survive. This lead to the way they acted and treated each other.
January 15, 2008 at 8:12 pm
In the book, Lord of the Flies, the first thing that the boys decide is that they need a leader. This societal norm is defined well in the dialogue, “seems to me, we ought to have a chief to decide things.” (Golding 22). As humans we feel that we need a leader to follow to feel secure. No matter how old you are, society tells us that we need to trust the leader in what they do and decide. Even as a child you need to do as the leader says or else you will get into trouble or be frowned upon by others. In our society, we always recognize our leader and respect him or her with the responsibilities of guiding us and showing us the way. In Lord of the Flies, when Jack takes over as chief and Ralph does not follow him, Jack gathers some boys to go kill Ralph as his punishment. Leadership is such an important aspect of our culture that sometimes, we will go to extremes to acheive it.
January 17, 2008 at 8:44 pm
Stranded on an island as a juvenile with nothing, no food, no water, no safe haven, no parents, and almost no hope. This was the fate that befell the kids in The Lord of the Flies. The children are forced to rely upon themselves. Fire, food, and shelter are necessary elements for survival. When these essentials are not readily available, the island’s new inhabitants begin to lose their grasp over order and sanity.
Fire is essential to survival. The fire on the island was used to alert any ships that might pass by, as well as to cook any food. Ralph showed how important this was in the book after Jack had let the once blazing inferno that had been their signal fire smolder into ash, “You could have had everyone when the shelters were finished. But you had to hunt” (Golding 71). Ralph had organized everyone into food, fire, and shelter detail, but Jack, who wanted meat, took people off of the fire shift to help him slaughter a pig. A ship happened to pass by at the time, and because of Jack’s decision they were not rescued and disagreement and psychological breakdowns ensued. Not all of the focal survival points were maintained, therefore arguing starts to break apart this small group’s collaboration to survive. Although fire may be important for survival, maintaining all three of the major survival elements are exceedingly important.
Food is an exceptionally vital part of survival, without food, death will curtly follow. It provides all the energy the body needs to get through the day. On an island without a steady surplus of food to depend on food is dreadfully important. Hunting for food and achieving that goal can be exciting. “Look! We’ve killed a pig- we stole up on them- we got in a circle-” (Golding 69). This shows the boys enthusiasm over killing their first pig, and being able to eat meat for the first time in months. Here the boys give the impression of having a good sense of what the elements of survival are, but there are several times when they do not keep track of survival and just do what’s amusing for them. “We were going to have water brought from the stream and left in those coconut shells under fresh leaves. So it was, for a few days. Now there’s no water. The shells are dry. People drink from the river” (Golding 79). Once the kids stopped following the main survival elements, things begin to fall apart.
Shelter can be the key to survival on an island. Without refuge, if it started to rain the boys would have had no where to go. With shelter it gives the children a place to slumber, eat, a safe haven, and a place to unwind. Piggy makes a good point by saying, “First thing we’d ought to have made was shelters down there by the beach. It wasn’t half cold down there in the night. But the first time Ralph says “fire” you goes howling and screaming up this here mountain. Like a pack of kids!” (Golding 45). Shelter is extraordinarily important, but when the kids first arrive on the island all they can think about is playing. When the three main elements to survival are not followed, yelling, skirmishes and arguments follow. Even if a few of them are followed, just one small fragment of ignorance can mess up order on a small island like theirs.
All these resources are vital than the other for survival, and all three are impossible to endure with out. Fire, food, and shelter are the basic and necessary elements for survival. It is also significant to get along with the others around you because it makes it easier to find the necessary resources if you collaborate. No resources are more important than the other, and all are crucial to survive.