Lord+of+the+Flies

=//Lord of the Flies// by William Golding=

__Chapter 1__ A. Is this a dream or a nightmare? Here are no grownups! After being lost on this island we have the opportunity to create the perfect world. Everybody should be friendly, helping each other, build a nice settlement and enjoy the perfect loveliness of this island. I mean, I am not good looking and I know it, but should the world around me let me know that like this boys, Jack and Ralph, do? Isn't character more important than appearance? A long beach, a lagoon, bushes with amazing looking flowers. If we were a nation, we had the perfect land, and I am sure we would be able to destroy it and kill each other in only a couple days. Maybe that is a very pessimistic view of the last day, but after meeting Jack I have this queer feeling that this is the way it is going to be. On the other side, I think Ralph can be a really nice guy if he would not try to impress Jack and show that he is as strong as him. I do not like Jack. He is mean to me and I don't see any nice behavior in his character. Also I do not understand why they elected Ralph as our chief because I found the conch with him. So could not be both of us chief? I know that I am smart enough to manage our settlement. Hunters! Jack's boys want to be hunters. We should organize more, but everytime I say something they say: "Shut up, Fatty." What would they think when someone would say that to them? Is this a reason why Ralph did not select me to go on the exploration with him? Because I am fat? Why are people so shallow? B. Reading the first chapter I notice again that people like pretty persons more than not so good looking ones, but a real friendship's foundation is based on characters not appearance. Of course I have that human problem too, but I try to see a possible friend in every person. Expecially after arriving in my host family, knowing nobody all around me, I had to be open-minded and ignore my prejudice. Another connection to my life is that me and my siblings often played explorers and settlers in the woods near our village and tried to build our own kingdom there, but we always had trouble with organizing our 'society'. Everybody wanted to be the king and nobody the servant. Without rules worlds -even imaginary worlds-fall apart. C. 'He wispered. "They used to call me 'Piggy.'"' (page 11, lines 22-23). The quote I chose shows how sad Piggy about his nickname he had at school was. Afraid to be called 'Piggy' on the island, he does not want Ralph to tell anybody about it. For Piggy it is not only a name, it is an insult. After Jack calling him 'Fatty", Ralph tells the boys Piggy's disliked name. Piggy realizes that the stranded group of boys will not treat him like a friend and there are no grownups around to protect him from their despite.
 * __Piggy__**

__Chapter 2__ A. Will we ever be rescued? At the meeting they talked about creating rules -as if they would protect me from being bullied- and a signal fire. But how far would our smoke be visible? We have no idea where on the world we are. Then the boys run like crazy to the top of the hill, grap my specks and make a fire. We were too unorganized. Maybe we killed the little boy with the mark on the face who talked about the beastie. The beastie.Could it be true that some kind of big animal lives on this island? What happened to the little boy? Did he stifle in the smoke of our fire? It was not a good idea to let all the little boys go to collect the wood. How many will survive this situation? Will I? B. The described situation from chapter two has not a clear connection to my life. The only thing I could connect is that feeling of not knowing how the adventure ends without help of parents, fully depending on others. When I came to the U.S. there was a big storm in Chicago, so my plane could not start. Being all alone in a different country, thousand miles away from home, hearing people talk in another language and wanting to find a way to reach my also nearly unknown host family without having to stay over night at the airport in Dallas, Texas, I had no idea how this day would end. Fortunately I found nice people at the airport in Texas who searched for the next flight to Fort Smith and there was a possibility to fly only a couple hours later. Hoping my host family would still be there to pick me up -even arriving hours later then planned- I could relax a little bit more and thank God that he helped me through this long day. C. '"Like kids!" he said scornfully. "Acting like a crowd od kids!"' (page 38, lines 20-21). Piggy is railing at the boys' behavior, but still he faces the conflict between ignoring them and having a nice time on his own without having all the trouble with the children who are not as smart as him and trying to organize the group. Knowing that Jack and Ralph would never listen to him he tries to persuade the others of his intelligence to make the life on the island more uncomplicated for everybody.

__Chapter 3__ A. We are building and organizing. I mean, Ralph is building and organizing. Why is everybody just having fun instead of helping Ralph and Simon build the huts? I am too wiped out. Asthma is a horrible thing! The little ones are so lively, they should help. Jack is hunting. Maybe he will bring some meat. I miss my regular meals at home. How long will we have to stay here and live like that? B. Building huts is a nice game for children. I love it, but I cannot remember a time that a hut was complete or so constructed that somebody could sleep in it. Ralph and Simon had a very hard task to make huts in which a group of boys could sleep. C. '"They're hopeless. The olderones aren't much better. D'you see? All day I've been working with Simon. No one else. They're off bathing, or eating, or playing."' (page 50, lines 37-39). Ralph is talking about having no helpers to build the huts and expresses that he had no help except Simon. Piggy did not help either. This could mean that Piggy was exhausted, did not like to help or did not see why huts are important for the night, or that he did not like working together with Ralph and Simon. By the reason that Piggy's name is not mentioned in chapter three, there is no real dilemma Piggy has to face.

__Chapter 4__ A. A ship! There was a ship! Ralph saw a ship on the horizon! The hunters let the fire go out. We sould not have trusted Jack's hunters. We have to be more organized. Build a sundial with a stick how I suggested. Jack behaves like an animal painting his face and hitting me. I just told the truth that Jack is the reason for not being rescued, but why did nobody stop him when he hit me and broke my specks? Before that happened I really thought that Ralph and I would be a little bit like friends. I mean, we talked about making a clock and have the same opinion that the hunters had the task to keep the fire going. And all this for a pig. It was nice of Simon to give me a part of his meat. He is the only boy that behaves nicely on this island. B. Sticking to one's task is not everybody's strength. I know that from all the group projects we had at school. Me and my friends used to set a goal to finish the project a few days before we had to turn it in, because always one of us forgot about it or had to much to do at church or music school. In my opinion doing one's task in a group is a responsibility and if it is ignored it shows that the person who lets the others down does not respect the group. C. 'Piggy began again. "You didn't ought to have let that fire out. You said you'd keep the smoke going---"' (page 71, lines 21-22). Finally Piggy realizes that the group needs him. Being smarter than most of the boys Piggy tries to manage the situation. He faces Jack's violence and resistance, but still knows that Ralph will recognize that Jack is not a person to trust. Wanting to be rescued Piggy overthinks the whole situation.

__Chapter 5__ A. What a nightly assembly! If the littluns just could be serious, stop teasing me and listen. Don't they want to be rescued? The group is going to fall apart, but we need a chief. We need Ralph as chief. Jack would always go hunting and forget the littluns. What would happen to me if Jack was chief? This is not a good island. This is a bad island. I am sure about this now. I want to be Ralph's friend and support him. That is all I can do. Jack will fight for being chief and ignore the rules he once wanted, but Ralph, Simon and I, we will hold the group together. B. After the asselbly Ralph noticed that Jack is not his friend but his rival. Often situations make friends rivals. Remembering a situation when I was eight I notice that even people who love each other be rivals until they recognize how foolish it is. My mother always made an advent calender out of fabric bags and we children were allowed to open one bag a day. One year we started opening the first one with the oldest of us children, the the youngest, always in order of our age, but everybody wanted to open the last big red bag on Christmas Eve, so we discussed who would be allowed to start, counted the bags again and again until we were happy with the result that the child that had not opened on Christmas Eve for the longest time would be able to open the big red bag. It was a long argumentation who this child should be. The last years we did not have this problem. After the second eldest sister left home, the eldest left, then the third eldest, and we remainig siblings had less and less fun opening the 24 bags for only three children to open them and wondered if the older siblings would miss the swivet every advent morning to open a bag, too. C. '"I been in bed so much I done some thinking. I know about people. I know about me. And him. He can't hurt you: but if you stand out of the way he'd hurt the next thing. And that's me."' (page 93, lines 37-40). The selected quote from Piggy's, Ralph's and Simon's conversation shows how much Piggy fears and hates Jack. Being the chief Ralph protects Piggy from being hurt gravely. Piggy tries to assure Ralph that he is the chief the group really needs. If Ralph continues to be chief, Piggy would be more his advisor than a friend, but still they would havea closer relationship than before. If Jack will become chief, Piggy's life will be even harder as it was before. Knowing the dilemma of the situation Piggy wants to be more self-confident and does not want to let the time determine what will happen with the command of the boy's group.