Map

This is a map of the island where the plane had crashed. It shows all the major physical parts and the man-made parts. The physical parts are the mountain, and the lagoon. The man-made things are the signal fire, the platform and the huts. I have included this map because it shows all the main things and places that are important to the story of this book. It helps the readers understand the book better. It helps them visualize the places in the book.

This map shows the island and all the places described in the book. There is the signal fire on top of the mountain that is used to provide smoke to signal a passing ship. There is the platform where the boys would have their meetings. Near the platform there are the shelters that were in poor condition. On the edge of the island is Castle Rock. That was the place where Jack and his rebel tribe lived. That is also where the two gruesome deaths happened. Near the shelters there is a pig run. That is where the hunters captured their pigs. These are the places where almost all the "scenes" take place. Seeing this map will help you understand those "scenes". Before I saw this map, I could kind of visualize the story, but with little detail. Now that I saw the map, the setting of the story became clearer.

What's the Message?

Every book has a message. The author always conceals a message "underneath the story". The message usually connects to the real world. It connects to an event that has happened, is happening or is going to happen. The author also wants the reader to see or believe something in a different way. Sometimes there are more than one message.

In the Lord of the Flies, William Golding is portraying a very clear message. The message in short form: "With great power comes great responsibility." He is trying to tell us that being powerful is easy but using the power properly is not.

Another message that William Golding is telling us is that the difference between order and disorder is a line that is very thin. When there is order, disorder awaits around the corner. Someone might think that there is order, but then after a while here will be disorder.

One more message is that human beings are not perfect beings and that there is an evil side to them. 

Injustice in Todays World

I think that the injustices that the author is trying to show in todays world is that if and argument or dispute is not solved or settled right away, it can lead to war. This connect to the argument about the fire in the book that leads Jack from separating from Ralph and then starting a war. For example today there are wars in Egypt, Libya and Syria. These are because of power imbalances. This was originally a dispute but now it turned into a war. That dispute could have easily been settled or resolved before it turned into a war.

Also in todays world, some people are more important than others. Some people get more respect than other. Some countries are also more important than others. Some people/countries have a say in things while others don't.

William Golding wanted the readers to see that the boys turned into the true form of human. They broke all the boundaries and became savages. When they split into two groups, some were peaceful but the others rebelled, looking only for violence and war. This connect to WW1 and WW2. People don't get along and there is always one person who has a thirst for power and wants to rule over everyone.

There are also people who want to destroy everything in their path just to increase their power. These are people like Hitler and Napoleon. In the book Jack began to try and destroy others so he could have full leadership. No one stood up to him at the beginning, he continued his terrorizing actions. When Ralph and Piggy confronted him, they couldn't succeed because they were outnumbered and Jack was much to powerful now.

Social (In)justice in Novel

This novel has social injustice in it so I will be pointing some of it out.

In the novel there is a power imbalance. Ralph is supposed to be a leader. But instead all he does is make orders and never listen to anyone. He never takes suggestions or shows respect to others.

Another social injustice in the novel is a stereotype and/or a judgement. Because Piggy is fat and has asthma, everyone thinks that he is lazy and useless. Whenever Piggy has something to say, nobody cares or just doesn't listen.

Everyone is supposed to be treated the same way. Well that's not what happened in this story. Lots of people were treated like slaves. They were forced do to work against their own will. They also had no freedom of speech, expression or will.

Freedom of Speech. Not everyone had freedom of speech. When the conch was introduced it was sacred. Only the person with the conch could speak. Not everyone could get the conch. Those people that were not able to speak had no say in things, therefore they were ignored.

Jack's Dictatorship. Jack had become powerful by bribing people into joining his tribe. Jack would have others to do his work. He would only listen to himself and noone else. Because he had a choir and was the leader of it he seemed powerful.

Dystopia in the Novel

This novel is a dystopian novel. Here is why.

When the plane crashes the different children are separated from each other. Ralph and Piggy find each other and then find a conch. Ralph blows the conch and now feels powerful. Everyone gathers around him and he starts to talk about what they need to do. Soon arrives Jack who has his own choir and seems powerful too.
The have an election to see who becomes chief and Ralph wins.

Everything starts out well. Everyone listens to Ralph. They get a fire going on top of the mountain to provide smoke to signal a passing ship. They get food and appoint hunters.
Then one day Jack's choir members, now hunters, let the fire out. A ship passes by but there is no fire. Ralph gets mad and starts to tell everyone that the fire is the most important thing because its the only way for them to get rescued.
Jack thinks differently. He thinks that finding food is the most important thing. Ralph now starts to boss everyone around and in a way make them his slaves. He shows no respect to others and doesnt listen to anyone.

Because of this, Jack and two others, leave Ralph and form a rebel group that is against Ralph. After everyone sees how successful Jack's group is going, lots of the children join them one by one.

The dystopia in this novel is that everyone is miserable and have to follow Ralph's order even if that's a thing they don't want to do.

New Cover Design

This is a new cover design for the book Lord of the Flies.

The cover has:

• A Mountain: The mountain is the mountain on the island. It has an ideal spot on the top where the fire in the book was made at first. The spot on the top was also the place where the boys thought the beast was living and that is why they moved the fire down to the beach.
• The Conch. The conch was used as a talking tool. Only the person with the conch could talk. The conch was the thing that brought the boys together but also the thing that split them up.
• Piggy's Broken Glasses: These glasses were used to make the fire that was important to the boys on the island. They were broken by Jack when he slapped Piggy because he was mad at him. These glasses were essential to the survival on the island.

Book Review

Lord of the flies is a great classic and i enjoyed reading it. Here is a review of the book.

Lord of the flies starts of with Ralph walking through the jungle. He hears a voice behind him and then turns around. The reason why they are in a jungle is because a plane had crashed full of kids. All the adults died so only the kids survived. Ralph sees another kid who's real name is not mentioned, but every calls him Piggy. They have a bath in the nearby pond and find a conch shell. Ralph gets the idea to blow it so they could find everyone else.
Once he blows it everyone gathers around him and they elect a chief. Ralph is elected chief. And makes a couple of rules:

1. When the conch is blown it signals a meeting that everyone has to attend unless stated otherwise.
2. Only the person with the conch can speak and cannot be interrupted by anyone except for Ralph.
3. The fire is the most important thing because it will make smoke to signal a passing ship.

These rules were to be strictly followed.

Jack decides to make his choir and him hunters. They are to be in charge of getting food. Ralph and Simon were in charge of making shelter. 

For a while everything is great. They get meat and fruit fro food and they have three shelters. They also make a good fire using Piggy glasses. Two of the hunters were in charge of keeping the fire going. They had made the fire using the sun and Piggy's glasses.

During the night, the littl'uns have nightmares of a beast that they think is real. Ralph doesn't believe but Jack does.

One day while everyone was playing on the beach, Ralph notices a ship passing by in the distance. He looks at the mountain where the fire was and sees no smoke. The hunters had let the fire out! Ralph gets mad and calls a meeting right away. He tells everyone again that the fire is the most important thing or else they might never get rescued. Jack disagrees with this and thinks that the food is the most important thing because if they have no food the might die of starvation.
Jack gets mad at Ralph and separates and makes his own "tribe". His tribe is very successful and he gets a couple more kids to join. After a while almost everyone joins Jack's tribe. The only people that are left are Ralph and Piggy.
One day Simon climbs the mountain to see if the beast is real. He notices that there is no beast and comes back down to a party that is going on in Jack's tribe. When Simon comes out of the forest, Jack and his tribe think that he is the beast and kill him. After they kill him, they notice that that wasn't the beast, but Simon.

One evening, while Ralph and Piggy were sleeping, Jack and a few others came to the shelter. They attacked them and stole piggy's glasses. The reason why they wanted the glasses was because Jack's tribe had no other way of making a fire.
Ralph and piggy got mad so they went to ask for the glasses back. They took the conch with them to Jack's tribe. They ask for the glasses back but Jack doesn't give them back. A big fight starts between Jack and Ralph and they both get heavily injured. During the fight, someone rolls a bolder of a cliff and it hits Piggy. The conch in Piggy's hands shatters and piggy gets thrown into the water. His head opens up and bleeds. Another child had been killed.
Ralph runs back to the shelters.

In the middle of the night, Ralph hears a battle call and smells smoke. He looks around and notices fire. Jack now wants to kill Ralph and is burning the island behind him as he walks so Ralph cant escape. Jack spots Ralph and attacks. Ralph runs for his life through the jungle and then reaches the beach and falls down tired. When he looks up he notices a naval officer. He had become because he had seen the smoke on the island.

They get rescued, but they also witnessed the deaths of two of their friends.

Characters

There are a lot of characters in Lord of the Flies but I will only tell you about the main characters.

Ralph: A 12 year-old boy with "fair" hair that always hangs in front of his eyes. He always wants to take charge and make everything right. He was elected chief and became a true courageous leader. He was greatly respected .... for a while ......

Piggy: Piggy is fat and wears thick glasses. He is 12 years old. He has short hair which never seems to get any longer. He suffers from asthma and is reluctant to do anything which involves physical exercise. He can't swim and the other boys view him as an outsider who is "bit of a joke," intelligent but boring. He is also said to be lazy and is never helping.

Jack: Jack is the head of the choir at his school. He is 13 years old. His choir follows him everywhere he goes and they always listen to him. He can be described as demanding, overbearing, savage, rude and arrogant.

Simon:  Simon is part of Jack's choir. He is about 11 years old. Simon is in the middle area between biguns and little'uns but he is generally counted as a bigun. He is small, skinny and has dark hair and bright lively eyes. Simon seems to suffer from epilepsy and often goes off by himself to his "special place" in the jungle. Simon is introverted and a deep thinker, it is he who suspects and then discovers that the beast is not a creature but the evil within themselves.

Eric & Sam: They are twin brothers.They are about 11 years old. They are both intelligent twins, and are quite clever and playful. They are humorous in the sense that they like to "tease" the others about who is who. They also have "fair" hair.

Introduction

Hello I am reading a book called Lord of the Flies. It is a classic written by William Golding in 1954.
This book is part of a dystopian novel study we are doing in class.

This book is an action-packed novel that shows that the difference between order and disorder is a line that is very thin.

The book that I am reading takes place on a jungle island. A planes crashes into the island and all the adults are dead. The children age ranging from 6 - 15. The island is full of "Creepers". Creepers are vines that have a mind of their own. The island is also full of pigs. The pigs are small and fast. They are also very quiet. On the island there is also a mountain. Half of the mountain has pink rocks. The island also has little ponds of warm water. The beach on the island is beautiful. The whole beach is covered in palm trees.

There are no adults around...

Everything sounds good........... except for the fact that they might never get rescued.

Throughout this blog I will be posting pictures, book reviews, short summaries and even a new book cover.

Enjoy!