On your blog, please post your first character journal. Click here to view the assignment description.
DUE: Friday, March 1
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Monday, February 25, 2013
CP - Alliance?
If you were on the island with the characters from Lord of the Flies, who would you ally yourself with and why? In your response, consider personality, leadership style, and anything else you think would be relevant.
DUE: Next class meeting (Feb. 28)
ALTERNATIVE TOPIC: Explain what Jack means by saying "we're not savages" in the following quotation from the novel: “I agree with Ralph. We’ve got to have rules and obey them. After all, we’re not savages. We’re English and the English are the best at everything. So we’ve got to do the right things” (Golding 42). What does it mean to be "savage"--how would a savage behave? Why might Jack make a point of saying this to the other boys?
DUE: Next class meeting (Feb. 28)
ALTERNATIVE TOPIC: Explain what Jack means by saying "we're not savages" in the following quotation from the novel: “I agree with Ralph. We’ve got to have rules and obey them. After all, we’re not savages. We’re English and the English are the best at everything. So we’ve got to do the right things” (Golding 42). What does it mean to be "savage"--how would a savage behave? Why might Jack make a point of saying this to the other boys?
HONORS - Lord of the Flies, Chapter 2: Savagery
In chapter 2 of Lord of the Flies, William Golding twice foreshadows events that will take place later in the novel:
Jack Merridew: “I agree with Ralph. We’ve got to have rules and obey them. After all, we’re not savages. We’re English and the English are the best at everything. So we’ve got to do the right things.” (Golding 42)
"Beneath the capering boys a quarter of a mile square of forest was savage with smoke and flame... Startled, Ralph realized that the boys were falling still and silent, feeling the beginnings of awe at the power set free below them. The knowledge and the awe made him savage." (Golding 44)
In a thoughtful post of at least two paragraphs, please explore some or all of the following questions:
How you organize your thoughts is up to you. But take this as an opportunity to reflect on your reading thus far and to look into some of the important issues of the novel.
DUE: Tuesday, February 26
Jack Merridew: “I agree with Ralph. We’ve got to have rules and obey them. After all, we’re not savages. We’re English and the English are the best at everything. So we’ve got to do the right things.” (Golding 42)
"Beneath the capering boys a quarter of a mile square of forest was savage with smoke and flame... Startled, Ralph realized that the boys were falling still and silent, feeling the beginnings of awe at the power set free below them. The knowledge and the awe made him savage." (Golding 44)
In a thoughtful post of at least two paragraphs, please explore some or all of the following questions:
- How would you define "savage"?
- What does Jack mean by saying that the boys are not "savages"?
- Why is Ralph "savage" as a result of power?
- Does power make people savage?
- What do you think Golding is foreshadowing, and why?
How you organize your thoughts is up to you. But take this as an opportunity to reflect on your reading thus far and to look into some of the important issues of the novel.
DUE: Tuesday, February 26
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Reflection on Island Simulation Game
In a blog post of at least one paragraph, please reflect on today's cooperation vs competition simulation game. Some questions you might consider: How realistic is this game? How is it like real life decisions? How is it different? What lessons can this game teach you about: sharing responsibility? Forming a society?
Monday, February 4, 2013
Honors - Responding to Coral Island
Please read the following paragraph from Chapter XXI of The Coral Island by R.M. Ballantyne (1858) and answer the following questions:
What do you think Ballantyne is trying to show in this paragraph? What does it reveal about Great Britain in the period of British Empire in which Ballantyne lived?
Life is a strange compound. Peterkin used to say of it, that it beat a druggist’s shop all to sticks; for, whereas the first is a compound of good and bad, the otheris a horrible compound of all that is utterly detestable. And indeed the more I consider it the more I am struck with the strange mixture of good and evil that exists not only in the material earth but in our own natures. In our own Coral Island we had experienced every variety of good that a bountiful Creator could heap on us. Yet on the night of the storm we had seen how almost, in our case,—and altogether, no doubt, in the case of others less fortunate—all this good might be swept away for ever. We had seen the rich fruit-trees waving in the soft air, the tender herbs shooting upwards under the benign influence of the bright sun; and, the next day, we had seen these good and beautiful trees and plants uprooted by the hurricane, crushed and hurled to the ground in destructive devastation. We had lived for many months in a clime for the most part so beautiful, that we had often wondered whether Adam and Eve had found Eden more sweet; and we had seen the quiet solitudes of our paradise suddenly broken in upon by ferocious savages, and the white sands stained with blood and strewed with lifeless forms; yet, among these cannibals, we had seen many symptoms of a kindly nature. I pondered these things much, and, while I considered them, there recurred to my memory those words which I had read in my Bible,—the works of God are wonderful, and his ways past finding out.
DUE: Next class meeting (Feb. 5)
What do you think Ballantyne is trying to show in this paragraph? What does it reveal about Great Britain in the period of British Empire in which Ballantyne lived?
Life is a strange compound. Peterkin used to say of it, that it beat a druggist’s shop all to sticks; for, whereas the first is a compound of good and bad, the otheris a horrible compound of all that is utterly detestable. And indeed the more I consider it the more I am struck with the strange mixture of good and evil that exists not only in the material earth but in our own natures. In our own Coral Island we had experienced every variety of good that a bountiful Creator could heap on us. Yet on the night of the storm we had seen how almost, in our case,—and altogether, no doubt, in the case of others less fortunate—all this good might be swept away for ever. We had seen the rich fruit-trees waving in the soft air, the tender herbs shooting upwards under the benign influence of the bright sun; and, the next day, we had seen these good and beautiful trees and plants uprooted by the hurricane, crushed and hurled to the ground in destructive devastation. We had lived for many months in a clime for the most part so beautiful, that we had often wondered whether Adam and Eve had found Eden more sweet; and we had seen the quiet solitudes of our paradise suddenly broken in upon by ferocious savages, and the white sands stained with blood and strewed with lifeless forms; yet, among these cannibals, we had seen many symptoms of a kindly nature. I pondered these things much, and, while I considered them, there recurred to my memory those words which I had read in my Bible,—the works of God are wonderful, and his ways past finding out.
DUE: Next class meeting (Feb. 5)