Carmichael,K

Chapter 1: Civilization “Vote for chief!” This quote shows success is civilization because it shows that they are trying to create a system of law and order. It is successful because they decided to take a vote, resembling a democracy, form of government. Ultimately, their attempt to create stability does fail, but in the beginning, they realized that they needed it, and the way the most important part. Kids their age wouldn’t know how to run a stabilized civilization but the fact that they automatically knew it was needed, shows that they are someone knowledgeable.

I believe that our current civilization is doing fine. Although we differ about many things, we allow everyone in our society to have some type of voice whether it’s voting, or making a statement depends on their role in society. In my eyes, since we have a stable form of government and order I believe that our civilization is successful. Although there are down points to our system such as you have to be of age to vote and there is a process in which you must go through in order to vote, we also have many good values as well. For example, no President can be chosen without running for office and obtaining the most votes. This means the people say who can be in charge and who can’t and it’s not just that way for the president but also for every political office position.

Chapter 2: Group Think “He says he saw the beastie, the snake-thing, and will it come back tonight”? (Golding 36). This quote has a negative impact on the rest of the kids because they are basing their beliefs off of what the rest of the group thinks. Everyone is becoming afraid of the “beastie” which is causing them to act out of character. They truly don’t know what to believe so they join the bandwagon of people who agree that there is a beastie even if something inside of them is saying that there isn’t one.

Group think definitely applies in my world as a high school student. Everyone is a follower no matter how you may see things. Everyone cares about what other people think so they usually stick to the norms of the average teenager. Society in high school has certain order that tends to be followed by the students. How do I deal with this? Like every other student, I go with the flow. Until now, now I break the norms by doing things that I know will change things. Group think never really has a positive outcome unless the majority of the group is doing something beneficial.

Chapters 3 & 4: Good and Evil “Clearly they were of the opinion that Jack had done the decent thing, had put himself in the right by his generous apology and Ralph, obscurely, in the wrong.” (Golding) In my opinion, evil is winning the battle at this point in the book but not fully. Jack knows that he represents the wrong but he doesn’t care nor does he want anything to change. He is slowly but surely gaining followers and converting their minds into believing anything he wants them to.

You determine what is good and what is evil in this world by analyzing what affect it has on people. Evil things tend to have a bad effect on the person/people they hurt and good things always have a good effect on the people that it involves. Although this theory can be contradicted, typically it is true when dealing with normal situations such as the ones in humanity.

Chapter 5: Beelzebub “Maybe …maybe there is a beast…What I mean is…maybe it’s only us” (Golding 89). This quote comes from Simon and it’s stating that he believes that there really isn’t a monster on the island and the real monsters are themselves. That would mean that the “Satan” like wickedness that they should fear is themselves and their own actions rather than a fictional creature. This quote speaks in volume because it shows that society doesn’t think like Simon does. Most people will go as far as creating a fictional creature in order to explain things that they either don’t understand or can’t explain. When bad things happened, humanity naturally tends to place blame on everything else besides them.

You can also find the materialization of evil in history. There have been rulers, dictators, and leaders who have also fit the image of being a “Satan” like figure because of their actions. For example, Hitler would definitely fit in this category. He took the lives of many innocent people and tortured many others. He vividly represented the image of fear in many people’s eyes.

Chapter 6: Nyctophobia “We saw…the beast…plan…Who are you? The twins? We saw the beast.” (Golding 98-99) The kids are living in fear of this fictional beast to the point where it is affecting their daily lives and beliefs. They do not know what to expect from this beast, all they know is that they keep hearing noises and the people who they consider leaders are now saying that there is in fact a beast beyond their living grounds. Golding is show that naturally humans will make up anything in order to explain things that may seem irrational, such as a “beast” or even children when they think they have seen a monster. They have allowed their fear to convince themselves that there is indeed a beast, so the first living thing that they saw that they couldn’t identify, they accused it of being the beast.

The only fear I have is the fear of failure. I am afraid of what will happen if I do not succeed in life the way I would like to. It’s hard thinking about those things, but it is something that must be taken into consideration. I am a big dreamer, so I know that some of the things I want to do may seem farfetched to other people but not to me. My main fear is that I will attempt to become some of the things I want to become, get far with doing so, but then fail before I get to fully achieve my goals. I don’t know why I think that way but it definitely does affect me sometimes.

Diary Entries Chapter 7: Ralph “Ralph too was fighting to get near, to get a handful of that brown, vulnerable flesh. The desire to squeeze and hurt was over-mastering.” (Golding 114-115) I have completely lost control of everything I had put together and everyone who had put their trust in me. Well at least it feels that way. Our goals are supposed to be getting off the island, and staying alive while we are still on it, not killing everything that comes in sight of us. But…. I cannot deny that killing is starting to grow on me more and more. I get an excitement from it. What am I saying? I am not one of them! Or am I? I am so lost right now and I can’t figure out what is right and what is wrong anymore. I sort of feel guilty for having so much fun doing things that I know I probably shouldn’t. It really started to hit me when Jack suggested replacing the pig with Robert. Killing a littlun? How could we even think about doing such a thing? Jack has completely lost his hunting mind. After all we are not savages! We don’t have to kill everything that comes across our paths. But the thought of hunting still seems to clutter my mind.

Chapter 8: Simon “"Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill!” said the head” (Golding 143) I am losing my mind. I think it’s because I feel guilty about everything that is going on. Ralph is no longer in charge, Jack is going insane with killing and power, they actually saw the beastie, and we are still stuck on this island. As I looked at the head of the pig on the stick, it spoke to me. It told me that it was the beast and that we were able to defeat it. It made me realize that maybe everyone has a beast inside of them because the sow told me that I was a part of it. It made me think that if I am a part of the beast or I have a part of the beast in me and we have killed the beast then maybe a part of me is dead to. Are we really the only beast? Is the beast that we are trying to kill only ourselves? Are we going to succeed in killing ourselves? I wish I knew the answers but I don’t. The good thing about me not knowing is that I am not afraid to find out.

Chapter 9 & 10: Ralph “Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!” (Golding 152) I guess if you can’t beat them, join them. I feel like everyone has turned against me. Even Piggy is beginning to change in my eyes. This is not what I wanted. I just wanted to go home. The feasts, the dancing, the hunting, I didn’t want all that. I just want to go home. But I feel like I am the only one who really sees what’s happening to us. We murdered him! We murdered him! I don’t care what anyone says, we did the unthinkable. We thought he was the beast and started attacking him but by the time we realized we were wrong, it was already too late. I have forcefully and completely lost sight of what’s right and wrong. I think that we are savages, killing left and right and not thinking anything of it. Jack has really done it this time!

Chapter 11: Ralph “I got the conch! He shouted. I tell you, I got the conch!” (Golding 180) Nooooo Piggy! They killed Piggy! Jack knew that we were going to come for Piggy’s specs and he set us up. As me and Jack fought, Piggy held up the conch as if anyone was going to listen. No one cares about the conch anymore! No one cares about what’s right anymore! Roger killed Piggy by pushing a bolder off the cliff and it knocked him into the river. The way his body twitched it gave me memories of how the pigs had twitched after we had killed them. They killed him as if he were just another sow! Now he’s gone, the conch is broken, and there is no more peace. Jack launched a spear at me bruising my rib as he chanted “I’m chief!” (Golding 181). Piggy is gone; Jack is forcing Sam and Eric to join his tribe, so it looks like I am on my own now!

Chapter 12: Epilogue Finally, we had been rescued! The officer had gone with us to find the other boys to let them know that we were being saved. Jack hadn’t said a word the whole time. I knew that he had been feeling guilty about what he had done. I could tell by the look on his face that he was just as ashamed as we all were. We had reached our destination in England safely and began to get back on track into our new but prolonged lives that we were destined for. Everything had come to light when the adults asked us about the things that happened on our journey. It made us realize that we were wrong and how things started off as good but things began to crumble as we became weaker as a whole. The adults were disappointed in us because we had not worked together and instead what we did was tear each other apart even more than we were before we had even landed on the island. We all cried after that because it made us think about killing Simon and Piggy, especially me. If Piggy were here right now, I bet he would have changed his mind about how he felt about Simon’s death. We had murdered him, and they had murdered Piggy. All that is in the past now but there’s rarely a moment that I don’t see flash backs inside my head of Piggy falling or Simon floating away in the sea. It was hard trying to get back into the flow of school and everything else but I can’t say I don’t enjoy the food and utilities. Most of us had been split up because of our ages. So the younger kids now go to a different school then me. Jack and I go to the same school though. He is once again the leader of the boys’ choir. I never see any of the kids because they go to a younger school. The only person I ever see is Jack and when we pass each other we still do not speak to one another. Being on that island I realized that it is important to stand up for what you believe in no matter what or who you are up against. I think if I had of stuck up for what I had believed in from the beginning of our tribe then Piggy and Simon would still be alive. I know now that courage is something I must always keep with me, sort of like my own personal conch except this one cannot be broken. Although I lost two good friends and gained a main enemy, the island taught me things that I couldn’t have learned without going through what I went through on it.