Kelly,+Sarah

Reading Journal: Chapter 1 __Civilization:__

1a) Civilization plays a big role in Chapter one, as the boys come to realization that they are stuck on an island by themselves. Since they are on an unknown island without any parental figures, they decide to elect a leader which will start a civilization that they feel like they need. Ralph was elected as leader and he found a conch shell in the water. He blows it so that if there are any people that survived the crash, they will know where to go. “We can use this to call the others. Have a meeting. They’ll come when they hear us” (Golding 16). Ralph, being the leader of the boys and using the conch shell to call the others in, shows a sign of success because the conch shell has worked and brought them together and this is the first step towards civilization on the island. b) Specifically related to the United States, I believe our modern civilization is doing well. Our country is a country of freedom. Food, shelter, health care, and education are all things that are provided for you or can be done by yourself. Technology is one of largest advancements and every year our technology gets bigger and better, along with government factors and transportation. Not to mention, the United States elected it’s first African American president recently and things have gotten a lot better since. Racism has decreased, even though it has for many years, but in our specific country racism is no longer that severe of a problem. Our civilization has been a success in a lot of different ways and will continue to be successful as the years go on and problems begin to fade.

Chapter 2 __Groupthink:__

1a) In Chapter two, Ralph has this idea that the boys should build a fire so that if people pass by them they will see fire and come rescue them. “Theres another thing. We can help them to find us. If a ship comes near the island they may not notice us. So we must make smoke on top of the mountain. We must make a fire” (Golding 38). As the boys come up with this clever idea, they work together to make the fire. This quote shows the boys success by using groupthink to help them work together to make the wood pile for their survival. This quote also show that these boys have good, positive potential to work together, which will really help in their situation on this island. b)Groupthink not only entered my world as a high school student in school, but also outside of school too. Groupthink allows a person to see and hear many different point of views and opinions from other people that may change and affect the way a certain person feels. Groupthink in high school is a very positive thing for students because they can learn different concepts and help someone learn better. People who are independent workers and never listen to other peoples opinions or advice, won’t really have as much success as a person who has an open mind and uses groupthink as a way of learning more about certain things. In my opinion, groupthink is good because when working in a group, you can distribute the work up evenly in a group and get work done a lot more easier and effective, where as working by yourself you have to get things done fast and might not pay as close attention to specific things.

Chapter 3&4 __Nyctophobia:__

1a) “As if, said Simon, the beastie, the beastie or the snake-thing was real. Remember?” (Golding 52). The boys have a fear of the unknown, or nyctophobia. Nyctophobia is the fear of darkness which can lead to delusional or imaginary thoughts which may or may not be true. The littluns explain their nightmares and start to come to realization that they are on an unknown island without any adults, which makes them scared and this may cause them to be afraid of whats on this island. Golding is teaching the readers that when humans are afraid of things they begin to become nervous and start freaking out and imaging things that may not be there. b) I fear dying. I am scared of what happens after we die and where we go and what will happen to our bodies once we are dead. Some people fear being dead, but also fear the actual act of dying. Although, fear of death is tied into religious beliefs and all that, I just fear what will happen after. It is a weird concept to think about, even though it seems so normal in daily life, because people die every second of everyday.

Chapter 5 __Good and Evil:__ 1a) In chapter five, good and evil strikes the boys when Ralph talks about giving up his position as leader. “I ought to give up being chief. Hear’ em” (Golding 93). As Ralph thinks about giving up his power, Piggy explains that if Jack becomes the new leader all he will do is hunt and have no fire, which will do no good for the boys. This shows the conflict between Ralph and Jack. Throughout reading this novel, its clear that Ralph and Jack are struggling for power. In this specific situation, Jack is representing evil because he is trying to take away Ralph’s power, although Ralph is thinking about resigning it anyway. b) I believe you cannot determine what is “good” and what is “evil” because not everything is all bad or all good. For me personally, I believe every bad has some good in it. Although, it is easy to determine if something is “good” because it has a positive affect of if somethings “bad” because of a negative effect, it may not be that easy. Using your better judgement can determine if something is “good” or “evil”, in my opinion.

Chapter 6 __Beelzebub:__ 1a) Throughout chapter 6, there has been a lot of talk from Sam n‘ Erik about the “beastie”, which instantly makes me think of Beelzebub. The beastie is a sign of evil (Beelzebub). Also, in chapter six, Jack makes me feel like he is also a form of Beelzebub, because Jack’s personality instantly changes and starts taking over and leading the group, making decisions. “What about the littluns” (Golding 101). This quote goes to show that Jack doesn’t seem to care that he’s leaving the littluns back and not taking them with him. They are already afraid of this island and now being all alone, they wont know what to do without the boys. b) From history, Adolf Hitler was a materialization of evil. He picked one group of people and wanted to annihilate them for no reason other than their religion. Other source of evil that we’re all drawn to is the news. All the negative and scary things are put on the news first, because it draws the people’s attention. Also a lot of movies glamorize evil people just to make it more interesting. Basically, materialization of evil is represented in almost every part of the world for everybody to see.

**Journal Evaluation**

Name _Sarah Kelly________________________________________


 * **Criteria** || **Point Values** ||  ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Overall **focus** and flow and use of transitions to make the piece **cohesive** || **5** || 4 || 3 || 2 || 1 ||
 * **Content** & textual evidence reflect the appropriate themes in the journal options || 15-**13** || 12 || 11 || 10-9 || 8-0 ||
 * **Analysis** of quotes are accurate and thorough || 15-13 || **12**-10 || 11 || 10-9 || 8-0 ||
 * Personal **connection** responses are articulate and thought-provoking || 10-**8** || 7-6 || 5-4 || 3-2 || 1 ||
 * **Mechanics**, Spelling and Grammar || **5** || 4 || 3 || 2 || 1 ||


 * Total ____43__/50**

__$_ Provides unique and insightful perspective on the reading __$_ Uses effective verbs and word choice to create strong sense of voice ___ Content is simplified or too general ___ Proofread more closely ___ Elaboration needed
 * Feedback**:

**Journal Entries 7-12** Chapter 7 Dairy Entry: Dear Dairy, My name is Alex. I am 12 years old as of right now but I wish I was a lot older at this point, so that I would know how to get myself out of here. Being on this island is hard enough, especially being so young. Every day out here gets worse and worse. I am always so cold and hungry all the time. Not even just that, I am frightened that I wont make it off this island alive because of the beastie. Ralph is the leader of the group and I respect him because I trust him and know that he is trying to do whats best for all of us. Jack, on he other hand is going against Ralph. I am not very fond of Jack because he is very into always wanting to hunt. “Kill the pig! Cut his throat! Kill the pig! Bash him in!” (Golding, 114). Ralph, Jack, and the boys went hunting but were unsuccessful in doing so. Jack and Ralph are go against each other all the time, but now it has become more recently. I hate this island. I hate having to pick sides. The night time is the worst because I am so afraid of the dark and I don’t even have my parents with me to say goodnight or make me feel any better. I am hoping to be rescued as soon as possible so I can get out of this place.

Chapter 8 Dairy Entry: Dear Diary, Today was an awful day and it doesn’t seem to be getting any better, anytime soon. It seems like everyone is against each other all because of Jack and Ralph’s differences. Jack and some of the other boys left the part of the island where they have been staying, to make their own tribe for themselves because Jack wasn’t getting the power that he thought he needed. “I’m going off by myself. He can catch his own pigs. Anyone who wants to hunt when I do can come too” (Golding, 127). When Jack took off, I felt uncomfortable because I am indecisive, but I chose to stay with Ralph because I feel like Ralph is a much better leader than Jack could ever be. I feel like if I chose to go with Jack, all he would want to do would be to hunt and kill all the time, which doesn’t really make anything better. At this point, I just want to go home. I can’t stand choosing sides anymore. Ralph and Jack seem to be so different and I can’t keep being torn between both anymore. Hopefully it starts to get better. Hope is the only thing I can really have right now.

Chapter 9 & 10 Diary Entry: Dear Diary, What I was encountered with today should be something no 12 year old should ever be encountered with. The fact that I participated in a murder today makes me sick to my stomach but I was so overwhelmed and caught in the heat of the moment. Before Simon’s death I heard, “Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!” (Golding, 152). This made me believe the saying, “every man for himself” because no one here wants to help each other out, everyone is just worried about themselves. I wish I never was part of the death of Simon because I know that Simon was just doing what he thought was best for everyone, which is rare on this island. Simon didn’t want us to end up like Jack. I know Simon wasn’t trying to hurt any of us, he felt the same way we did, scared and lonely. I hate being lonely. I really hope we get rescued soon because I don’t know how much longer I can pretend that I’m all right.

Chapter 11 Diary Entry: Dear Diary, I think it’s safe to say there has been more deaths recently then I’ve ever seen. First Simon, now Piggy. Piggy and Ralph went to get Piggy’s glasses from Jack, but ended in a death. Roger let a rock down a hill after listening to Jack and Ralph go back and forth arguing. “The rock struck Piggy, a glancing bow from chin to knee; The conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist” (Golding, 181). After all these deaths, I am becoming more and more scared for my own being. I don’t know how or if I will be able to make it off this island alive anymore. Why did this have to happen? I just want someone to tell me everything is going to be okay and someone to get me out of here. I want this all to be over. I don’t want to see anymore people die, and don’t want it to happen to myself. I need help, ASAP.

Chapter 12 Diary Entry: Dear Diary, This is going to be the last diary entry that I am going to write here on this island. The day has finally come, we are being rescued today. Officers have came. “We saw your smoke. What have you been doing? Having a war or something?” (Golding, 201). The officers were kindly asking us questions about the island and what we have been doing here. To be honest, the moment I saw the American soldier coming to our rescue, I couldn’t help but cry. Not cry because I was sad, but cry of happiness of course. After all this torture of being on this island for so long, seeing people being killed, being part of murder. All this has finally come to an end and I couldn’t be more happy about it. I am finally safe. The officers kept asking us all kinds of questions that made me feel sad because they brought up Simon and Piggy and I felt like it was part my fault that they are no longer with us. I wish they could be here to enjoy this moment with us, the moment of being rescued after all. After being rescued, I feel as though I have grown so much as a person. I feel like I’ve already gone through adult life through that experience on that island. Even the most immature of all littluns had to have gone through adult life on that island. The experiences we delt with are things not too many people ever have to go through. Being so young going through such rough experiences made me mature at a faster rate than most kids. Although I wish I was never on that island, it made me grow so much as a person and made me who I am today, an intelligent, creative minded, well-rounded person. After being rescued, I learned to never take anything for granted ever again. I have built such good relationships with every person I come in contact with and am so willing to learn new things. My family and friends and all the others who I care about will never be anything less than important to me. When I returned home, I realized how much I have a family that loves and cares about me, which was what I wanted the whole time I was on the island. Now, I have that again, at my home and I will never take that for granted again. I will never forget the experience I had on that island with the other boys. That is something that is too hard to forget. To this day, I still think about Simon and Piggy and how I wish their deaths never happened. I wish I never took part in killing Simon. I have so much guilt inside me about it but I know I can not change what had already happened. As for the other boys, I try to keep in contact with everyone as much as possible. Even though that island was nothing but trouble, I am happy I went through the things I went through because it helped me grow as a person and helped me be ready for the real world. Now I realize how hard it can be in the adult world, but I am now willing to except the consequences and do what I have to do without being afraid. Our society is very messed up but now I know what to expect if I am ever in a similar situation. I will remember that experience forever, and will keep going as I should.