I believe Golding was trying to hint on the importance of popularity. If you think about real life situations like casual election/voting days for our President then you have to take into consideration the popularity of each candidate. The people who want to be president run campaigns and having meetings, and talk to the public constantly to raise awareness of themselves and what they can do for the country. The more well known the person, then the greater the opportunity of them getting the most votes. The boys were young, this made everything very difficult. Half of the older boys wanted to create a dictatorship, The other half of the boys were just going crazy doing whatever they wanted. The boys wanted Ralph at the head of this government. Ralph was chosen to be the leader because he was strong willed, he made an effort to get everyone together by blowing the conch shell and it seemed as if he always had a plan. If Ralph just sat back and did nothing he wouldn't be considered the hero. He put himself out there, decided to take charge and set up a plan to get himself and the boys off from the island.
Symbols are everywhere in LotF - pick 2 that really stood out to you and discuss their importance to the story.
ISLAND- The island represents good and evil. To the children it meant a new independent life without any adults, free to do as they please and not have any rules. The Island was full of resources, They had fruit to eat, pigs to hunt and trees to create fire, or shelter. These all seemed like pro's to the young boys at first, but they quickly learned otherwise. The fruit gave them stomach aches and making fire and shelter was harder than they thought. There is also the heat which is excruciating. A big con of the Island was the rumor of the "Beastie"; One of the younger boys, Jack claimed to have seen this beast one night. Some of the boys believed in ghosts and figured the beast was a ghost. Others thought he was a monster from the deepest parts of the ocean surrounding them. This caused quit a fuss, especially considering the leader, Ralph wanted organization and prompt behavior. The boys decide they want to make a fire, thinking that someone will see the smoke and they will be rescued. This was a clever plan, although they didn't think it through properly. The fire got out of hand and ended in a raging forest fire that destroyed a good part of the Island. The boy's brushed it off like it was nothing. As if they were saying "Hey it's just a couple of trees!" Piggy on the other hand got upset. He was into nature, he knew there was an importance of nature for human life. I don't think the boys realized how difficult real life is. Being on this Island was a huge wake up call. They tried to create a little government, but in order to have a successful government you need to have maturity, which unfortunately these young boys were lacking. I'm sure they learned quite the lesson.
1) On page 70, Golding writes that Ralph "...wanted to explain that people were never quite what you thought they were." Write about this, both in the context of the book and its characters as well as your own experiences in life.
The boy's found out really quick, at a young age that people are not always what you think they are. They could just be pretending to be someone or something there not to impress you, or just to fool you. For example, the boys all took advantage of Piggy. They would pick on him and constantly talk about how useless he is. Then they killed him. If they would have took the time to get to know Piggy they would have realized he was very intelligent, he knew his way around the woods. They honestly in my opinion would have had a better chance of surviving if they didn't kill him. As far as my experiences go; fake people are everywhere. It's extremely rare to find someone who is genially real. I have had so many friendship's end because I've figured out who's real and who's just pretending.
2) One of the main points of this book is to look at the effects of authority, or the lack of authority, on people. The "society" that the boys created eventually begins to fall apart; do you think this is because of the leaders they chose (Ralph and Jack), or because of the situation they were in (meaning who their leaders were didn't matter)?
I believe the situation they were in had a lot to do with why their society fell apart. That, and their age. I mean boys in general are statistically proven to mature slower than girls, so Imagine young boys, ages 6-12 trying to run our country? The boys did not know how to successfully run their own government, nor should they have to. No matter who the leaders were it wouldn't have mattered. It takes teamwork to be successful, and one person can't change how the others think, feel or act.
