Lord of the Flies Post II

Warning: If you haven't finished reading Lord of the Flies and don't want any spoilers, stop reading this!

Lord of the Flies from chapters 9-12 doesn't resemble the beginning of the story at all. It's cool though, for the most part, that is.

So, Jack has his own tribe now, consisting of Roger and some other littluns. Ralph, Piggy, Sam, and Eric (or Samneric) are on their own. Jack's "base" is up on Castle Rock, which is pretty cool. Jack and his hunters may all be monsters now, but I'm kind of enjoying Jack's personality for some reason. He has this darkness inside him, anger, arrogance... it's sort of admiring. I'm not saying I favor these kinds of qualities! It's just cool to envision him like this.

I'm going to be quick with this and not ramble on too much with describing the events as I usually do. So, Jack realized that his tribe can't go on with just meat - he needs fire too, so they all ambush Ralph's tribe and end up stealing Piggy's glasses. At the end of that chapter, they're dangling from Jack's hands - ah! So cool. Anyway... later on, Ralph, Piggy, and Samneric go up to Castle Rock to retrieve the glasses back. It's not that they don't want Jack to have a fire, but that stealing Piggy's glasses is wrong. By the way, I've been noticing that Ralph is being more respectful to Piggy lately. Perhaps it's because he's starting to realize that Piggy isn't just a laughingstock, but a lot more than that. 

Back to the main scene... they go up Castle Rock despite knowing that it's dangerous. The danger is really Jack and Roger. They're the monsters. When Jack refused to give back the glasses, a battle had begun. Oh, what an intense moment this was. Ralph and Jack fought fiercely. My favorite part was when they were both breathing fiercely, pushing and glaring at each other. Though the book didn't say it, I imagined their fists clenching one another's as well. After some more fighting, something insanely tragic happens. Oh goodness, I don't even want to say it, but I guess I will. Piggy held the conch, which then was shattered. Afterwards, he was pushed off Castle Rock, falling forty feet down. That was the end of him. Why?!
He was so sweet...!

The conch is in smithereens. Piggy fell down. All authority is gone. All voice of reason is gone.

Samneric got roped in to joining Jack's tribe. Ralph is literally by himself. Hope seems lost. When he goes to Castle Rock later again to rescue Samneric, he gets caught and a huge fight erupts. The fierce, scary fight goes on for a while, when suddenly, something happened. It happened.
An adult came.

It was a naval officer. He and Ralph exchanged a funny "Hullo." The boys were finally going to be rescued. Jack came... and he started shaking with tears streaming down his face. Everyone started crying. What have they become?

"...Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy."

That is the end of Lord of the Flies. It's such a sad story, in my opinion. But it reveals so much about mankind. We do so many horrible things without even realizing it at times. We need guidance, a voice of reason, a leader. In this story, that was none other than a boy called Piggy.

Overall, I really liked this book. Best one I've read in a long time. I hope the rest of this year's books are just as good or even better than this.

Lord of the Flies Post I

Warning: If you haven't read up to Chapter 8 of Lord of the Flies and don't want any spoilers, stop reading this!

Things just took a really strange turn in Lord of the Flies. Everything got so much more dark and abstract.

When the boys first arrived on the island, they seemed very innocent. Well, for the most part. They were happy to not have any adults, and they just wanted to have fun. Eventually, they started to notice just how wrong they were about living standards. It's not just fun and games.

Ralph was the one who took the initiative to lay out rules. I personally feel that he has enough sense as to knowing how to be a leader, but he can't really lead this specific group of boys that he's stuck with. It's not his fault though. There are way too many little kids, or "littluns," who don't understand the big picture of anything. Then there's good ol' Jack, who will never seem to accept terms with Ralph. He's been wanting to be leader since the beginning, but he never got his chance. So, he decided to make the most out of his so-called awesomeness and be leader of the hunters - the ones responsible for obtaining food for everyone. This went on for a while, and then came a twist.

Jack thought that after everything he's done for the group, such as obtaining food for them, the boys would look up to him more and make him the new leader. They took a vote once more, and Ralph won yet again. Jack was disappointed and hurt by his loss. The poor thing started crying, and left them to be on his own. He's a lone wolf now.

I can't believe I just called Jack a "poor thing." I've always hated Jack, but I felt really sorry for him in this scene, especially with the way I pictured it in my head. I didn't want him to be leader, but I still felt bad.

Anyway... he wasn't really a lone wolf for long. Eventually, some of the other littluns sneaked over and joined his hunter group. This is where things turn dark. All of the boys on the island were sweet, innocent, lost children at first. However, they've become savages now, especially Jack. He used to feel disgusted when trying to attack a pig, but he's nothing like that now. I don't like thinking/talking about this, but he hunted down a pig and just destroyed it. It wasn't just an attack - it was outright destruction. He and his hunters had no mercy on this pig. They totally slaughtered it. Oh, the poor creature... anyway, the point is that they're not exactly sweet, innocent children anymore. It's as if they've taken a step over to the dark side. They're monsters.

Jack reaching towards the dark side...
(in my vision)

Stepping away from the dark side now, time to get really abstract. Jack left the remains of the pig for the "beast" to eat it as an offering. Simon kind of just stayed there while the tribe left. It was so unbelievably hot, and he started to hallucinate. He stared at the pig... and the pig spoke to him. The pig was the Lord of the Flies. She (the pig) sounded like an adult. She was scolding, warning, and saying so many bizarre things to him. Simon just stood and stared. He passed out afterwards.

I read that scene so many times, but I just couldn't be able to decipher it. Eventually, I found out what this scene was really about. Simon may have been hallucinating, but he was also coming to a realization. We're kids on an island. We're fighting and hunting. None of these are good things. We're in a really, really bad situation. We're lost, and probably won't get home. We should be afraid. What are we even doing?!

I don't know. That's what I got from it. Basically, Lord of the Flies has taken a big leap away from a normal, straightforward life and onto the realities and hardships of life.

Technology

As I have said before, I don't enjoy reading books. I adore certain types of stories, but not novels themselves. I don't know, books just never click for me. They did a couple of times way in the past, but never after that. A few weeks ago, the whole class took out a book from the library to read for our own pleasure, and possibly gain some benefits from it. My book is called Awaken, by Katie Kacvinsky. It's a pretty good book so far. Not amazing, but alright. There are some things I'd like to talk about though. The main question: is our world deteriorating socially by technology? My answer is a flat yes, unfortunately.

             

The setting of Awaken is terrifying - and I don't mean with monsters and darkness. It's a world set in the year 2064, where technology rules and basically defines the lives of everyone. Every single thing is automated, whether by motion or voice control. There's a screen of any shape and size at every corner you look. People rarely look at each other's faces, let alone actually speak to them. There's no such thing as writing with a pencil, or reading on paper. It's all screens and holograms. There aren't even cars! They have these vehicles called ZipShuttles, which is like a small train that goes around the city like a bus.

As much as I hate to admit it, I feel like our world is plunging towards that. It gives me chills just typing that, because that's no way to live. I mean, think about it. The flip phone, which I think is really cool, only came out in probably the early 2000s, right? I'm not 100% sure if that is true, but I remember everyone had one in the mid-2000s. Then phones with sliding keyboards came along, and they were so cool! Eventually, the touch-screen as we all know it soon made its way. I got my first phone in 2010, and it had a touch screen with a sliding keyboard. Back then, it was a really big deal. But then, I don't know how, suddenly around late 2012 to 2013, everything started changing. iPhones started spreading to every person's back pocket. The battle between Apple and Samsung became way more noticeable than ever. Soon, everyone started buying tablets. The use for a laptop or desktop was going down, so then the laptop started becoming a tablet itself! Now you can flip them around! I actually got one recently, and I love it, but the fact that this all came to existence so fast is really something. This sudden surge from 2013 - 2017 was just voice/motion/touch activated technology everywhere you go. There are smartphones, smart TVs, smart cars, smart refrigerators... the list goes on and on. Every device has to have a camera or touch-ability. No one uses actual alarm clocks anymore. Few people even watch TV itself, because it's all online. I'm one of the few that still do. No one even talks to each other! On the last day of school last year, I wanted to spend the last class with my friends by talking, but literally all of them had their eyes on their phones. Very few words were spoken.

I love technology. I can't live without it. But, I feel like the world is moving way too fast. Back then, having a phone (or some modern technology) was like a phenomenon. Nowadays, not having one is a phenomenon. People are becoming less social and more lazy. They're losing sight of what's going on around them. I appreciate the flocks of birds in the sky, the windy blizzards, the raindrops on my face. No one feels this way anymore, and it seems to be getting worse as the years go by. People would rather take a picture, and post it with some laughing emojis or something.

                    

I want to say more, but I think I've harped on this enough. Anyway... in Awaken, the main character, Madeline, is one those "digital" people. Her mother is from my own generation, and she still appreciates the simpler, less-technological way of life. She's trying to convince Madeline to appreciate it as well, but Madeline feels more comfortable with a digital life. She never has to talk to anyone in person. No one can ever know who she is, so she can say whatever she wants online without consequences. If she wrote something she regrets, she can just edit or delete it, unlike in real life. As the chapters go by, she sees herself slowly starting to like a non-digital life. It makes her feel more alive.

I personally hope that our world never ends up like the one Madeline lives in. I get sick just reading some of the descriptions Madeline says of her world, but then again, mine is kind of similar. I hope that she awakens from her "digital sleep" soon enough.