Cry Journal 1

The first thing I tabbed was when the first dialect was on page 36.  I noticed that there was no quotation marks when people speak, and instead he usually uses a dash to indicate when someone is speaking.  Sometimes it is woven in with the writing and is just identified by the use of "he said", "she said", etc.  This may become confusing to make out when people are talking and when not later on.  The other thing i tabbed was in the third chapter when he is describing people on the train as "some with blankets over the semi-nudity of their primitive dress, though these were all women.  Men travelled no longer in primitive dress." (43).  This shows how different societies are from each other.  In the same time period in the United States people probably wouldn't be allowed to be in public with such revealing clothing but I guess it was okay in South Africa at the time.

Theme in LotF

My theme was: The differences between everyone and the stereotypes of their personalities and ideas often can be outlets for violence.  One quote that supports this is said in chapter 4 on page 99 by Jack directed toward Piggy, "Who cares what you believe- Fatty!"  This shows that Jack does not really care how smart Piggy is or what his solutions are, he just thinks since Piggy is overweight so he must not really know what he is talking about.  Another quote from Jack on page 101, "Bollocks to the rules!  We're strong- we hunt!  If there's a beast, we'll hunt it down!  We'll close in and beat and beat and beat-!"  This shows that he doesn't care at all about the rules but he thinks that hunting will solve all their problems, but eventually the idea is hubris to the downfall of the group and the splitting of the boys into the savages and the non-savages.  This of course brings about the death of Simon and Piggy towards the end of the book.

LotF entry numero 2

If the Lord of the Flies had females then it would have been a completely different story.  Golding would have had to decide if he would want any relationships between them.  The females might not have wanted to go hunting and kill pigs and they may have wanted to have a voice in the leadership of the group.  The turnout of the story may have been better if there were females around and the tasks may have gotten done faster without all the arguing, but, it may have not been so good at the same time.  The females may may not have been very flexible on what they did like eating random fruits and berries and wearing skimpy leaves (or maybe not even that) around the males.  Overall the behavior of the group could have been more civilized and may have been less violent.

LotF first page decisions.

On the first page William Golding chooses to describe the climate of the island by writing, "Though he had taken off his school sweater and trailed it now from one hand, his grey shirt stuck to him and his hair was plastered to his forehead." and "...the jungle was a bath of heat."  This forshadows the heat of the fire that spread across the island and the fire that the boys needed to keep going in order to be rescued.  Later in the page he writes "The undergrowth at the side of the scar was shaken and and a multitude of raindrops came pattering."  This shows that the island has a variety of climates and weather which is the same with the children's attitudes and tempers toward each other.  The weather and the surliness of the boys rises until their tempers get so hot that Jack and his savages kill Piggy and Simon.

Another thing Golding decides to do on the first page is describe Piggy.  He describes him as short, very fat, careful, and that he wears glasses.  Piggy and his glasses are other important symbols in the story because the glasses are pretty much their only way to start a fire.  This becomes a problem later in the story when Jack and his savages navigate away from the other children and when he breaks the specs and Piggy can only see through one eye.  Golding made the glasses a sort of part of Piggy and Jack eventually breaks Piggy down to nothing. First he keeps interrupting Piggy at the assemblys taking away his speaking rights, then he takes the sight out of one eye by breaking the glasses, he eventually takes the glasses away from him taking away his sight entirely, and then he ends up taking his life.