Lord of the Flies and Lifestyle
The arctic air has gone nowhere. Vancouver is as frigid as Vancouver gets. It is minus 9 degrees celsius, as I pen this blog. It was still colder overnight. These flowers are reminding me of warmer times. We need warmer times, if you ask me. If the forecast is to be believed, the temperatures should be coming back up to around normal. Can't happen too soon for me. That said, we rather enjoyed our crispy walk around town yesterday, checking out the chilled city, puffing our dragon's breath from behind woolen scarves. I indulged in a full caffeine coffee and Minime got a venti steamed milk. I had some Starbucks stars to cash in, and so why not go big. Then we came home and set to work on our studies.
Our Language Arts study obliged us with a tropical getaway. We are currently doing a novel of the William Golding's masterpiece the Lord of the Flies. Maybe not Club Med, but still balmy. Today we are going to look at the character of the three main protagonists and their character aspects and how they relate to one another.
From our Studies ...
One Piggy and Ralph and Piggy's Name
The interaction around Piggy’s name shows the contrast between Piggy and Ralph: the desire to fit in for Ralph, versus the easy and sometimes good-natured, but rough confidence of Ralph. Piggy is short, not athletic, wears glasses, and Golding describes him as ‘very fat’’. He feels self-conscious about being over-weight, not athletic, and his poor appearance. The kids back at school teased him by calling him Piggy; and so this is a soft spot for him. It hurts him to be called Piggy. He thought there might be a new start on the island, and the other boys would call him by his name. He tries to be useful and friendly with Ralph.
When Ralph hears Piggy’s name, he laughs and taunts him with the name, somewhat playfully. Ralph thought Piggy’s name was funny and didn’t think about Piggy’s feelings. Piggy is upset but also pleased that he got attention from the other boy. Ralph made fun of Piggy and Piggy liked him for it. Golding shows in this interaction what their relationship is and who has the power.
One Ralph's Appearance and Character
Ralph is everything Piggy wants to be. Ralph has fair-hair and is tall, not fat or gawky. His skin is golden. He has an athletic build and is good at swimming and hiking. His face is likeable and trustworthy. His personality is mostly good-natured. Although, he does tease Piggy and also shares the nickname Piggy with the other boys, which was insensitive, but being called Piggy is still better than being called ‘fatty’, says Ralph rather accurately.
Even though Piggy is smarter, we can see why Ralph gets elected Chief. Ralph is not as smart as Piggy, but smart enough to give Merridew the choir, make them hunters, and make Merridew like him. Both Ralph and Piggy are intelligent, but Ralph is smart about people and it makes him a better leader.
Jack's Merridew's Character
Jack Merridew sees himself as strong, intelligent, capable, and brave, the things a leader and a hunter need to be and the things they need to survive on the island, but he wasn’t able to kill the piglet. He froze. When you are scared, you fight, take flight, or freeze. Jack’s face went white and he was afraid to kill the pig, afraid of the blood says Golding. Jack then lied to the other boys to cover his fear, so they won’t think he is weak. You need to be strong on the island to survive.
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