Thursday 21 June 2012

Lord of the Flies Quarter Analysis (4/4)


Lord of the Flies Quarter Analysis (4/4)

Michael Feng
Lord of the Flies (4/4)
By William Golding

Skeletal plot
1- Ralph feels really bad about how he acts the night before. He thinks that it was also his fault that he couldn’t stop the other boys from killing Simon.
2- Jack is a tyrant in his tribe. He beats up other boys with no reason. He and the other boys in his tribe are not guilty of what they did. They really think Simon was the beast, or they pretend Simon was the beast. They attacked Ralph’s tribe and steal Piggy’s glass away so they can make their own fire.
3- Ralph and his followers go to Jack’s tribe for a meeting. They bring the conch with them hoping the hunters still recognize it, but Jack ordered the hunters to capture Sam and Eric. Ralph and Jack starts to fight while piggy is trying to say something to stop the fight. Roger rolls a rock down and hits Piggy and crush the conch. Piggy died and falls into the ocean with the conch. Ralph then escapes as fast as he could.
4- Ralph goes to Jack’s tribe again in the night and meets Sam and Eric who are guarding the gate. Sam and Eric tell him Jack is going to hunt him tomorrow. Ralph then leaves and run into the forest. He found the pig head on the stake. He pulls off the pig head and brings the stake away as his weapon. He fell asleep in a thicket.
5- Ralph wakes up and hears Jack asking Sam and Eric to find out the place he is hiding. The hunters start to attack Ralph, and Ralph defenses himself using the landscape and the stake. Then the hunters try to use fire to smoke Ralph out of the Thicket. Ralph runs to the beach and meets a naval officer who came close to the island to check what the fire was. (The fire that the hunters use to smoke Ralph) Jack and the other boys arrive at the beach too. After the reprimand of the naval officer, everyone starts to sob.

Conflict
Person vs Person
This part it shows the fight between Ralph and Jack. Ralph realizes there is no way to recover his friendship with Jack, and he gets angry when Jack attacks him.


Setting
Without the glass, Piggy can nearly see nothing in his sight. He asks Ralph to go to Jack’s tribe and try if they can work together again. They also bring the conch with them that they hope that Jack and his followers still recognize the authority of it. Ralph blows the conch at the gate of Jack’s tribe, but no one is responding and they start to throw stones at Ralph. Ralph realizes that the civilization on the island is totally gone after Piggy get killed. He escaped from the hunters’ attacks. Ironically, the fire that the hunters use to smoke Ralph became their life saver, that a ship came close to the island to check the fire


Characters
-Ralph: In this quarter, Ralph becomes very sad because of the death of Simon. After Jack steals Piggy’s glass, he begins to feel angry about Jack. He and his followers went to Jack’s tribe and tried to negotiate with Jack, but Jack just attacked them. At the end, only Ralph left and he is almost desperate.

-Piggy: He is still a character that represents intellect and civilization. In this quarter, his glass which is the only thing to make fire on the island is stole by Jack. For himself, he can see almost nothing without the glass, so he asks Ralph to go to negotiate with Jack. When Ralph is attacked by Jack, Piggy tried to stop their fight, but Roger rolls a rock dock the hill and hits piggy. With the fall of Piggy and the conch, there is no more civilization remained on the island.

-Jack: He uses the meat to attract Ralph’s followers to join his tribe. And at the end, everyone except Ralph joined Jack’s tribe. In his tribe, Jack is being a tyrant. He beats up other boys without any reason, and he doesn’t give other people the right to speak during an assembly.

Notables on writer’s style and structure
-Simile:“Nothing prospered but the flies who blackened their lord and made the spilt guts look like a heap of glistening coal.” (Chapter 9)

-Imagery:“A steady current of heated air rose all day from the mountain and was thrust to ten thousand feet; revolving masses of gas piled up the static until the air was ready to explode.” (Chapter 9)

- Yes, there are a lot of dialogues between the kids on the island.

"That's where they've gone. Jack's party."

"Let them go," said Ralph, uneasily, "I don't care."

"Just for some meat--"

"And for hunting," said Ralph, wisely, "and for pretending to be a tribe, and putting on war-paint."


Themes
- Loss of civilization

- Savagery


This quarter shows the reverse of Ralph and Jack’s power. Now there are only few littluns other than Piggy who are still in Ralph’s tribe, while Jack has almost everyone in his tribe. Being the chief of his tribe, Jack shows the opposite policy with Ralph. He rules like a tyrant while Ralph had a more democratic idea. At the end of story, there is finally someone who comes onto the island. Ironically, it was the fire that was used to smoke Ralph out of the thicket became the signal fire. It is a very sarcastic ending, after Ralph tried so hard to keep rule, it is still a chaotic situation on the island.


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