Week 4

The novel Lord of the Flies.  A district benchmark test.  A school wide writing assessment.  Book clubs.  Clips from movies.  This motley of events ties together to form the last two weeks in my English class.

Throughout the previous two weeks, we continued to read and analyze William Golding's novel Lord of the Flies.  As we progress in the text, it is apparent that the boys are becoming savage, wild creatures; they are beginning to become less civilized and less focused on their original main goal to be rescued.  This is shown in the novel when Ralph says (while trying to explain to the boys why they can't hunt and run free), “The fire's the most important thing on the island, because, because—”.  This action of Ralph forgetting the purpose of the fire for even a moment shows how even Ralph—the wise leader—is beginning to transform into a more primal state.  Another example that shows this change within the boys is Simon's death.  The boys murder Simon—one of their fellow friends—just because they think he is "the beast".  They kill him as if he were a pig, which in itself is significant for the reason that a pig is a wild animal.  Wild animals are essentially what they have become and what they kill.  This foreshadows that in the end, they will have murdered their own kind figuratively or perhaps literally (like they did to Simon).  Furthermore, Simon's death has another critical meaning that does not relate to gauche behavior.  Simon was the only one on the island who knew that "the beast" was just a dead body, but now that he is dead and "the beast's" body is gone, none of the boys will ever know that "the beast" wasn't real.  This will most likely be a very important factor throughout the remainder of the novel.

This transformation among the boys from innocent and well behaved to savage and uncivilized when stranded on an uninhabited island shows how people will change when put in a certain situation.  An experiment conducted by a team of researchers led by Professor Phillip Zimbardo at Stanford University in August 1971 connects to these changes among the boys.  The purpose of the Stanford Prison Experiment was to study the psychological effects of being either a prisoner or a prison guard.  Twenty four students were selected to participate in this experiment; twelve as prisoners and twelve as prison guards.  The ultimate result of this experiment was a forced shut down since it got out of control; this is argued to show that humans, when placed in a certain situation, will have a certain reaction and will change to fit into their role in the situation.  Below is a documentary about the Stanford Prison Experiment.

During the past two weeks, we took an English district benchmark: a test that is assigned to all high school students in the NVUSD (Napa Valley Unified School District) and that evaluates students on their level of understanding in the subject, English.  It was about 20 multiple choice questions in length and took about half of the class period.  For the most part, it was a very easy test for me.

Also, my English class took a school wide writing assessment: a test assigned to all students at my high school.  In this assessment, we were required to analyze a poem and write about a half page response on the literary elements that the author used to enhance his/her writing.  Literary elements include syntax, detail, diction, figurative language, and imagery.

Furthermore, my teacher allotted about a thirty minute time period one day for us to meet in our book clubs.  There are four book clubs in my period, each consisting of around six people.  Each book club is required to read four books during the school year, one at each quarter, from a specific list of texts.  For this quarter, my book club elected to read, analyze, and write about the book Black Boy by Richard Wright.  Then, we must write an in-class essay on our book from one of the following essay prompts:

1. Identify a major theme from the novel and describe how the author develops this theme throughout the text.

2. Describe how the author characterizes either a single character or several characters and show the development of this/these character(s) throughout the text.

3. Identify major symbols and figurative language the author employs throughout the text.  In your analysis, explain how these symbols and figurative language add meaning to the text.

At our "meeting", my book club decided to write about essay prompt #1.  We feel it would be the best one to write about since we can find more evidence for this prompt than the other ones.  The themes in Black Boy that we have noticed so far are similar to the ones in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird; they are poverty, childhood innocence, and racism.

This is the book cover for Black Boy.

Lastly, my English class watched the black and white opening of the Lord of the Flies movie made in 1963.  The opening is a slideshow of copious images that connect to what the reader of the novel can infer to be what occurs before the point when the novel actually starts.  After watching this title sequence, we discussed what images and sounds the director puts into the opening and why he inserts them.

Below is the opening clip of the Lord of the Flies movie in which my class watched.