Semester Reflection

Throughout this semester, a lot happened. Literature form all sources and genres came together into an overall study of allegorical meaning and the importance of literature, and everyone learned a as much as they could. The first piece of literature we all read was The Hero's Journey, an interview with Joseph Campbell conduced by Mr. Moyers. It was a short interview explaining Joseph's idea of The Hero's Circle, a cycle every person has to go through to accomplish their own personal goals. I liked this piece of literature the second most out of all of them, Lord of the Flies being the first. The next piece of literature was Johnathan Swift's A Modest Proposal. It was a style of satire, with which Swift is credited to have fostered. It was a sarcastic criticism proposal used to expose the horrible things happening to Ireland by the English. Seeing how convincing this was, and how much humor it held, it shows how effective satire can be, and how influential it can be to a group of undecided people. Swift was sarcastically putting forward the solution for the people of Ireland to simply eat their children, as to reduce labor and hardship on the mother and to solve the hunger problem that ravaged most of Ireland. He was literally trying to prove the point that Ireland was being starved to the point of almost resorting to cannibalism by the English. I enjoyed this piece, but I didn't connect to it on so much of a personal level, and found it hard to fully grasp the aspects of satire. The only full book we read, which is now in my top five favorite, is Sir William Golding's Lord of the Flies. This book changed my life. Granted, it did depress me a bit, but the whole meaning of it really got to me. I feel like I have a much better understanding of not only allegory, but human nature and myself also. The last piece we read, to help us tie them all together in our synthesis essay, was Solzhenitsyn's One Great Heart. It was a short speech on why he thought literature was important not only to ourselves, but to the world as a whole. I had never thought of literature as this, but after connecting it to what we are learning in history about the printing press and all the other innovations of the scientific revolution, I see it could possibly be the single most important invention of all time.  
All these pieces of literature have brought me to the conclusion that reading and writing is important, but why really? This is what we have to synthesize for our final, and now that I have a strong overview, I can prove this many ways. Literature, is the link of the world to itself. It bonds us all. It brings people of all nations together under the idea to serve us all and to improve our ever-expansion and movement. (NOT FINISHED)

Lord of the Flies Reflection

Throughout the ending of Lord of the Flies, it seems to be wrapping up the story, but also wrapping up the whole deeper meaning of the story too. In the last few chapters, Ralph and Samneric are trying to keep their small tribe of youngins together. Ralph tries to rely them on keeping the fire going, but with only the three of them able to keep it going it seems futile and they decide to let it go out for the night. Leaving the fire out for the night is the first part that puts the island into complete madness. In the night, the boys are obviously scared. The island has become a lot more evil, and death is seen more plainly. It becomes even more menacing for the boys when Jack and his hunters decide to attack them and steal piggy's glasses. It is too dark to tell if it is one of the hunters, the beast, or one of themselves they are fighting. At this point, the hunters become defined as hostile for Ralph and his lingering tribe. "From the darkness of the further end of the shelter came a dreadful moaning and they shattered the leaves in their fear." (Golding, 168) This is just showing how the boys are beginning to see how much danger they are in. They are starting the decent into complete terror and loss. The next morning Ralph, Piggy, and Samneric decide to go to castle rock and confront the hunters. Piggy is practically blind, and can only trail behind carrying the conch. When they get to castle rock, a lot of arguing occurs. Ralph finds himself in a fight with Jack after they take Samneric and all Piggy can do is clutch to the land-neck and conch trying to restore order throughout the boys. As tempers continue to rise, order is thrown completely out the window. In a tangle of anger and battle, the rock is released on the neck of land and Piggy and the conch are knocked down forty feet into the sucking sea. "The rock struck Piggy a glancing blow from chin to knee; the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist. " (Golding, 185) This is when order is completely lost. Piggy was the only voice of reason on the island, and the most grown up. Piggy represented the only system of law and repentance on the island, and now with the conch gone too, the only symbol that banded them together, the island is now in a free-for-all. All order is now obliterated, just like the shell. At this, the hunters turn on Ralph. He is chased away back to the far side of the island, but comes back to see Samneric. To further Ralph's digression, Samneric are now part of Jack's hunters. They seem a little sorry for Ralph at first, but they also have respect and a more partial duty to attend to with Jack. Ralph tries to talk to them over the edge of the wall, but they leave him with only a piece of meat from their last hunt. The last thing Samneric tell Ralph is to run. Jack and his hunters will be coming for him tomorrow. Ralph is scared. He is now more scared of Jack and his hunters then he is of the beast, or other supernatural entities on the island. He sleeps on the edge of the jungle near castle rock, as to be safe from the beast, but also safe from the hunters. In the morning, Ralph hears the hunters coming. He crawls under the rock that crashed into Piggy for cover, and protects himself in the tangle of branches pointing his spear towards the only entrance. He is found, and starts his crazy flee across the island. They hunters are still coming, and Ralph knows he can't hide forever. In a blaze of crazy rage Ralph sprints through the line of hunters and onto the beach. The hunters have already burnt down most of the jungle, and he burst through Simon's place of peace. Ralph bursts onto the beach still blind with emotion and lands at the feet of a Naval Officer. The other boys stand silently behind him. He doesn't know what to say. This is when the boys are rescued from their own madness and fear. The presence of an adult, someone who can support order, puts them back to the kids they really are deep down. The masks can't hide what they really are. Adults see it as one big play that they need to give up. "And in the middle of them, with filthy body, matted hair, and unwiped nose, Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of a man's heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy." (Golding, 208) This is when all the boys have to face their own life, and what they've done. They have to repent for what they have done in their madness. The boys are now, truly, sadly, men.

Chap. 8 Analysis: Simon's Interaction

In the very end of the 8th chapter, The setting is a little lost and hard to decipher. Simon is in the jungle alone, with only the boar's head on a pike in the middle if the clearing. A very strange thing happens next. The pig's head begins to talk to him. It speaks to him, calling him a foolish boy for thinking they could kill him, for he is the beast, and the beast is inside them. "We're going to have fun on this island." The he says. Now there is obviously a deeper meaning of the representation of this situation, but it is a little hard to break down unless you read the next few chapters and fully analyse this excerpt. We have not yet discussed what the deeper meaning is in class yet, so I will take a guess and leave it at that. I feel that the whole situation, the pig's head on the stick, is a representation of violence. It comes as the term, "If someone hits you and you hit them back, are you any better?" violent interaction turns man into beasts, and it is the only way to define the difference.

Journal Post: Nov. 15, 2013

So far in reading Lord of the Flies, there has been many obvious symbols and metaphors. I'm sure they all add up to something, but for now there is little to be seen past the first few layers of it. The Island for example, often seems to be portrayed as a menacing place and alive in its own way. It is described as violent and harsh on the boys, wanting them to leave and waking destruction, such as the fire. In my opinion though, I think the island may represent this on one level but is mainly represented as the fear of each boy. It attacks them when they are most vulnerable, and prey on them often. It is its own entity, but a malicious one. Fear is a common aspect among the boys, especially among the younger ones, claiming to see a beasty in the night. Piggy, seems to still be representing the voice of reason and order. He is the rightful conscious, often ignored and shunned. If everyone did what Piggy did, the story would probably have no conflict. Piggy is the parent figure. It would be a more "civil" if they all at least listened to him. They would all be their own adult that they lack now and need so much. As another example, I think the dead pilot that lands on the mountainside in the night is a physical manifestation of the boy's hope. It represents all of their last options of getting off the island, in the literal meaning of their hope, in fact, being dead. Their hope is always trying to get back up, but, it is beyond that. It can be nothing other than what outside forces influence on it. After reading the evaluation in the back of the book in class though, it seems Golding sees the pilot as a metaphor for history. We did a separate evaluation of how this applies, but I still think my metaphor is right on another layer, even if it is just not so deep. These are all the main points I will continue to touch on as we continue the book.

Nov. 8, 2013: Friday Free Write

Everyday, you wake up scared. You go to sleep, already loathing the morning where you have to rip yourself out of bed and face the world. When your alarm clock goes off, you are already scared. This fear can, and will turn into anger. The anger of yourself, forcing you to go out into the world. You don't want to get up. You don't want to face the problems of the average day. You're scared. Scared of the cold floor when you get up, scared of missing the bus, scared of the test you didn't study for, that girl in your class... But you still get up. Only you know why you get up. Because you have to. You have to brace the cold floor. You wouldn't want to miss the bus. You have to get good grades and get into college to for fill your dreams and goals, and even though it makes you blush just thinking about it, you wouldn't mind seeing her smile one more time. You know what that drive is that pushes you out of bed in the morning? Love. It's the only thing stronger than fear. The world is a scary place, and from a young age you are taught to be weary of it. But love helps you. The people you love the places, the things... They lighten the the load of the world you carry so diligently on your shoulders, and drive you forward. Give up on fear. The world is a dark, dying place on it's last limb. There is no saving the world, but you can save yourself. Fear will hold you down. Love is a crutch to help you up. When you fall, love cannot catch you, but it can make it a little easier to get back up.

Lord of the Flies Chap. 1

In the first chapter of Lord of the Flies, it seems like the center or main character of the story so far is Ralph. Ralph is is the boy first described as the fair haired boy in the beginning, and the narrator seems to follow him more than any other character. Ralph is shadowed by the boy named Piggy, and for some reason seems very nonchalant and almost happy about being on the island. He doesn't seem to see the bad side of the island, and has not fully realized the weight of the situation yet. He acts mostly worry free. "Ralph looked through him. Here at last was the imagined but never fully realized place leaping into real life. Ralph's lips parted into a delighted smile..." (Golding, 13) Ralph is still a child, and doesn't see the world as a threatening place yet. He sees everything as a soft place. When Ralph and Piggy find the shell in the lagoon later on in the story, Ralph blows it to assemble the other boys on the island. Soon, boys of all ages show up around the surrounding forest and sit on the platform around in a circle with Ralph. Piggy begins to take names while Ralph continues to blow. Soon, a group led by a boy named Sam (a.k.a Merridew), calling themselves The Choir, show up from across the beach. They all assemble and make the decision of voting for a leader. At first, Sam seems to be the obvious leader. Piggy also seems like a likely candidate with his intellect standing out. But for some reason, possessively for the sole reason of being the one who assembled them, Ralph is voted as chief. "None of the boys could have found a good reason for this; what intelligence had been shown was traceable back to Piggy, while the most obvious leader was Jack. " (Golding, 21) Ralph is obviously the character to be most viewed and traced in the story, and he may not represent anything more than a average boy. We shall soon see.

A Modest Proposal: Satire as a Joke on Everyone

A Modest Proposal: Satire as a Joke on Everyone
In Johnathan Swift's most well known article, A Modest Proposal, Swift is trying to conceive the point of all the poor children living in Ireland. He is pointing out all the ills done by the British Republic onto them, and doing this using the literal weapon of Satire. Satire is a way to point out all of society's folly, and to try and make the wrong obvious for needed change using humor. Johnathan Swift's A Modest Proposal fits this definition very well. To use satire is a very effective way to prove a point, and a great way to hold a mirror to society's wrong doings and opposing viewpoints of ignorance. There are many ways to use satire, and many layers to it. As you will see, Swift uses many of the different parts of satire and has many layers in his article. Johnathan Swift is an amazing satirist, and is one of the few who saw through society's fake cover, and to the real, underlying folly of it. He proves that satire is very effective.
In  A Modest Proposal, Swift is Specifically targeting the British Republic. and trying to expose the problems with their heavy exportation of Ireland's food to their own country, and proving the extreme inequality among them. He comes from a rich and well endeavored family that has given up their traditional Catholic ways to be on top, and is in a great position to see all of the underlying problems with this matter. Johnathan, being one of the few educated men in Ireland at the time, decided to take action in the most effective way he could. He decided to write an article to be published in Britain, exposing all the problems that Ireland was facing. He wanted them to have a inside look at what was really happening in the country they knew so little about, besides being a newly claimed land from which most of their meat came from. This is where the whole idea of satire comes in. Satire is entirely made to make fun of a group, while still having a sense of humor about it to keep the targeted group aware. This is the beginning of satire.
With this, Swift starts to write A Modest Proposal. He begins by stating the problem he sees. "It is a melancholy object to those who walk through this great town or travel in the country, when they see the streets, the roads, and cabin doors, crowded with beggars of the female sex, followed by three, four, or six children, all in rags and importuning every passenger for an alms. " (Swift, 1). In this opening, there is a literal and deeper meaning, to prove the point of satire. On the surface, Swift is simply adverting the reader's attention to the problem he wants to solve and giving the reader an inside look to the impoverished life of children in Ireland. He wants the reader to begin feeling bad for the children. The deeper meaning, is much more than that though. Swift is using the poor children of Ireland as a simple representation of the large population of poor and hungry people in Ireland. He wants the reader to feel bad for the children, but he also wants British readers to become aware of just how much they were really taking from the Irish. He pokes fun at the idea of anyone in Ireland being able to make an "honest livelihood" in Ireland, which was far from what these poor mothers had on their list. He is using the tool of logic in this excerpt. He begins to open up the reader to the real problem, and gets them ready for his proposal. 
After Swift states this problem, he continues to point out the many other examples of the largely hungry population of Ireland. He then, with the reader now intently aware of the situation, proposes his solution to all the hungry people in Ireland. "I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in
London, that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee or a ragout." (Swift 3) What Swift is proposing, is literally for Irish families to eat young infants. He proves all the advantages to this, and why this is the most fitting solution for their problem. But the deeper meaning of this is much different. He is first poking fun at Americans, making them seem savage in such a way that they would eat their own children. In another layer, he is also targeting the British again. He wants the reader, if they are really aware of the real point of this, to know that this is what the British has pushed them to. He wants to prove the point that the British have taken so much, and without any other option, were forced to resort to cannibalism. He uses the tool of resentment, guilt, and sarcasm to show how far the British have forced them. After this, if the reader has enough guts to continue, Swift continues to prove advantages and the up-side of eating children. He next strikes at the landlords and Nobles of Ireland, crushing the poor Irish peoples. "I grant this food will be somewhat dear, and therefore very proper for landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of the parents, seem to have the best title to the children." (Swift, 4) This is the most obvious example of satire in the whole article. Literally, Swift is saying that after his plan is put into play and people start to accept it, children will become a regular part of their diet, and even a delicacy in some cases. The deeper meaning however, is quite good. Underneath, Swift is pointing out the landlords folly. He is saying that the landlords, so accommodated to devouring the parents in bills and cruelty, would be savage and mean enough to eat their tenants' children without even a second thought. He is proving the landlords desire to "eat up" their tenants without the slightest care for them as real people. He is using the tool of logic and exposure. The reader, if they were British or not, of any education level, would surely understand this now. 
Next, Swift starts to wrap up his point with a few more jabs and then concludes it promptly. He starts to really turn the heat up on the British. He begins to talk more about the poor tenants to the rich in Ireland and states, "Their corn and cattle being already seized and money a thing unknown." (Swift, 6) This is literally saying that the tenants are indeed poor, and money is almost never in their hands being taken so promptly after earning it. They barely have enough money to get by, and no left over from paying rent for any other necessities. The deeper meaning is just about that, except more directed at the British. He is saying that this is in fact what has happened to Ireland, and this is a common sight of how poor people really were there. He wants to show that the Irish aren't just poor, they are really, really poor. He is using the idea of sarcasm and logic. He then begins to return to targeting the British with his baby-eating solution. He begins to talk about the profit to be made in benefit to the British with his idea. "...beside the profit of a new dish introduced to the tables of all gentlemen of fortune in the kingdom who have any refinement in taste." (Swift, 6). He is using this as the literal meaning of the fine gentlemen in Britain to come and soon enjoy children as a delicacy. More "fancy" people will take to this idea, and it will catch on. But the deeper meaning is hilarious. In the deeper layer, he is saying that the British are already barbaric and savage, why would they be opposed to this idea? They should love eating Irish children. They are already metaphorically doing it. He uses the idea of logic and sarcasm to prevail this. Swift finally makes a few more points, and wraps up his idea with many more examples of satire.
With this, Swift is a great satirist. He is proof that satire is an effective way to bring about change, if people are truly understanding and not ignorant. The ignorant cannot fully understand satire, so it is ineffective to those who choose not to listen, as with everything. But this is not who satire is targeting. Satire is meant for the undecided, and, if one side of a debate uses satire and the other doesn't, the side with satire is almost destined to get most of the undecided, if not only their attention but also their support. This is why satire is an effective form of debate, and why Swift is a great example on how satire can bring about change effectively.