W10, #6: WHAT PROJECT WILL YOU DO?

Who: ONLY periods 4 & 7.

Set-Up: Now that we have finished the novel, you will start the Lord of the Flies project.  Given the wide range of ways that each of you can creatively ’solve’ this assignment, I’m curious how you are applying your knowledge and imagination.

Options: You will pick one of the following ideas:

1. Idea: Write an ‘new’ (‘alternative’) ending to the story starting on page 200 at the following line:  “Then he was done, rolling over and over in the warm sand, crouching with arm to ward off, trying to cry for mercy.” Details: 3+ pages (double-spaced) that starts at that point.  8+ quotes from the story must be used.
2. Idea: Interview one of the boys 20-40 years later to discover what impact the experiences on the island had on them once they were rescued, returned to society, and eventually became an adult.  Details: 3+ pages (double-spaced).  Pick any character other than Piggy or Simon (for obvious reasons).  8+ quotes from the story must be used.
3. Idea: Create a ‘missing’ journal/diary written by an ‘unnamed’ boy on the island.  Details: 3+ pages (double-spaced).  There should be multiple entries covering multiple days.  8+ quotes from the story must be used.

Challenge: Answer the following:

1. What project do you think you will do?
2. How will you uniquely combine your own knowledge & creativity (including enough of a summary to help us ‘get it’)?
3. How will your project will ‘teach’ your audience even more about the novel (and its themes)?

Length: 5+ sentences

W10, #5: THE STORY IN A SINGLE LINE

For: ONLY periods 4 or 7

Set-up: By this point in time, all of you have completed Golding’s Lord of the Flies (including taking a test and seeing the original film version).  The test will be heavily focused on key quotations taken directly from the novel (in order to see if you are able to tell who said the key line(s)).

Challenge:

• Identify what YOU believe is the most important quotation in the entire novel (in terms of supporting Golding’s main argument/ideas).  Add the chapter and page #.
• Explain why this is so vital to a reader fully understanding what Golding is trying to accomplish.

Length: 5+ sentences.

W9, #6: WHY ARE THEY TREATING JACK LIKE A GOD?

Who: Periods 4 & 7 only

Set-Up: On page 149, Jack is described as being almost god-like:

“Before the party had started a great log and had been dragged into the center of the lawn and Jack, painted and garlanded, sat there like an idol.  There were piles of meat on green leaves near him, and fruit, and coconut shells full of drink.”

Challenge: Answer the following questions:

• Why do you think that the boys so easily a) were willing to follow Jack’s ideas/orders and b) began to treat him “like an idol” (or god) at this point in the story?
• Does this say something about human beings in general or was this just a strange reaction on this one island?

Length: 5+ sentences

W9, #5: WHICH PROJECT ARE YOU DOING?

Who: Periods 1, 2, & 3 only

Set-Up: We are almost at the half-way point of the Lord of the Flies project.  Given the wide range of ways that each of you can creatively ’solve’ this assignment, I’m curious how you are applying your knowledge and imagination.

Challenge: Tell us the following:

1. What project you are doing
2. How you are uniquely combining your own knowledge/creativity (including enough of a summary to help us ‘get it’)
3. How your project will ‘teach’ your audience even more about the novel (and its themes)

Length: 7+ sentences

W9, #4: SKYPE CHAT REFLECTIONS

Who: Periods 1, 2, & 3 only

Set-Up: After completing Lord of the Flies and being introduced to the Stanford Prison Experiment in class before midterm exams, we’ve begun to consider ‘human nature’ as being a complex mixture of good/evil.  Clearly the average person will never be  as ‘good’ as Simon or as ‘evil’ as Roger, yet we tend to use such literary extremes to consider human instincts/behavior.

During our Skype video conference with Matt Langdon — the founder of The Hero Workshop — on Tuesday, we’ll be discussing 3 things:

• His knowledge of Stanford University professor emeritus Phil Zimbardo – the creator of the Stanford Prison Experiment — a gentleman that Matt Langdon is now working with on an international ‘hero’-based project.
• Considering the Simon vs. Roger question:  exploring whether this is the right way to look at human instincts in terms of decisions made in difficult times.
• How ‘average’ people can do ‘heroic’ things in little ways, day after day.

Challenge: Simply offer a thoughtful, detailed reflection on the Skype conversation.

Please note: Matt will read all of your replies.  Understandably, he’ll be very interested in your ideas and reactions.

W9, #2: THE DAY AFTER

Who: Periods 4 & 7 only

Set-Up: In Chapter 9, the boys savagely kill Simon during the storm.  Needless to say, ‘in the moment’ none of the boys seem to realize what they are doing, as they believe that Simon is ‘the beast’.

Challenge: Imagine being one of the boys waking up the next morning.  Given the realities on the island at this point, what would you have done the next morning?

Length: 5+ sentences:

Additionally: If you’ve already read Ch 10 (by the time you write this), consider the following as a part of your answer:

• Would you have acted more like Ralph, admitting what they had done (“murder”) but slowly finding excuses as Piggy talked to him?
• Would you have acted more like Piggy, immediately blaming the death on Simon’s own actions and trying to convince Ralph not to take responsibility?

W8, #5: THE RIGHT ENDING?

Set-Up: To say we’ve been curious how the story was going to end would be a vast understatement. The real question has less to do with ‘what’ happens to Ralph and more to do with ‘why’ it happens.

Challenge: Do you think that Golding made the right choice in having Ralph be rescued at the end of the story?

• Part 1: Answer this question first based on your reaction to the ‘fate’ of Ralph as an intellectual consideration taking into consideration themes, symbols, and foreshadowing.
• Part 2: Once that part is done, explain whether you think it’d have been a ‘better’ story — in terms of plot and the reader’s hidden desires — if Ralph had been caught by the hunters and had to face whatever they had planned

Length: 7+ sentences

W8, #4: WHAT WOULD CAMPBELL THINK OF THE ISLAND?

Set-Up: We spent time recently talking about Joseph Campbell’s “hero stages” with an attempt to see how filmmakers and writes might employ these ideas to help craft a logical adventure.

Challenge: Using any 10 of the 17 stages we covered, prove that William Golding instinctively uses Campbell’s “hero stages” in Lord of the Flies.  See below for the stages:

Chap 1: Departure The Call to Adventure (1/17) | Refusal of the Call (2/17) | Supernatural Aid (3/17) | The Crossing of the First Threshold (4/17) | Rebirth (aka “The Belly of the Whale”) (5/17) Chap 2: Initiation The Road of Trials (6/17) | Marriage (aka “The Meeting with the Goddess”) (7/17) | Woman as the Temptress (8/17) | Atonement with the Father (9/17) | Apotheosis (10/17) | The Ultimate Boon (11/17) Chap 3: Return Refusal of the Return (12/17) | The Magic Flight (13/17) | Rescue from Without (14/17) | The Crossing of the Return Threshold (15/17) | Master of the Two Worlds (16/17) | Freedom to Live (17/17)

Length: 1+ sentence for each of the 10 stages as to prove how they work in this story.

Note: Mr. Long will NOT publish any entries until the deadline is reached (for all blog entries this week).  He wants to see how individual students solve this on their own.

W8, #3: THE RETURN TRIP HOME

Set-Up: Most of our attention has been placed on how the boys will survive.  We assume, however, that sooner or later some of them will return home.  That being said, we haven’t talked about what that would be like.

Challenge:

• Mandatory:  If you were one of the boys on this island, what do you think it would be like to return home given all that you’ve been through?  Note:  it may be easier to answer this once you’ve finished the book, but you can certainly answer at any point.  Just identify what chapter you are on when you answer this question.  Thank you.
• Optional: Once you’ve done the previous one, you may answer this, too.  Watch the film trailer from Tom Hanks’ film, “Castaway”.  Once you’ve seen this, imagine you were — like Tom Hanks in this film — stuck on a deserted island for years by yourself, without any contact with the real world.  Eventually, you’re rescued and return ‘home’.  Knowing your personality, what do you think it would be like to return home to the ‘real’ world after such an experience?
• Optional: Just for fun, watch the FedEx commercial that spoofed the Tom Hanks’ film.  No response needed; this is just for your amusement and to see how pop culture passes around similar ideas in unexpected ways (just like the use of Lord of the Flies; wink, wink).

W7, #5: “LORD OF THE FLIES” MINI ESSAY FEEDBACK

Set-Up: Did you get that sneaky suspicion that this week’s in-class essay challenge — the group paragraph — covering chapters 5 & 6 in Lord of the Flies felt strangely familiar?

Sure, on one hand each of you had practiced this experience a week ago in a 2-day test run.  Hopefully this made it easier for each of you to sort out a) the how to organize group dynamics and b) how to translate many creative ideas into a single, well-worded, focused argument within a very short period of time.

But did you also get the sneaky feeling that the class experience itself was meant to mirror something on a much deeper level?

Hint: Maybe you’ll find the answer inside the text.  Perhaps Simon will tell you.

Challenge:

• Read all 12 of the mini group student paragraphs found below.
• Pick the 7 paragraphs that you believe are the most effective.
• Identify 1 specific strength from each of the 7 paragraphs you selected.
• Optional:  explain why each strength is particularly effective to the overall paragraph the group wrote.

Length: as appropriate

Ch 5: “Beast from Water” & Ch 6: “Beast from Air” small group mini-essay paragraph writing challenge (in lieu of the typical in-class essay).  Note:  all links can be found on the class wiki in the Lord of the Flies section:

Link: original quotations and assignment

• Title 1: “A State of Disarray”
• Title 2: “The De-evolution from Civilization to Savagery”
• Title 3: “The Menace Within”
• Title 4: “Descent into Darkness”
• Title 5: “Metamorphosis into a Tribal Civilization”
• Title 6: “Animals Can’t Make Fire”
• Title 7: “The Beast Within”
• Title 8: “Loss of the Supernatural Authority”
• Title 9: “Evolution of the Conch”
• Title 10: “The Call to the Wild”
• Title 11: “Devolution of the Conch”
• Title 12: “Unknown Danger”