Lord of the Flies: Journal #3

Chapter: Huts on a Beach



Perspective: Piggy

The Conversation

I think Ralph had a compulsion to vent after a conversation made with Jack and himself. It seemed to be about some inscrutable vicissitudes. He explained to me that the only people working on this island to keep around 30 people alive, were Simon and Ralph. Ralph said that Jack said that he was working hard to keep all of us alive. Jack claimed to be hunting, but in actuality, he hadn't caught anything at all, and he was really just tracking a few pigs around the island. Ralph seemed really mad about that. He said that if he wanted a worthless hunter, that's what he would've asked for! He seemed to be overreacting a little, like he was opaque with anger and frustration.
Simon on the other hand, was working very hard with Ralph to finish these shelters that they were creating. They were basically just holes in the ground, and they had palm leaves and other kinds of leaves intertwined with each other to make some kind of a waterproof roof.
I felt pretty bad for not working today. I was playing in the water in the bathing pool. The water was so warm and clear, it was just so easy to loose myself in all its beauty and peace. I completely lost track of time and realized that I had been rapt by all the tropics of this gorgeous island. Everything was so peaceful and pretty, I just couldn't help but get caught up. Before I knew it, it was past noon, probably around 2 or 3 in the afternoon. I probably wouldn't be that much of a help anyways.
I talked to Simon tonight, also. He just couldn't stop talking about his moment in the sunset. He described it as the most amazing, peaceful, quiet, nice moment he had ever had. I thought it would have to be quite a sunset to make Simon talk as much as he did. I was happy for him. Ever since the fire, he'd been nothing but pout. He didn't say much at all to anyone except for 'yes' and 'okay' and 'I'd be happy to help', but all that was with a very sad, depressed look on his face. But now, He's happy and even smiling sometimes! I feel so happy for him.

Lord of the Flies: Journal #2

Chapter: Fire on the Mountain

Perspective: Simon

The Fire

It all started when Ralph said a specific word: fire. It was that single word that induced all the boys here on this island to run off and build a fire without any instruction or anything. Some of the boys, like Jack and Ralph, tried to give some direction, however they were all very errant. The idea at first was to make a large fire so that if any boat or ship, or airplane passed by the island, they would see the smoke and come to rescue us. All the boys on the island (except for Piggy) rushed around trying to find wood that would make a good addition to the massive pile. The children were full of ebullience when they were throwing- or rather, capering and throwing all their collected wood onto the pile.
After we had collected enough wood, we ran into a problem. We had nothing to light the fire. After a moment of thinking, Jack said that we should try to use Piggy’s specks like you could use a magnifying glass on a leaf or an ant. Jack pinched the specks right off of Piggy’s face and gave them to Ralph. Ralph focused them on a piece of rotted wood and it smoked, then sparked. Eventually, the whole pile was on fire. It smelled like a bonfire back home on Independence Day, or on someone’s birthday. It made me sort of sad smelling it, but then my mind was somewhere else…
Unfortunately, no one thought about the consequences of having a huge fire right in the middle of a very tree-filled forest. The fire got out of hand very quickly, and the fire went wildly across the island. After a minute in awe, I realized that the little ones, all the 5 and 6 year olds, were gone. I hadn't seen them since everyone was gathering wood for the monstrous fire. Then it hit me that they were probably still looking for more wood, unaware of the huge fire that was burning the whole island. Immediately, I thought, they were going to die, so young, so kind, so innocent. I felt so terrible that they were going to martyr in a huge, uncontrollable fire that we had started. I couldn't believe it. I was so fond of the little ones, they were all so adorable and angelic. I tried to talk to some of them, try to make them feel less scared and shy. Most of them had very nice personalities. Well, I guess it doesn't matter now.

Lord of the Flies: Journal #1

By: Carly F.

Chapter: The Sound of the Shell

Perspective: Simon

The Gathering

The first time I had ever been in a situation like this was, well, never. This was by far the most exciting and scariest thing that has ever happened to me, and I'm not sure if I like being on an uncharted, unnoticed island. When the plane crashed, I was just thankful that I was alive, then I realized that I was going to need to find some more people to help me stay alive until someone could rescue us. Around 15 minutes after the plane crashed, I heard this very loud noise. It sounded like a whale, or a ship, or someone farting really, really loudly. I got curious after a few blows, so I went over too see what it was. It turned out to be a boy around 12 blowing a shell. Other boys started appearing out of the trees, so I followed them to the area where there were quite a few of them gathered. Once there were around 20 boys gathered, a group of older boys wearing black cloaks, hats, and hambone frills arrived. The apparent leader of the group, Jack, was angry right as he found out that the noise was a conch shell, not a boat here to rescue us. I didn't like his attitude. He was so angry and controlling, it made me mad. I was definitely glad when Ralph, the boy with the conch, was chosen as the chief instead of Jack.
Once all the boys were settled, Ralph started to talk, and I started to wonder about the island. So, I suggested that some people go look around the island, if it even was an island, and also see what the land had to offer us. Ralph and Jack both thought this was a very good idea, and so they went to go explore the island. Of course, because I came up with the idea, they brought me along with them. Piggy, Ralph's little follower, tried to come with us also, but didn't succeed because of his, well, shape.
When we got to the top of the whole island, we could see for miles out into the ocean, and yes, it was nothing but ocean, other than the coral reef, but that was it. The island was pretty beautiful, but when you're worried about 30 boys stranded on a random island, it's pretty easy to overlook that. It'll definitely be difficult to live here until we're rescued.