Thursday, April 14, 2011
Glogster Explanation
The word that I have chosen for my glog is violence. From that word, I pictured Jack and his hunter group killing a pig, and blood spurting from its wounds. That is why I chose my background to be red and blood-like. I also chose many key words to deepen the meaning of violence. The definition of violence is the expression of physical force against one or more people. Many times, that results in murder when the line has been pushed too far. When I think about violence, I usually think about shattered glass. That is a symbol for something that has gone wrong. When Jack smashed Piggy's spectacles on the ground, they broke, but that was only the physical part to it. Piggy and Ralph's trust towards Jack and his group are broken, which ultimately results in the splitting of the group. This shows how a little bit of violence can result in a big consequence. The image of the three knives in the bottom-right hand corner represent weapons that are usually used when violence occurs. The fire in the centre of the glogster represents the hate between Ralph and Jack as it is the main object that Ralph and Jack fight about. Ralph would talk about how important the fire is and their hopes of escaping the island while Jack likes to hunt and does not care much about the fire. This can lead to more intense arguments and violence. After reading Lord of the Flies, I have learned that violence can occur anywhere at anytime with anyone, therefore regardless of age and nationality, as long as their is nobody to control a group of people, there will always be violence, which is what's happening in Libya with Gadhafi. Nobody has control over him, and now he is bombing his own people.
Monday, April 11, 2011
Journal #4: Lord of the Flies （summative）
This week, Ms. Caldwell stressed connections greatly, and that is what my group has focused on, especially on Wednesday. That day, we were supposed to make many connections and share it within our group, then write about one main one. In our group, we stated many small connections, such as Lord of the Flies connecting to World War II, but our big main connection was a text to world connection was to the current crisis in Libya. Ghadafi, the leader of Libya for over forty years, created an unfair society for his people, and when they decided to rebel, he started attacking his own people. This is like Lord of the Flies where Jack was the leader of his tribe and he decided not to care about the fire and hunted only. When Ralph and Piggy rebelled against them because they wanted to get out of the island and the fire was the only way out, Jack would not listen, and he even started killing, as expressed in this quote: “The rock struck Piggy a glancing blow from chin to knee; the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist” (ch. 11). Jack killed Piggy and he exploded the conch, the symbol for power and order. As soon as that conch was destroyed, the island was in a huge mess, and ultimately Jack and his tribe went inhumane.
The above connection can relate to an essential question: What does power have to do with fairness and justice? The amount of power that one person possesses controls how fairly and just they treat one person. The more power one has, the more unfair and unjust they will treat people, and vice versa. For example, a little boy has more power over another boy who is even littler than him, so he bullys him. However, when he is reported he will not treating the adults unfairly because he has no power over the adults.
Then on Friday, we watched the black and white film of Lord of the Flies. Although the internet was laggy, the film made me picture Lord of the Flies much better and clearer as visuals along with reading is always helpful!
In our group, I would have to say that our discussions were not as smooth and deep as before the break, and that is very obvious due to a two week long spring break between the English classes. However, we still had a pretty good discussion as we all tried to give examples of connections from the book to ourselves, other texts and the world.
In this book, the plot, setting and characters had major changes to them. When I started reading the book, I connected it to Hatchet (see my previous summative journal) as I thought it was going to be another boring survival book. It was about survival at first, but as the novel progressed, the main problem was not about surviving on the island - it was about humanity and how Jack and his tribe were being beasts, killing and being totally cruel and unjust，as they repeatedly say "Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!" (ch.9) Although the book does not say this, but should Jack had not been rescued, I make the assumption that he and his tribe will not be human anymore - they will evolve or de-evolve to a totally new creature, a totally new species. This is why I think this ending is slightly odd. Ralph was being chased by Jack and suddenly a ship comes and rescues him, leaving Jack and his group's aftermath unknown...
I would rate it a 7.5 out of ten because the plot, characters and setting were easily understandable, but some parts of the book dragged on and it just lacked that entertainment factor; I was not enjoying it fully when I read it. Oh well, I guess that's why we are analyzing them...
I improved on this journal as I brought in some quotes, I analyzed it more and gave it a rating.
The above connection can relate to an essential question: What does power have to do with fairness and justice? The amount of power that one person possesses controls how fairly and just they treat one person. The more power one has, the more unfair and unjust they will treat people, and vice versa. For example, a little boy has more power over another boy who is even littler than him, so he bullys him. However, when he is reported he will not treating the adults unfairly because he has no power over the adults.
Then on Friday, we watched the black and white film of Lord of the Flies. Although the internet was laggy, the film made me picture Lord of the Flies much better and clearer as visuals along with reading is always helpful!
In our group, I would have to say that our discussions were not as smooth and deep as before the break, and that is very obvious due to a two week long spring break between the English classes. However, we still had a pretty good discussion as we all tried to give examples of connections from the book to ourselves, other texts and the world.
In this book, the plot, setting and characters had major changes to them. When I started reading the book, I connected it to Hatchet (see my previous summative journal) as I thought it was going to be another boring survival book. It was about survival at first, but as the novel progressed, the main problem was not about surviving on the island - it was about humanity and how Jack and his tribe were being beasts, killing and being totally cruel and unjust，as they repeatedly say "Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!" (ch.9) Although the book does not say this, but should Jack had not been rescued, I make the assumption that he and his tribe will not be human anymore - they will evolve or de-evolve to a totally new creature, a totally new species. This is why I think this ending is slightly odd. Ralph was being chased by Jack and suddenly a ship comes and rescues him, leaving Jack and his group's aftermath unknown...
I would rate it a 7.5 out of ten because the plot, characters and setting were easily understandable, but some parts of the book dragged on and it just lacked that entertainment factor; I was not enjoying it fully when I read it. Oh well, I guess that's why we are analyzing them...
I improved on this journal as I brought in some quotes, I analyzed it more and gave it a rating.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Summative journal
I have added in more examples and connections and quotes from the journal that I had written before. I also explained in more detail.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Journal #2: Lord of the Flies (Summative)
The last week saw great discussions between me, Trevor, and Danny, with all three of us contributing ideas and listening to others, while Brenden and Chyna did not talk much, but they were listening. We tried to post questions to them and encouraged them to get them active in the discussion. Also, Ms. Caldwell visited our group twice which really gave us an extra boost and made us think deeper into the layers.
On the day of the mini-lesson about symbolism, we discussed about examples of symbolism in Lord of the Flies. The fire on the island symbolizes hope to be rescued and power. When Jack disobeyed the rules of the assembly, he had the support of his choir while Ralph lost support and power. Then Ralph's fire dwindled while Jack's fire grew. Another type of symbolism that we noticed was the conch representing power. Whoever had the conch would be able to speak in an assembly and everyone else would have to listen. However, when the rules are broken, chaos occurs. The trust between Ralph and Jack is destructed, along with Ralph's confidence. Our group also discussed the five words that Ms. Caldwell gave us and connotation of the word. I remember our group looked at the word "destruction" and posed the question: When might destruction be positive? When one is using destruction to destroy a negative issue, such as the Allied forces fighting against Germans and the Holocaust in World War Two, that is definitely an example of positive destruction.
Then, on Wednesday, Ms. Caldwell gave us an open discussion. Sometimes, Brenden would go off-topic by shouting random words out, but me and Trevor did a good job putting him back on topic. We looked at the board and discussed irony. One big irony that we discovered was that Jack was the biggest and oldest, however, he is the most immature out of everyone as he says "'Bullocks to the rules! We're strong - we hunt! If there's a beast, we'll hunt it down! We'll close in and beat and beat - !'" (P.99) when Jack was going hunting for a pig other than keeping the fire alive when there was a ship. Had they kept the fire going they might have been rescued, but Jack just lets it go as if he did not care at all, which he does care. Another irony we found was in the front cover of the book. The title of our book is "Lord of the Flies", but for some reason, there is an image of a bloody pig shown. Because that we have not read up to the part where it introduces "Lord of the Flies", we do not know exactly what it is, but we can infer that there is a boy named Piggy, and he is being tortured by an evil person.
Reading this book made me think of the books "Hatchet" and "The Life of Pi". In "Hatchet", the protagonist is living in the wilderness all by himself and tries to survive by making food and shelter with his hatchet that was given to him; and in "The Life of Pi", the main character escaped a shipwreck by sailing off in a rescue boat with a lion. He tries to survive in the middle of the ocean with limited food supplies. Both of these books talk about survival, which is why I made the connection to "Lord of the Flies". Whether it was the main character by himself or with a group of people, they are all stranded somewhere with no grown-ups and try to survive.
When Ralph was on the island for the first time with no grown-ups, he loved it. He would go swimming, exploring - all without the pressure of adults. He had all the freedom he wanted. However, later on in the story, he feels homesick. He had no showered since he was on the island, his clothes were worn and dirty, and wanted to use his nails as a toothbrush! I connect Ralph to myself, as last year when I went on the school trip to Orlando, I felt free and happy because there was absolutely no pressure, and I got to enjoy the sunshine. However, near the end of the trip, I realized how much I missed home, just like Ralph.
Another connection I wanted to make was the Germans cutting off the food supply of the Dutch in World War Two. Because that the Dutch had no food, they were doing everything they needed to survive, which includes eating tulip bulbs. They had no chance of surviving had not the Canadians risked their lives to help liberate the Dutch. The same thing is happening in this book. Ralph and the others have a limited food supply that will run out, if no one rescues them.
Brenden also gave a very insightful connection to note as he connected "Lord of the Flies" to the German translation Beezlebub. Beezlebub, known as the "prince of demons" is one of the seven princes of hell, which can connect to our title saying that there is one person in the group of children who could be evil. The person that I think is the most evil in the book is Jack, as he "made a step forward and smacked Piggy's head" (p.75) and broke his specs. Jack was a bigger and older person than Piggy, but he still beat Piggy up. Not to mention that he disobeyed the rules of only the people who possessed the conch could speak. Is this not looking like the "prince of demons"?
In the past two discussions I had contributed a great amount. I have also listened carefully to what my group members had to say and added on to them. For example, when Danny said that Jack is older but more immature, I said that it was an example of irony. I am also liking the discussions more as our group can come together and pull off effective discussions about the book and I like the book too.
When my group is discussing, time goes by so fast that the class ends before we know it. We are very engaged into the discussion as we talk about the symbolism, irony, characters, metaphors, setting, and the key words. We work really well as a group.
On the day of the mini-lesson about symbolism, we discussed about examples of symbolism in Lord of the Flies. The fire on the island symbolizes hope to be rescued and power. When Jack disobeyed the rules of the assembly, he had the support of his choir while Ralph lost support and power. Then Ralph's fire dwindled while Jack's fire grew. Another type of symbolism that we noticed was the conch representing power. Whoever had the conch would be able to speak in an assembly and everyone else would have to listen. However, when the rules are broken, chaos occurs. The trust between Ralph and Jack is destructed, along with Ralph's confidence. Our group also discussed the five words that Ms. Caldwell gave us and connotation of the word. I remember our group looked at the word "destruction" and posed the question: When might destruction be positive? When one is using destruction to destroy a negative issue, such as the Allied forces fighting against Germans and the Holocaust in World War Two, that is definitely an example of positive destruction.
Then, on Wednesday, Ms. Caldwell gave us an open discussion. Sometimes, Brenden would go off-topic by shouting random words out, but me and Trevor did a good job putting him back on topic. We looked at the board and discussed irony. One big irony that we discovered was that Jack was the biggest and oldest, however, he is the most immature out of everyone as he says "'Bullocks to the rules! We're strong - we hunt! If there's a beast, we'll hunt it down! We'll close in and beat and beat - !'" (P.99) when Jack was going hunting for a pig other than keeping the fire alive when there was a ship. Had they kept the fire going they might have been rescued, but Jack just lets it go as if he did not care at all, which he does care. Another irony we found was in the front cover of the book. The title of our book is "Lord of the Flies", but for some reason, there is an image of a bloody pig shown. Because that we have not read up to the part where it introduces "Lord of the Flies", we do not know exactly what it is, but we can infer that there is a boy named Piggy, and he is being tortured by an evil person.
Reading this book made me think of the books "Hatchet" and "The Life of Pi". In "Hatchet", the protagonist is living in the wilderness all by himself and tries to survive by making food and shelter with his hatchet that was given to him; and in "The Life of Pi", the main character escaped a shipwreck by sailing off in a rescue boat with a lion. He tries to survive in the middle of the ocean with limited food supplies. Both of these books talk about survival, which is why I made the connection to "Lord of the Flies". Whether it was the main character by himself or with a group of people, they are all stranded somewhere with no grown-ups and try to survive.
When Ralph was on the island for the first time with no grown-ups, he loved it. He would go swimming, exploring - all without the pressure of adults. He had all the freedom he wanted. However, later on in the story, he feels homesick. He had no showered since he was on the island, his clothes were worn and dirty, and wanted to use his nails as a toothbrush! I connect Ralph to myself, as last year when I went on the school trip to Orlando, I felt free and happy because there was absolutely no pressure, and I got to enjoy the sunshine. However, near the end of the trip, I realized how much I missed home, just like Ralph.
Another connection I wanted to make was the Germans cutting off the food supply of the Dutch in World War Two. Because that the Dutch had no food, they were doing everything they needed to survive, which includes eating tulip bulbs. They had no chance of surviving had not the Canadians risked their lives to help liberate the Dutch. The same thing is happening in this book. Ralph and the others have a limited food supply that will run out, if no one rescues them.
Brenden also gave a very insightful connection to note as he connected "Lord of the Flies" to the German translation Beezlebub. Beezlebub, known as the "prince of demons" is one of the seven princes of hell, which can connect to our title saying that there is one person in the group of children who could be evil. The person that I think is the most evil in the book is Jack, as he "made a step forward and smacked Piggy's head" (p.75) and broke his specs. Jack was a bigger and older person than Piggy, but he still beat Piggy up. Not to mention that he disobeyed the rules of only the people who possessed the conch could speak. Is this not looking like the "prince of demons"?
In the past two discussions I had contributed a great amount. I have also listened carefully to what my group members had to say and added on to them. For example, when Danny said that Jack is older but more immature, I said that it was an example of irony. I am also liking the discussions more as our group can come together and pull off effective discussions about the book and I like the book too.
When my group is discussing, time goes by so fast that the class ends before we know it. We are very engaged into the discussion as we talk about the symbolism, irony, characters, metaphors, setting, and the key words. We work really well as a group.
Friday, March 4, 2011
Response
I suggest if your two other mates are not into it, you first try to ask them questions to pull them in. When that doesn't work you can ask me a question about the textand I can stay with your group for a while. As you have indicated if it keeps occurring after you have tried all then you and Danny cna discuss but you do need to try and pull the others in. However keep pulling me in with a question about the text.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Journal #1: Lord of the Flies
The first two discussions of our groups was really not enthusiastic at all because of the four people in our group, only Danny and I were here for the lit circle discussions. We discussed about the similarities and differences in our characters. Because that Danny had read farther than me, I had the opportunity to learn about a further character, which helped me understand him better when I was at that part of the story.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)