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Showing posts with label EXAMS. Show all posts
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Wednesday, July 18, 2012
FOR SALE! Complete handbook for this blog and its resources
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Sunday, January 30, 2011
Congratulations to Jasmin! ... and the many others whom this site has helped.
This morning I received a wonderful letter from the mother of one of the hundreds of thousands of people who have used the web site over the last two years. I want to share with you Jasmin's mothers comments but also to invite you to offer suggestions for the next step in Jasmin's English advancement....
Hi,
Firstly THANK YOU for such an excellent website - it has been essential in helping my daughter pass her IGCSE English - she got an A (Home schooling).
Secondly, your advice would be really appreciated. We are looking at writing AS level English in May/June this year. She only needs one AS level but will be taking art too. SO we would need to really do intensive English - can you recommend a good distance learning site? Most of the online courses require a year to 18 months!In appreciation
Nicky.
Well here is the challenge readers. Can you help Nicky find a good distance delivery site that can offer an intensive AS English program in 6 months? Quite the challenge however thousands of people each week come to this site for its resources - perhaps one or two of you are already using distance delivery and can add a comment here for Nicky to review. Contact Nicky directly here.
Congratulations to Jasmin and as I have said before this site tries to gather together the very best available online so that our students can find the information, ideas and examples in one place.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Related Lord of the Flies Resources
Related Links on Lord of the Flies
Summary and Map - A well-designed website that includes a quick overview of the themes and a brief summary of the novel. The map is an artistic rendering of the island.
Nobel Prize Official Website - A biography of William Golding and a transcript of his entire Nobel lecture.
Nobel Prize in Literature: Lord of the Flies - A Lord of the Flies adventure game that requires you to use your knowledge of the novel to complete the challenges.
Lord of the Flies Adventure Maze - A text adventure game you can play, based closely on the novel.
Lord of the Flies: Vocabulary - A game designed to test your knowledge of the vocabulary used in the novel.
Related Content for Lord of the Flies
- Essays on Lord of the Flies
- Forum for Lord of the Flies
- Purchase Lord of the Flies and Related Material
- Biography of William Golding
Study Guide for Lord of the Flies
- Short Summary
- About Lord of the Flies
- Character List
- Glossary of Terms
- Major Themes
- Summary and Analysis of Chapter One: The Sound of the Shell
- Summary and Analysis of Chapter Two: Fire on the Mountain
- Summary and Analysis of Chapter Three: Huts on the Beach
- Summary and Analysis of Chapter Four: Painted Faces and Long Hair
- Summary and Analysis of Chapter Five: Beast From Water
- Summary and Analysis of Chapter Six: Beast from Air
- Summary and Analysis of Chapter Seven: Shadows and Tall Trees
- Summary and Analysis of Chapter Eight: Gift for the Darkness
- Summary and Analysis of Chapter Nine: A View to a Death
- Summary and Analysis of Chapter Ten: The Shell and the Glasses
- Summary and Analysis of Chapter Eleven: Castle Rock
- Summary and Analysis of Chapter Twelve: Cry of the Hunters
- The Lord of the Flies: Biblical Allegory or Anti-Religious Critique?
- Related Links on Lord of the Flies
- Suggested Essay Questions
- Test Yourself! - Quiz 1
- Test Yourself! - Quiz 2
- Test Yourself! - Quiz 3
- Test Yourself! - Quiz 4
- Author of ClassicNote and Sources
Lord of the Flies Chapter 12
Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart, and the fall through the air of a true, wise friend called Piggy.
Summary
Ralph hides in the jungle and thinks miserably about the chaos that has overrun the island. He thinks about the deaths of Simon and Piggy and realizes that all vestiges of civilization have been stripped from the island. He stumbles across the sow’s head, the Lord of the Flies, now merely a gleaming white skull—as white as the conch shell, he notes. Angry and disgusted, Ralph knocks the skull to the ground and takes the stake it was impaled on to use as a weapon against Jack.
That night, Ralph sneaks down to the camp at the Castle Rock and finds Sam and Eric guarding the entrance. The twins give him food but refuse to join him. They tell him that Jack plans to send the entire tribe after him the next day. Ralph hides in a thicket and falls asleep. In the morning, he hears Jack talking and torturing one of the twins to find out where Ralph is hiding. Several boys try to break into the thicket by rolling a boulder, but the thicket is too dense. A group of boys tries to fight their way into the thicket, but Ralph fends them off. Then Ralph smells smoke and realizes that Jack has set the jungle on fire in order to smoke him out. Ralph abandons his hiding place and fights his way past Jack and a group of his hunters. Chased by a group of body-painted warrior-boys wielding sharp wooden spears, Ralph plunges frantically through the undergrowth, looking for a place to hide. At last, he ends up on the beach, where he collapses in exhaustion, his pursuers close behind.
Suddenly, Ralph looks up to see a naval officer standing over him. The officer tells the boy that his ship has come to the island after seeing the blazing fire in the jungle. Jack’s hunters reach the beach and stop in their tracks upon seeing the officer. The officer matter-of-factly assumes the boys are up to, as he puts it, “fun and games.” When he learns what has happened on the island, the officer is reproachful: how could this group of boys, he asks—and English boys at that—have lost all reverence for the rules of civilization in so short a time? For his part, Ralph is overwhelmed by the knowledge that he has been rescued, that he will escape the island after coming so close to a violent death. He begins to sob, as do the other boys. Moved and embarrassed, the naval officer turns his back so that the boys may regain their composure.
Analysis
After Ralph’s tense, exciting stand against the hunters, the ending of Lord of the Flies is rife with irony. Ralph had thought the signal fire—a symbol of civilization—was the only way to lure rescuers to the island. Ironically, although it is indeed a fire that lures a ship to the island, it is not an ordered, controlled signal fire but rather the haphazard forest fire Jack’s hunters set solely for the purpose of killing Ralph. As we have seen, Ralph has worked tirelessly to retain the structure of civilization and maximize the boys’ chances of being rescued. Now, when all he can do is struggle to stay alive as long as possible, a deus ex machina (an improbable or unexpected device or character that suddenly appears to resolve a situation) appears, at the last possible moment, in the form of the naval officer who brings the boys back to the world of law, order, and society. Golding’s use of irony in the last chapter blurs the boundary between civilization and savagery and implies that the two are more closely connected than the story has illustrated. Ultimately, the boys’ appalling savagery brings about the rescue that their coordinated and purposeful efforts were unable to achieve.
Much of the irony at the end of the novel stems from Golding’s portrayal of the naval officer. Although the naval officer saves Ralph, the ending of Lord of the Flies still is not particularly happy, and the moment in which the officer encounters the boys is not one of untainted joy. The officer says that he is unable to understand how upstanding British lads could have acted with such poor form. Ironically, though, this “civilized” officer is himself part of an adult world in which violence and war go hand in hand with civilization and social order. He reacts to the savage children with disgust, yet this disgust is tinged with hypocrisy. Similarly, the children are so shocked by the officer’s presence, and are now psychologically so far removed from his world, that they do not instantly celebrate his arrival. Rather, they stand before him baffled and bewildered. Even Ralph, whose life has literally been saved by the presence of the ship, weeps tears of grief rather than joy. For Ralph, as for the other boys, nothing can ever be as it was before coming to the island of the Lord of the Flies.
Lord of the Flies Chapter 11
The next morning, Ralph and his few companions try to light the fire in the cold air, but the attempt is hopeless without Piggy’s glasses. Piggy, squinting and barely able to see, suggests that Ralph hold a meeting to discuss their options. Ralph blows the conch shell, and the boys who have not gone to join Jack’s tribe assemble on the beach. They decide that their only choice is to travel to the Castle Rock to make Jack and his followers see reason.
Ralph decides to take the conch shell to the Castle Rock, hoping that it will remind Jack’s followers of his former authority. Once at Jack’s camp, however, Ralph’s group encounters armed guards. Ralph blows the conch shell, but the guards tell them to leave and throw stones at them, aiming to miss. Suddenly, Jack and a group of hunters emerge from the forest, dragging a dead pig. Jack and Ralph immediately face off. Jack commands Ralph to leave his camp, and Ralph demands that Jack return Piggy’s glasses. Jack attacks Ralph, and they fight. Ralph struggles to make Jack understand the importance of the signal fire to any hope the boys might have of ever being rescued, but Jack orders his hunters to capture Sam and Eric and tie them up. This sends Ralph into a fury, and he lunges at Jack.
Ralph and Jack fight for a second time. Piggy cries out shrilly, struggling to make himself heard over the brawl. As Piggy tries to speak, hoping to remind the group of the importance of rules and rescue, Roger shoves a massive rock down the mountainside. Ralph, who hears the rock falling, dives and dodges it. But the boulder strikes Piggy, shatters the conch shell he is holding, and knocks him off the mountainside to his death on the rocks below. Jack throws his spear at Ralph, and the other boys quickly join in. Ralph escapes into the jungle, and Roger and Jack begin to torture Sam and Eric, forcing them to submit to Jack’s authority and join his tribe.
Analysis
In the chaos that ensues when Ralph’s and Jack’s camps come into direct conflict, two important symbols in the novel—the conch shell and the Lord of the Flies—are destroyed. Roger, the character least able to understand the civilizing impulse, crushes the conch shell as he looses the boulder and kills Piggy, the character least able to understand the savage impulse. As we see in the next chapter, Ralph, the boy most closely associated with civilization and order, destroys the Lord of the Flies, the governing totem of the dark impulses within each individual. With Piggy’s death and Sam and Eric’s forced conversion to Jack’s tribe, Ralph is left alone on the island, doomed to defeat by the forces of bloodlust and primal chaos.
Appropriately, Ralph’s defeat comes in the form of the hunt, which has been closely associated with the savage instinct throughout Lord of the Flies. Ironically, although hunting is necessary to the survival of the group—there is little other food on the island aside from fruit, which has made many of the boys sick—it is also what drives them into deadly barbarism. From the beginning of the novel, the hunters have been the ones who have pioneered the way into the realm of savagery and violence. Furthermore, the conflict between Ralph and Jack has often manifested itself as the conflict between the interests of the hunters and the interests of the rest of the group. In Chapter 3, for instance, the boys argue over whether Jack’s followers should be allowed to hunt or forced to build huts with Ralph and Simon. Now that Jack and the forces of savagery have risen to unchallenged prominence on the island, the hunt has thoroughly won out over the more peaceful civilizing instinct. Rather than successfully mitigate the power of the hunt with the rules and structures of civilization, Ralph becomes a victim of the savage forces the hunt represents—he has literally become the prey.
Lord of the Flies Chapter 10
The next morning, Ralph and Piggy meet on the beach. They are bruised and sore and feel awkward and deeply ashamed of their behavior the previous night. Piggy, who is unable to confront his role in Simon’s death, attributes the tragedy to mere accident. But Ralph, clutching the conch desperately and laughing hysterically, insists that they have been participants in a murder. Piggy whiningly denies the charge. The two are now virtually alone; everyone except Sam and Eric and a handful of littluns has joined Jack’s tribe, which is now headquartered at the Castle Rock, the mountain on the island.
At the Castle Rock, Jack rules with absolute power. Boys are punished for no apparent reason. Jack ties up and beats a boy named Wilfred and then warns the boys against Ralph and his small group, saying that they are a danger to the tribe. The entire tribe, including Jack, seems to believe that Simon really was the beast, and that the beast is capable of assuming any disguise. Jack states that they must continue to guard against the beast, for it is never truly dead. He says that he and two other hunters, Maurice and Roger, should raid Ralph’s camp to obtain more fire and that they will hunt again tomorrow.
The boys at Ralph’s camp drift off to sleep, depressed and losing interest in the signal fire. Ralph sleeps fitfully, plagued by nightmares. They are awakened by howling and shrieking and are suddenly attacked by a group of Jack’s hunters. The hunters badly beat Ralph and his companions, who do not even know why they were assaulted, for they gladly would have shared the fire with the other boys. But Piggy knows why, for the hunters have stolen his glasses, and with them, the power to make fire.
Analysis
In the period of relative calm following Simon’s murder, we see that the power dynamic on the island has shifted completely to Jack’s camp. The situation that has been slowly brewing now comes to a full boil: Jack’s power over the island is complete, and Ralph is left an outcast, subject to Jack’s whims. As civilization and order have eroded among the boys, so has Ralph’s power and influence, to the extent that none of the boys protests when Jack declares him an enemy of the tribe. As Jack’s power reaches its high point, the figures of the beast and the Lord of the Flies attain prominence. Similarly, as Ralph’s power reaches its low point, the influence and importance of other symbols in the novel—such as the conch shell and Piggy’s glasses—decline as well. As Ralph and Piggy discuss Simon’s murder the following morning, Ralph clutches the conch shell to him for solace, but the once-potent symbol of order and civilization is now useless. Here, Ralph clings to it as a vestige of civilization, but with its symbolic power fading, the conch shell is merely an object. Like the signal fire, it can no longer give Ralph comfort. Piggy’s glasses, the other major symbol of civilization, have fallen into Jack’s hands. Jack’s new control of the ability to make fire emphasizes his power over the island and the demise of the boys’ hopes of being rescued.
We learn a great deal about the different boys’ characters through their varying reactions to Simon’s death. Piggy, who is used to being right because of his sharp intellect, finds it impossible to accept any guilt for what happened. Instead, he sets his mind to rationalizing his role in the affair. Ralph refuses to accept Piggy’s easy rationalization that Simon’s death was accidental and insists that the death was a murder. Yet the word murder, a term associated with the rational system of law and a civilized moral code, now seems strangely at odds with the collective madness of the killing. The foreignness of the word in the context of the savagery on the island reminds us how far the boys have travelled along the moral spectrum since the time when they were forced to follow the rules of adults.
Jack, for his part, has become an expert in using the boys’ fear of the beast to enhance his own power. He claims that Simon really was the beast, implying that the boys have a better grasp of the truth in their frenzied bloodlust than in their calmer moments of reflection. This conclusion is not surprising coming from Jack, who seems almost addicted to that state of bloodlust and frenzy. Jack’s ability to convince the other boys that the state of bloodlust is a valid way of interacting with the world erodes their sense of morality even further and enables Jack to manipulate them even more.
Lord of the Flies Chapter 9
Simon awakens and finds the air dark and humid with an approaching storm. His nose is bleeding, and he staggers toward the mountain in a daze. He crawls up the hill and, in the failing light, sees the dead pilot with his flapping parachute. Watching the parachute rise and fall with the wind, Simon realizes that the boys have mistaken this harmless object for the deadly beast that has plunged their entire group into chaos. When Simon sees the corpse of the parachutist, he begins to vomit. When he is finished, he untangles the parachute lines, freeing the parachute from the rocks. Anxious to prove to the group that the beast is not real after all, Simon stumbles toward the distant light of the fire at Jack’s feast to tell the other boys what he has seen.
Piggy and Ralph go to the feast with the hopes that they will be able to keep some control over events. At the feast, the boys are laughing and eating the roasted pig. Jack sits like a king on a throne, his face painted like a savage, languidly issuing commands, and waited on by boys acting as his servants. After the large meal, Jack extends an invitation to all of Ralph’s followers to join his tribe. Most of them accept, despite Ralph’s attempts to dissuade them. As it starts to rain, Ralph asks Jack how he plans to weather the storm considering he has not built any shelters. In response, Jack orders his tribe to do its wild hunting dance.
Chanting and dancing in several separate circles along the beach, the boys are caught up in a kind of frenzy. Even Ralph and Piggy, swept away by the excitement, dance on the fringes of the group. The boys again re-enact the hunting of the pig and reach a high pitch of frenzied energy as they chant and dance. Suddenly, the boys see a shadowy figure creep out of the forest—it is Simon. In their wild state, however, the boys do not recognize him. Shouting that he is the beast, the boys descend upon Simon and start to tear him apart with their bare hands and teeth. Simon tries desperately to explain what has happened and to remind them of who he is, but he trips and plunges over the rocks onto the beach. The boys fall on him violently and kill him.
The storm explodes over the island. In the whipping rain, the boys run for shelter. Howling wind and waves wash Simon’s mangled corpse into the ocean, where it drifts away, surrounded by glowing fish. At the same time, the wind blows the body of the parachutist off the side of the mountain and onto the beach, sending the boys screaming into the darkness.
Analysis
With the brutal, animalistic murder of Simon, the last vestige of civilized order on the island is stripped away, and brutality and chaos take over. By this point, the boys in Jack’s camp are all but inhuman savages, and Ralph’s few remaining allies suffer dwindling spirits and consider joining Jack. Even Ralph and Piggy themselves get swept up in the ritual dance around Jack’s banquet fire. The storm that batters the island after Simon’s death pounds home the catastrophe of the murder and physically embodies the chaos and anarchy that have overtaken the island. Significantly, the storm also washes away the bodies of Simon and the parachutist, eradicating proof that the beast does not exist.
Jack makes the beast into a godlike figure, a kind of totem he uses to rule and manipulate the members of his tribe. He attributes to the beast both immortality and the power to change form, making it an enemy to be feared and an idol to be worshiped. The importance of the figure of the beast in the novel cannot be overstated, for it gives Jack’s tribe a common enemy (the beast), a common system of belief (their conviction that the mythical beast exists), a reason to obey Jack (protection from the beast), and even a developing system of primitive symbolism and iconography (face paint and the Lord of the Flies).
In a sense, Simon’s murder is an almost inevitable outcome of his encounter with the Lord of the Flies in Chapter 8. During the confrontation in the previous chapter, the Lord of the Flies foreshadows Simon’s death by promising to have some “fun” with him. Although Simon’s vision teaches him that the beast exists inside all human beings, his confrontation with the beast is not complete until he comes face-to-face with the beast that exists within the other boys. Indeed, when the boys kill Simon, they are acting on the savage instinct that the beast represents. Additionally, the manner of Simon’s death continues the parallels between Simon and Jesus: both die sacrificial deaths after learning profound truths about human morality. But Simon’s death differs from Jesus’ in ways that complicate the idea that Simon is simply a Christ figure. Although Jesus and Simon both die sacrificial deaths, Jesus was killed for his beliefs, whereas Simon is killed because of the other boys’ delusions. Jesus died after conveying his message to the world, whereas Simon dies before he is able to speak to the boys. In the biblical tradition, Jesus dies to alleviate the burden of mankind’s sin; Simon’s death, on the other hand, simply intensifies the burden of sin pressing down upon the island. According to the Bible, Jesus’ death shows others the way to salvation; Simon’s death exemplifies the power of evil within the human soul.
Lord of the Flies Chapter 8
“There isn’t anyone to help you. Only me. And I’m the Beast. . . . Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill!”
Summary
The next morning, the news of the monster has the boys in a state of uproar as they gather on the beach. Piggy, who was not on the mountain the night before, is baffled by the other boys’ claims to have seen the monster. Jack seizes the conch shell and blows into it clumsily, calling for an assembly. Jack tells the others that there is definitely a beast on the mountain and goes on to claim that Ralph is a coward who should be removed from his leadership role. The other boys, however, refuse to vote Ralph out of power. Enraged, Jack storms away from the group, saying that he is leaving and that anyone who likes is welcome to join him.
Deeply troubled, Ralph does not know what to do. Piggy, meanwhile, is thrilled to see Jack go, and Simon suggests that they all return to the mountain to search for the beast. The other boys are too afraid to act on his suggestion, however. Ralph slips into a depression, but Piggy cheers him up with an idea: they should build a new signal fire, on the beach rather than on the mountain. Piggy’s idea restores Ralph’s hope that they will be rescued. The boys set to work and build a new fire, but many of them sneak away into the night to join Jack’s group. Piggy tries to convince Ralph that they are better off without the deserters.
Along another stretch of sand, Jack gathers his new tribe and declares himself the chief. In a savage frenzy, the hunters kill a sow, and Roger drives his spear forcefully into the sow’s anus. Then the boys leave the sow’s head on a sharpened stake in the jungle as an offering to the beast. As they place the head upright in the forest, the black blood drips down the sow’s teeth, and the boys run away.
As Piggy and Ralph sit in the old camp discussing the deserters, the hunters from Jack’s tribe descend upon them, shrieking and whooping. The hunters steal burning sticks from the fire on the beach. Jack tells Ralph’s followers that they are welcome to come to his feast that night and even to join his tribe. The hungry boys are tempted by the idea of pig’s meat.
Just before Jack’s tribe raids the beach, Simon slips away from the camp and returns to the jungle glade where he previously sat marvelling at the beauty of nature. Now, however, he finds the sow’s head impaled on the stake in the middle of the clearing. Simon sits alone in the clearing, staring with rapt attention at the impaled pig’s head, which is now swarming with flies. The sight mesmerizes him, and it even seems as if the head comes to life. The head speaks to Simon in the voice of the “Lord of the Flies,” ominously declaring that Simon will never be able to escape him, for he lies within all human beings. He also promises to have some “fun” with Simon. Terrified and troubled by the apparition, Simon collapses in a faint.
Analysis
The excitement the boys felt when Jack suggests killing a littlun in Chapter 7 comes to grotesque fruition in Chapter 8, during the vicious and bloody hunt following Jack’s rise to power and formation of his new tribe. Jack’s ascent arises directly from the supposed confirmation of the existence of the beast. Once the boys, having mistaken the dead parachutist for a monster, come to believe fully in the existence of the beast, all the remaining power of civilization and culture on the island diminishes rapidly. In a world where the beast is real, rules and morals become weak and utterly dispensable. The original democracy Ralph leads devolves into a cult-like totalitarianism, with Jack as a tyrant and the beast as both an enemy and a revered god. We see the depth of the boys’ growing devotion to the idea of the beast in their impalement of the sow’s head on the stake as an offering to the beast. No longer simply a childish nightmare, the beast assumes a primal, religious importance in the boys’ lives. Jack uses the beast ingeniously to rule his savage kingdom, and each important character in Lord of the Flies struggle to come to terms with the beast. Piggy, who remains steadfastly scientific and rational at this point in the novel, is simply baffled and disgusted. Ralph, who has seen what he thinks is the beast, is listless and depressed, unsure of how to reconcile his civilized ideals with the sight he saw on the mountaintop. But the most complex reaction of all comes from one of the novel’s most complex characters—Simon.
Simon’s confrontation with the Lord of the Flies—the sow’s head impaled on a stake in the forest glade—is arguably the most important scene in the novel, and one that has attracted the most attention from critics. Some critics have interpreted the scene as a retelling of Jesus’ confrontation with Satan during his forty days in the wilderness, a story originally told in the Gospels of the New Testament. Indeed, many critics have described Simon as a Christ figure, for he has a mystical connection to the environment, possesses a saintly and selfless disposition, and meets a tragic and sacrificial death. Others tie the scene into a larger Freudian reading of Lord of the Flies, claiming that its symbols correspond exactly to the elements of the Freudian unconscious (with Jack as the id, Ralph as the ego, and Piggy as the superego). Lord of the Flies may indeed support these and a number of other readings, not necessarily at the exclusion of one another.
Indeed, many differences between Simon and Jesus complicate the comparison between the two and prevent us from seeing Simon as a straightforward Christ figure. Simon, unlike Jesus, is not a supernatural being, and none of the boys could possibly find salvation from the Lord of the Flies through faith in Simon. Rather, Simon’s terror and fainting spell indicate the horrific, persuasive power of the instinct for chaos and savagery that the Lord of the Flies represents. Simon has a deep human insight in the glade, for he realizes that it is not a real, physical beast that inspires the hunters’ behavior but rather the barbaric instinct that lies deep within each of them. Fearing that this instinct lies embedded within himself as well, Simon seems to hear the Lord of the Flies speaking with him, threatening him with what he fears the most. Unable to stand the sight any longer, Simon collapses into a very human faint.
In all, Simon is a complex figure who does not fit neatly into the matrix framed by Jack at the one end and Ralph at the other. Simon is kind-hearted and firmly on the side of order and civilization, but he is also intrigued by the idea of the beast and feels a deep connection with nature and the wilderness on the island. Whereas Jack and Roger connect with the wilderness on a level that plunges them into primal lust and violence, Simon finds it a source of mystical comfort and joy. Simon’s closeness with nature and his unwaveringly kind nature throughout the novel make him the only character who does not feel morality as an artificial imposition of society. Instead, we sense that Simon’s morality and goodness are a way of life that proceeds directly and easily from nature. Lord of the Flies is deeply preoccupied with the problem of fundamental, natural human evil—amid which Simon is the sole figure of fundamental, natural good. In a wholly nonreligious way, Simon complicates the philosophical statement the novel makes about human beings, for he represents a completely separate alternative to the spectrum between civilization and savagery of which Ralph and Jack are a part. In the end, Simon is both natural and good in a world where such a combination seems impossible.
Lord of the Flies – Chapter 7 Summary
The boys stop to eat as they travel toward the mountain. Ralph gazes disconsolately at the choppy ocean and muses on the fact that the boys have become slovenly and undisciplined. As he looks out at the vast expanse of water, he feels that the ocean is like an impenetrable wall blocking any hope the boys have of escaping the island. Simon, however, lifts Ralph’s spirits by reassuring him that he will make it home.
That afternoon, the hunters find pig droppings, and Jack suggests they hunt the pig while they continue to search for the beast. The boys agree and quickly track a large boar, which leads them on a wild chase. Ralph, who has never been on a hunt before, quickly gets caught up in the exhilaration of the chase. He excitedly flings his spear at the boar, and though it glances off the animal’s snout, Ralph is thrilled with his marksmanship nonetheless. Jack holds up his bloodied arm, which he claims the boar grazed with its tusks.
Although the boar escapes, the boys remain in a frenzy in the aftermath of the hunt. Excited, they re-enact the chase among themselves with a boy named Robert playing the boar. They dance, chant, and jab Robert with their spears, eventually losing sight of the fact that they are only playing a game. Beaten and in danger, Robert tries to drag himself away. The group nearly kills Robert before they remember themselves. When Robert suggests that they use a real boar in the game next time, Jack replies that they should use a littlun instead. The boys laugh, delighted and stirred up by Jack’s audacity. Ralph tries to remind everyone that they were only playing a game. Simon volunteers to return to the beach to tell Piggy and the littluns that the group will not return until late that night.
Darkness falls, and Ralph proposes that they wait until morning to climb the mountain because it will be difficult to hunt the monster at night. Jack challenges Ralph to join the hunt, and Ralph finally agrees to go simply to regain his position in the eyes of the group. Ralph, Roger, and Jack start to climb the mountain, and then Ralph and Roger wait somewhere near the top while Jack climbs alone to the summit. He returns, breathlessly claiming to have seen the monster. Ralph and Roger climb up to have a look and see a terrifying specter, a large, shadowy form with the shape of a giant ape, making a strange flapping sound in the wind. Horrified, the boys hurry down the mountain to warn the group.
Analysis
The boar hunt and the game the boys play afterward provide stark reminders of the power of the human instinct toward savagery. Before this point in the novel, Ralph has been largely baffled about why the other boys were more concerned with hunting, dancing, bullying, and feasting than with building huts, maintaining the signal fire, and trying to be rescued. But when he joins the boar hunt in this chapter, Ralph is unable to avoid the instinctive excitement of the hunt and gets caught up in the other boys’ bloodlust. In this scene, Golding implies that every individual, however strong his or her instinct toward civilization and order, has an undeniable, innate drive toward savagery as well. After the hunt, the boys’ re-enactment of the chase provides a further reminder of the inextricable connection between the thrill of the hunt and the desire for power. Robert, the boy who stands in for the boar in the re-enactment, is nearly killed as the other boys again get caught up in their excitement and lose sight of the limits of the game in their mad desire to kill. Afterward, when Jack suggests killing a littlun in place of a pig, the group laughs. At this point, probably none of them—except possibly Jack and Roger—would go so far as to actually carry out such a plan. Nonetheless, the fact that the boys find the possibility exciting rather than horrifying is rather unsettling.
By this point, the conflict between Ralph and Jack has escalated to a real struggle for power, as Jack’s brand of violence and savagery almost completely replaces Ralph’s disciplined community in the boys’ conception of their lives on the island. Ralph’s exhilaration in the hunt and his participation in the ritual that nearly kills Robert is, in a sense, a major victory for Jack, for the experience shakes Ralph’s confidence in his own instinct toward morality and order. As befits a power struggle in a savage group, the conflict between Ralph and Jack manifests itself not as a competition to prove who would be the better leader but instead as a competition of sheer strength and courage. Just as Ralph boldly climbed the hill alone to prove his bravery in the previous chapter, Jack goes up the mountain alone now. It is also significant that Ralph discovers nothing, while Jack discovers what he thinks is the beast: while Ralph does not believe in the beast, the beast constitutes a major part of Jack’s picture of life on the island.
Jack increases his leverage within the group by goading Ralph into acting rashly and unwisely, against his tendency toward levelheadedness—a manipulation that weakens Ralph’s position in the group. Although Ralph realizes that it is foolish to hunt the beast at night, he knows that, in a society that values strength, he cannot risk appearing to be a coward. As a result, he assents to going up the mountainside at night. Ultimately, Ralph’s decision to explore the mountain at night costs him the opportunity to prove to the others that Sam and Eric did not see the beast: had the boys climbed the mountain in the daylight as Ralph wished, they would have seen the dead parachutist for what it was. Because they go at night, however, they see the parachutist distorted by shadows and believe it to be the beast. In a sense, the degree to which each boy is prone to see the beast mirrors the degree to which he gives in to his instinct toward savagery. This connection emphasizes the idea that the beast is a symbolic manifestation of the boys’ primitive inner instincts.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Geography Resources for IGCSE
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
We need a new home
Dr Rod's English Blog has become a huge success, but we are totally frustrated by our limitations of being a Blog. The Blog acted really great in the beginning but as we have grown and our readership increased from 50 to over 19000 in 4 months we realize we need a different format and to offer many other things that we just cannot do.We have identified areas where students from across the world need to work together - to collaborate, so see other kids work. We have seen teachers crying out for varied resources as well as original ideas. We never thought of our self as UNIQUE, yet we have become so. Every day I get letters asking for help on essays, exams, Shakespeare and hundreds of other things and yet many have to go unanswered.
So we need HELP! We cannot do this by a Blog any longer. I know Front Page and can work well with that. I would love to develop this site into an open resource linking together students of all ages from Year 5 through University. But they cannot search through Blog entries after Blog entries. So please, if there is anyone out there who can help us with a dedicated site - sorry we have NO money! And can help us get going for three months before the new school year begins PLEASE contact us here!
Write today! The possibilities are endless and the audience as you can see in UNIVERSAL not just USA, Europe but from Mongolia to Lesotho, Columbia to Yemen, Russia, Hong Kong, the lists is over 120 different countries. If your company today can help us PLEASE let me know.
Thanks Dr. Rod
Write to me here!
Sunday, April 27, 2008
More IGCSE ~ AS/AL Past papers
IGCSE ESL (0510) Past Papers from June 2003.
- Paper 1 (0510)
- The first Paper from the June 2003 Session.
- Paper 2 (0510)
- The second Paper from the June 2003 Session.
- Paper 3 (0510)
- The third Paper from the June 2003 Session.
- Paper 4 (0510)
- The fourth Paper from the June 2003 Session.
AS/AL English Literature (9595) Past Papers from June 2003.
- Paper 3 (9695)
- The third Paper from the June 2003 Session.
- Paper 4 (9695)
- The fourth Paper from the June 2003 Session.
- Paper 5 (9695)
- The fifth Paper from the June 2003 Session.
- Paper 6 (9695)
- The sixth Paper from the June 2003 Session.
- Paper 7 (9695)
- The seventh Paper from the June 2003 Session.
EDEXCEL:
GCSE in English (1203, 1204, 5203) and English Literature (1213): Specification Guide
PDF (904 KB)
10/10/2002
GCSE English A (1203), B (1204) and Literature (1213): Anthology
PDF (47 KB)
14/10/2002
Specimen Papers and Mark Schemes
PDF (692 KB)
10/10/2002
SAT Past papers and Materials
SATs (The Standardised College Admissions Test) are required for many US universities, and it is hard to find past papers and questions to practice online. However, here we have links to SATs past papers, but most advisable is to purchase official sats practice question books.
Cracking the SAT, 2008 Edition (College Test Prep)
Cracking the SAT Math 1 and 2 Subject Tests, 2007-2008 Edition (College Test Prep)
The Official Study Guide for All SAT Subject Tests (Real Sats)
Barron's SAT 2400: Aiming for the Perfect Score 2008 (Barron's SAT 2400)
Cracking the SAT Biology E/M Subject Test, 2007-2008 Edition (College Test Prep)
The Ultimate Math Refresher for the GRE, GMAT, and SAT
11 Practice Tests for the SAT and PSAT, 2008 (College Test Prep)
IGCSE Past papers
The following are links to past IGCSE papers, examiners guides and reports:
IGCSE English Literature
- November 2006 Question Paper 1 (105Kb)
- November 2006 Question Paper 3 (79Kb)
- November 2006 Question Paper 4 (154Kb)
IGCSE Second Language English
- November 2006 Examiner Report (2390Kb)
- November 2006 Question Paper 1 (407Kb)
- November 2006 Question Paper 2 (428Kb)
- November 2006 Question Paper 3 (193Kb)
- November 2006 Question Paper 4 (203Kb)
- November 2006 Question Paper 5 (371Kb)
- Paper 1 (0510)
- The first Paper from the June 2003 Session.
- Paper 2 (0510)
- The second Paper from the June 2003 Session.
- Paper 3 (0510)
- The third Paper from the June 2003 Session.
- Paper 4 (0510)
- The fourth Paper from the June 2003 Session.
IGCSE First Language English
- November 2006 Examiner Report (84Kb)
- November 2006 Question Paper 1 (100Kb)
- November 2006 Question Paper 2 (107Kb)
- November 2006 Question Paper 3 (117Kb)
OTHER SUBJECTS:
IGCSE History
Compiled List of Past Paper Questions
- November 2006 Examiner Report (377Kb)
- November 2006 Question Paper 1 (2391Kb)
- November 2006 Question Paper 2 (1194Kb)
- November 2006 Question Paper 4 (665Kb)
IGCSE Computer Studies
- November 2006 Examiner Report (324Kb)
- November 2006 Question Paper 1 (412Kb)
IGCSE Economics
- November 2006 Examiner Report (431Kb)
- November 2006 Question Paper 2 (80Kb)
- November 2006 Question Paper 4 (83Kb)
- November 2006 Question Paper 6 (83Kb)
IGCSE Geography
- November 2006 Question Paper 1 (776Kb)
- Paper 1 Insert (333Kb)
- November 2006 Paper 1 Mark Scheme (67Kb)
- November 2006 Question Paper 2 (416Kb)
- November 2006 Question Paper 4 (554Kb)
IGCSE Paper 2 Questions and Answers!
- Past Paper 2 (0460)
- The second Paper from the June 2003 Session.
- Past Paper 5 (0460)
- The fifth Paper from the June 2003 Session.
- IGCSE Geography Paper 2 model answers
- A PDF containing model answers for you to try out
- IGCSE Geography Paper 2 model answers
- A PDF containing model answers for you to try out
- IGCSE Geography Paper 2 model answers
- A PDF containing model answers for you to try out
IGCSE Information Technology
- 2007 Specimen Paper 1 (413Kb)
- 2007 Specimen Paper 2 (327Kb)
- 2007 Specimen Paper 3 (105Kb)
- November 2006 Examiner Report (349Kb)
- November 2006 Question Paper 1 (388Kb)
- November 2006 Question Paper 2 (128Kb)
- November 2006 Question Paper 3 (201Kb)
IGCSE Maths
- November 2006 Examiner Report (454Kb)
- November 2006 Question Paper 1 (265Kb)
- November 2006 Question Paper 2 (240Kb)
- November 2006 Paper 2 Mark Scheme (1520Kb)
- November 2006 Question Paper 3 (410Kb)
- November 2006 Question Paper 4 (164Kb)
- Past Paper 1 (0580)
- The first Paper from the June 2003 Session.
- Past Paper 2 (0580)
- The second Paper from the June 2003 Session.
- Past Paper 3 (0580)
- The third Paper from the June 2003 Session.
- Past Paper 4 (0580)
- The fourth Paper from the June 2003 Session.
- IGCSE Maths Paper 1 model answers
- A PDF containing model answers for you to try out
- IGCSE Maths Paper 2 model answers
- A PDF containing model answers for you to try out
- IGCSE Maths Paper 3 model answers
- A PDF containing model answers for you to try out
- IGCSE Maths Paper 4 model answers
- A PDF containing model answers for you to try out
IGCSE Biology
See the full list of IGCSE Biology Past Papers, including ones hosted on this site.
- November 2006 Examiner Report (338Kb)
- November 2006 Question Paper 2 (761Kb)
- November 2006 Question Paper 3 (405Kb)
- November 2006 Question Paper 5 (339Kb)
- November 2006 Question Paper 6 (962Kb)
- Past Paper 2 (0610)
- The second Paper from the June 2003 Session.
- Past Paper 3 (0610)
- The third Paper from the June 2003 Session.
- IGCSE Biology Paper 2 model answers
- A PDF containing model answers for you to try out
- IGCSE Biology Paper 3 model answers
- A PDF containing model answers for you to try out
- IGCSE Biology Paper 6 model answers
- A PDF containing model answers for you to try out
IGCSE Chemistry
- November 2006 Examiner Report (714Kb)
- November 2006 Question Paper 2 (306Kb)
- November 2006 Question Paper 3 (231Kb)
- November 2006 Question Paper 5 (149Kb)
- November 2006 Question Paper 6 (199Kb)
- Past Paper 2 (0620)
- The second Paper from the June 2003 Session.
- Past Paper 3 (0620)
- The third Paper from the June 2003 Session.
- IGCSE Chemistry Paper 2 model answers
- A PDF containing model answers for you to try out
- IGCSE Chemistry Paper 3 model answers
- A PDF containing model answers for you to try out
- IGCSE Chemistry Paper 6 model answers
- A PDF containing model answers for you to try out
IGCSE Physics
- November 2006 Examiner Report (903Kb)
- November 2006 Question Paper 1 (209Kb)
- November 2006 Question Paper 2 (194Kb)
- November 2006 Question Paper 3 (333Kb)
- November 2006 Question Paper 5 (155Kb)
- November 2006 Question Paper 6 (228Kb)
- Paper 2 (0625)
- The second Paper from the June 2003 Session.
- Paper 3 (0625)
- The third Paper from the June 2003 Session.
- IGCSE Physics Paper 2 model answers
- A PDF containing model answers for you to try out
- IGCSE Physics Paper 3 model answers
- A PDF containing model answers for you to try out
- IGCSE Physics Paper 6 model answers
- A PDF containing model answers for you to try out
IGCSE Co-Ordinated Sciences
- November 2006 Examiner Report (475Kb)
- November 2006 Question Paper 2 (557Kb)
- November 2006 Question Paper 3 (532Kb)
- November 2006 Question Paper 5 (179Kb)
- November 2006 Question Paper 6 (1070Kb)
IGCSE Accounting
- November 2006 Examiner Report (358Kb)
- November 2006 Question Paper 2 (279Kb)
- November 2006 Question Paper 3 (255Kb)
IGCSE Business
- November 2006 Examiner Report (328Kb)
- November 2006 Question Paper 1 (117Kb)
- November 2006 Question Paper 2 (122Kb)
- Paper 1 (0450)
- The first Paper from the June 2003 Session.
- Paper 2 (0450)
- The second Paper from the June 2003 Session.
- IGCSE Business Studies Specimen Paper 1 2004
- A PDF containing model answers for you to try out
- IGCSE Business Studies Specimen Paper 2 2004
- A PDF containing model answers for you to try out
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