jueves, 9 de septiembre de 2010

Lord of the Flies II



Task 2: Ralph and Piggy meet and reveal that they are alone on a tropical island with no adult supervision. Write the children’s plans and ideas for the next two weeks after knowing they are all alone in the island

Ralph used a conch shell to call the other boys on the island who crashed down with the plane to an assembly. They realized that they were alone at the island. There were no adults there. So he started to put some rules and determinate a plan. They attempt to re-create the structures of society on their deserted island: they elect a leader, establish a division of labor, and set about systematically exploring the island

Ralph was going to be the chief. Then they said “the person who holds the conch gets to speak”.

They also decided to make a signal fire. In the other hand, a boy, called Jack, and his choir decided to hunt pigs.

Ralph, the protagonist of the novel, stood for civilization, morality, and leadership, while Jack, the antagonist, stood for the desire for power, selfishness, and amorality. Jack was the leader of the anarchy on the island


Task 3: Investigate about the meaning of anarchy, the origin of the word, schools of anarchist thought, anarchism as a social movement and different issues in anarchism (Capitalism, communism, feminism, globalisation, green anarchism and religious anarchism)


Anarchy has a lot of definitions for example:

a- A social state in which there is no governing person or group of people, but each individual has absolute liberty (without the implication of disorder), but is bound by a social code

b- Absence of government; a state of lawlessness due to the absence or inefficiency of the supreme power; political disorder.

c- Acting without waiting for instructions or official permission... The root of anarchism is the single impulse to do it yourself: everything else follows from this

Anarchism is a political philosophy which considers the state undesirable, unnecessary and harmful, and instead promotes a stateless society, or anarchy

Anarchist schools of thought

Anarchism is a political philosophy with many heterogeneous and diverse schools of thought

Philosophical anarchism

Philosophical anarchism contends that the State lacks moral legitimacy; that there is no individual obligation or duty to obey the State, and conversely, that the State has no right to command individuals, but it does not advocate revolution to eliminate the state.

Philosophical anarchists may accept the existence of a minimal state as an unfortunate, and usually temporary, "necessary evil" but argue that citizens do not have a moral obligation to obey the state when its laws conflict with individual autonomy

Mutualism

Mutualism anarchism is concerned with reciprocity, free association, voluntary contract, federation, and credit and currency reform. Many mutualisms’ believe a market without government intervention drives prices down to labor-costs, eliminating profit, rent, and interest according to the labor theory of value

Individualist anarchism

Individualist anarchism refers to several traditions of thought within the anarchist movement that emphasize the individual and their will over any kinds of external determinants such as groups, society, traditions, and ideological systems. Individualist anarchism is not a single philosophy but refers to a group of individualistic philosophies that sometimes are in conflict

Social anarchism

Social anarchism is an umbrella term used to identify a broad category of anarchism independent of individualist anarchism. Where individualist forms of anarchism emphasize personal autonomy and the rational nature of human beings, social anarchism sees "individual freedom as conceptually connected with social equality and emphasize community and mutual aid." Social anarchism is used to specifically describe anarchist tendencies within anarchism that have an emphasis on the communitarian and cooperative aspects of anarchist theory and practice. Social anarchism includes (but is not limited to) collectivist anarchism, anarcho-communism, libertarian socialism, anarcho-syndicalism and social ecology.

Religious anarchism

Religious anarchism refers to a set of related anarchist ideologies that are inspired by the teachings of (organized) religions, however many anarchist have traditionally been skeptical of and opposed to organized religion. Many different religions have served as inspiration for religious forms of anarchism, most notably Christianity; Christian anarchists believe that biblical teachings give credence to anarchist philosophy. Non-Christian forms of religious anarchism include Buddhist anarchism, Jewish anarchism and most recently Neopaganism. Neopaganism focuses on the sanctity of the environment and equality, and is often of a decentralized nature. This led to a number of Neopagan-inspired anarchists, one of the most prominent of which is Starhawk, who writes extensively about both spirituality and activism.

Green anarchism

Green anarchism (or eco-anarchism) is a school of thought within anarchism which puts an emphasis on environmental issues. Important contemporary currents are anarcho-primitivism and social ecology. Many advocates of green anarchism and primitivism consider Fredy Perlman as the modern progenitor of their views.

Notable contemporary writers espousing green anarchism include Murray Bookchin, Janet Biehl, Daniel Chodorkoff, anthropologist Brian Morris, and people around Institute for Social Ecology; those critical of technology such as Derrick Jensen, George Draffan, and John Zerzan; and others including Alan Carter, and Stewart Davidson

The environment and sustainability have been an issue for anarchists. Eco-anarchists often use direct action against what they see as earth-destroying institutions.

Anarchism as a social movement

Anarchism as a social movement has regularly endured fluctuations in popularity. Its classical period, which scholars demarcate as from 1860 to 1939, is associated with the working-class movements of the 19th century and the Spanish Civil War-era struggles against fascism


Issues in anarchism

Capitalism

Throughout most of its history, anarchism has been defined by its proponents in opposition to capitalism - which they believe can be maintained only by state violence. Most non-capitalist anarchists follow Proudhon in opposing ownership of workplaces by capitalists and aim to replace wage labour with workers' associations

Communism

While communism is proposed as a form of social and economic organisation by many anarchists, other anarchists consider it a danger to the liberty and free development of the individual. Most schools of anarchism have recognized a distinction between libertarian and authoritarian forms of communism

Globalization

Many anarchists are actively involved in the anti-globalization movement, seeing corporate globalization as a neocolonialist attempt to use economic coercion on a global scale, carried out through state institutions such as the World Bank, World Trade Organization, Group of Eight, and the World Economic Forum. Globalization is an ambiguous term that has different meanings to different anarchist factions. Many anarchists use the term to mean neocolonialism and/or cultural imperialism

Feminism

Anarcha-feminism views patriarchy as the first manifestation of hierarchy in human history; thus, the first form of oppression occurred in the dominance of male over female. Anarcha-feminists then conclude that if feminists are against patriarchy, they must also be against all forms of hierarchy, and therefore must reject the authoritarian nature of the state and capitalism

Task 4: Explain what you think Golding is trying to show the reader by describing him in this way.

The author, across Piggy's description, tried to show, how a person can be guided by the intelligence and science in spite of his appearance. However, the force prevails in the middle of the jungle. since that moment in the text, it is possible to see as Piggy's figure is losing importance. Besides since it is ill-treated

Task 5: Investigate about all the characters and their description


Jack: Jack is described by Golding as "tall, thin, and bony; and his hair was red beneath the black cap. His face was crumpled and freckled, and ugly without silliness. Out of this face stared two light blue eyes, frustrated now, and turning, or ready to turn, to anger."

Jack is the leading advocate of anarchy on the island. Jack is the leader of the savage tribe which hunts the pigs

Jack, adept at manipulating the other boys, represents the instinct of savagery within human beings, as opposed to the civilizing instinct Ralph represents.

Piggy: Piggy is described by Golding as short and very fat. It’s no coincidence that Piggy’s nickname is such; the overwhelming emotion Jack and his hunters have to "kill the pig" is an indirect and clever author metaphor to suggest the boys are also killing a part of Piggy.

Piggy represents the law and order of the adult world. Throughout the novel, Piggy attempts to condition the island society to mirror the society they all lived in in England

Piggy, whose real name is never revealed, is Ralph's chief adviser and "true, wise friend.

Ralph: Ralph is the main protagonist of the novel; he has fair hair and is very tall and thin. Elected the leader of the boys at the beginning of the novel, Ralph is the primary representative of order, civilization, and productive leadership in the novel.

Ralph sets about building huts and thinking of ways to maximize their chances of being rescued. For this reason, Ralph’s power and influence over the other boys are secure at the beginning of the novel. However, as the group gradually succumbs to savage instincts over the course of the novel, Ralph’s position declines precipitously while Jack’s rises.

Ralph’s story ends semi-tragically: although he is rescued and returned to civilization, when he sees the naval officer, he weeps with the burden of his new knowledge about the human capacity for evil.

Simon: Simon embodies a kind of innate, spiritual human goodness that is deeply connected with nature and, in its own way, as primal as Jack’s evil. The other boys abandon moral behavior as soon as civilization is no longer there to impose it upon them. Simon is a character who represents peace and tranquility, with some references to Jesus Christ in the paradise.

Roger: Roger becomes a self-proclaimed torturer and executioner for Jack and the rest of the tribe. Even at the beginning of the book when Roger throws stones at Henry, Golding shows that the seed of anarchy has taken root and is spreading in the hunter’s mind. Roger symbolizes man’s natural tendency to cause harm to others.


Task 6: Investigate the difference about democracy and anarchism and determine what form of government the characters decided to follow


Democracy is a political form of government where governing power is derived from the people, either by direct referendum (direct democracy) or by means of elected representatives of the people (representative democracy). Even though there is no specific, universally accepted definition of 'democracy', equality and freedom have been identified as important characteristics of democracy since ancient times.These principles are reflected in all citizens being equal before the law and having equal access to power. For example, in a representative democracy, every vote has equal weight, no restrictions can apply to anyone wanting to become a representative, and the freedom of its citizens is secured by legitimized rights and liberties which are generally protected by a constitution.

Anarchists are split in this domain, depending on whether they believe that a majority-rule is tyrannic or not. The only form of democracy considered acceptable to many anarchists is direct democracy. Pierre-Joseph Proudhon argued that the only acceptable form of direct democracy is one in which it is recognized that majority decisions are not binding on the minority, even when unanimous.[However, anarcho-communist Murray Bookchin criticized individualist anarchists for opposing democracy, and says "majority rule" is consistent with anarchism.

Nevertheless, anarchism propose a completely different position. They want no governing person or group of people. They don´t believe in the authority.

Task 7: Investigate about the “Hollocaust” and which character resembles “Hittler” and why

The Holocaust (The term holocaust comes from the Greek word holókauston, an animal sacrifice offered to a god in which the whole animal is completely burnt ) was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored extermination by Nazi Germany.The genocide of these six million people was a genocide of two-thirds of the population of nine million Jews who had resided in Europe before the Holocaust.

Some scholars maintain that the definition of the Holocaust should also include the Nazis' systematic murder of millions of people in other groups, including Romani, people with disabilities, Soviet prisoners of war, Polish, and Soviet civilians, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, and other political and religious opponents. By this definition, the total number of Holocaust victims would be between 11 million and 17 million people.

In our opinion, the figure of Hittler is recreated in Jack. It might affirm that Jack represents the dictatorship and irrationality. Jack is changing more on having put all against Ralph and having separated the groups. It becomes very violent and uses the brute force to bring the boys to his group like when it orders Roger to torture SamyEric for this

Task 8: Investigate about human rigths violation and who has suffered from it.

Human rights violations occur when any state or non-state actor breaches any part of the UDHR treaty or other international human rights or humanitarian law. Human rights abuses are monitored by United Nations committees, national institutions and governments and by many independent non-governmental organizations, such as Amnesty International, International Federation of Human Rights, Human Rights Watch, World Organisation Against Torture, Freedom House, International Freedom of Expression Exchange and Anti-Slavery International. These organisations collect evidence and documentation of alleged human rights abuses and apply pressure to enforce human rights laws.

Wars of aggression, war crimes and crimes against humanity, including genocide, are breaches of International humanitarian law and represent the most serious of human rights violations.

Task 9: Symbolism used in the novel, for example: the conch Shell indicates democracy and it is a symbol used by the author ( Investigate why he decided to use a shell to indicate democracy)


· The conch symbolizes democracy and, like Ralph, civility and order within the group. It is, however, eventually smashed into thousands of pieces by the same rock which has killed Piggy later on in the story thereafter. Therefore, the conch's destruction can be perceived as the death of order on the island with also chaos and destruction.

· The beast, the Lord of the Flies, is seen as a real object on the island which frightens the boys. Actually the beast is something internal; the Lord of the Flies is in soul and mind of the boys, leading them to the natural chaos of a society with no reasoning adults. Only Simon understands what the real beast is, but is killed when he tries to tell the boys about the Lord of the Flies. By the end of the novel, the boys are leaving it sacrifices and treating it as a totemic god.

· The Lord of the Flies is literally a pig's head that has been cut off by Jack, put on a stick sharpened at both ends, stuck in the ground, and offered to the "beast". Created out of fear, the Lord of the Flies used to be a mother sow who, though at one time clean, loving, and innocent, has now become a manically smiling, bleeding last image of evil. This transformation clearly represents the transformation that Jack and the boys have undergone during their time in the island. In addition, the name "Lord of the Flies" is the literal English translation of Beelzebub, a demonic figure that is often considered synonymous with Satan.

· Golding purposefully picked an island to be the landing place of the crashed plane because an island is isolated from the rest of society. The boys have no contact with the outside world and must look to themselves to solve the problems of their own micro-society. In this way, the island, which symbolizes isolation, serves as a perfect backdrop for the frailties of human nature which eventually surface.

· The glasses symbolize the voice of reason and logic among the boys. Piggy defends his glasses even more than the conch. Piggy, who represents the superego of the boys’ (and society’s) collective personality, uses his glasses to find solutions to the boys’ problems. The most important solution the glasses find is the lighting of the fire, the boys’ best chance of being rescued.

· The dead body flying in the parachute symbolizes the end of adult supervision of the boys on the island. While the parachute man is flapping back and forth on the island, conjuring up a powerful image of its prolonged death, the Beast, or Lord of the Flies, is prospering under its new control over Jack and most of the other boys on the island. So while the law and order of the adult world is waning, childish chaos is growing exponentially



1 comentario:

  1. Dear students,
    It is not nice to see that you have done cut and paste with your project work. There is no problem in copying some things addressing the source, but do not live the links and the words 'If support list' please.

    ResponderEliminar