Lord of the Flies

       The classic novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding is about a group of young boys that crash land on a desert island with no adults, and therefore, no order. Ralph and Jack, two of the "biguns" (as they had begun to call the older boys), both elected themselves leader, so they held a vote with all of the boys. Ralph won and became chief, but across the book there is an obvious power struggle between the two. People, objects, and other things can symbolize themes in books, just as these symbolize hope, intellect, and power in Lord of the Flies.
     
       As cliche is it is, the fire is one thing that represents hope, along with power. The boys make the fire and hope that the smoke will attract passing ships or planes that will save them. Of course, the young boys get distracted by more interesting things, like stuffing their stomachs with ripe fruit or the glory of hunting pigs with handmade spears. It seems that only Ralph and his trusty (although subject to ridicule) assistant nicknamed Piggy understand that their only hope is the fire. When the fire burns out, so should their hope. The fire was also Ralph's greatest contribution as leader, so when the boys abandon it they relay the message that his authority doesn't mean much to them. Jack, the losing candidate, was one of those boys. This is how the fire represents both hope for the boys and power for Ralph, and the opposite when it burns out.
     
       Another object that particularly represents power and order is a conch that Ralph and Piggy find the very first day on the island. By blowing into the shell, they create a deep, echoing sound that can be heard for miles. They use this to call assemblies led by Ralph, and pass it around to determine who is allowed to speak. The ordinary, inanimate object suddenly had a lot of power on the island. But when touchy subjects came up like the "beast" that was rumored to live on the island or the fact that people kept letting the fire go out, the boys would start to speak out of turn and become rowdy with their urge to speak their opinion. As the boys became more accustomed to their situation, these unruly assemblies occurred more and more often. While the conch itself was passed around, it was controlled and blown by Ralph. The conch wasn't respected anymore, and Ralph was losing authority. When the conch is crushed under a boulder later in the book, all power it or Ralph ever held vanished.
     
       Lastly, Piggy and his glasses represent intellect and rational thinking. Piggy is smart yet he is often bullied by the other boys, being overweight and not exactly handsome. His ideas are intelligent and realistic, but nobody ever listens to him. Even Ralph makes fun of his loyal sidekick. Piggy is technically blind without his thick glasses, and the only way the boys can make fire is to shine light from the sun through them onto a pile of leaves and branches. This makes them very valuable. But the glasses are cracked during one physical skirmish and then stolen by a rival tribe that Jack forms much later in the book. The continuous decline in the quality of the glasses and Piggy's vision relates to what the boys have their eyes set on. They are letting the important things, like being rescued, out of their sight for immature games that turn deadly. What they should be focusing on is obscured by the need to gain power. Piggy was one of the victims of the violence of Jack's new tribe against what was left of Ralph's. He was killed by a boulder let loose by one of the boys, marking the end of all intellectual and rational thinking. Suddenly, full out war against Ralph is the only thing on the boys' minds. Their actions are nothing short of savagely without Piggy and his glasses.

       The fire, conch, Piggy, and his glasses all symbolize different ideas of the text. The fire represents hope of rescue and Ralph's power, like the conch does. Piggy and his glasses represent intellect that keeps the tribe running smoothly. These subtle symbols help the reader understand the text and even foreshadow what is to come. Lord of the Flies involves many complex themes that portray our society in an interesting yet disturbing way that has changed my point of view forever.

"Revised Blog Post" Literary Essay { Perfect Match }

Nina Frost is the main character in the novel Perfect Match by Jodi Picoult. Nina is the assistant district attorney in Maine and prosecutes child molesters day after day. When her five-year-old son, Nathaniel, shows signs of sexual abuse, Nina's home and work clash when her worst fears are confirmed. Nathaniel goes mute after he is raped and Nina struggles to cope and keep calm while trying to pinpoint a suspect. Nina makes decisions that show she will go to any extent for her little boy. Character’s actions always have consequences, whether positive, negative, or both, which shape the story and let both characters and readers learn.

Consequences that stem from desperate actions are mostly, if not always negative in Picoult’s novel. And often, these actions are taken out of love. The perfect example is when Nina took matters into her own hands, unlawfully, and shot Father Szyszynski, the rape suspect at the time. This also shows an example of how far Nina will go for a person that she loves. Nina is obviously a bright person, being the assistant district attorney, but she was blinded by her love and duty to protect her son when she committed homicide. Nina honestly believed that killing the suspect was the only way to protect her son. She thought that the consequences would be positive, but in fact they were just the opposite. Nina’s goal was to protect her son from further sexual abuse and keep him away from the intimidating courtroom by getting rid of who she thought was the perpetrator. Instead, Nathaniel is deprived of his mother while she stays in jail and he slips back into muteness. When the reader finds out, along with Nina, that Father Szyszynski was not in fact the abuser, we realize that her actions and their consequences took us many steps in the wrong direction. Nina attends the priest’s funeral in a disguise and Picoult writes, “…a woman in black is bent over at the waist, sobbing so hard she cannot catch her breath…Father Szyszynski was someone’s son, too…I cannot take away the truth that another mother has lost her son because of me” (164). Nina began to realize the painful consequences of her actions. She then must fight against a jail sentence while the actual rapist was still on the run. Nina shows that she will go far, too far, for somebody she loves. Unfortunately, her desperate actions had negative effects.

     In the long run, Nathaniel’s sexual abuse had both positive and negative effects. Or on the flip side, the fact that Nina was both his mother and the assistant district attorney may have had good and bad consequences. Of course the actual abuse was horrifying and sickening, but the effects on Nina could either make her feel helpless or actually help her. On one hand, it would render Nina helpless because she can’t try her own son’s case and represent him in court. Knowing that Nathaniel’s fate is in someone else’s hands, hands that are probably not as experienced as hers, might drive her crazy. But the experience may help Nina do her job even better because she will be more empathetic to her clients. She thinks, “…now I’m the parent, and it is my child, and that changes everything” (60). Remembering her fear and apprehension when it was her child in that situation would drive her when trying other people’s cases. This shows how the effects the sexual abuse had on Nina could be both positive and negative.

     Teaching Nathaniel sign language after he went mute had both positive and negative effects too. Nina did it out of her love for Nathaniel, but she secretly hoped that he would be able to communicate some information to locate the criminal. And he was, however misinterpreted it was. He signed “father”, and Nina thought he was referring to his dad, Caleb, when in fact he signed it as in “priest”. After hearing this information, Nina told Caleb, “Don’t come home tonight” (69). She walked away after that, pretending “as if my heart had not gone to pieces inside of me” (69). This shows how much she loves both Caleb and Nathaniel, but she is pushing her husband away to protect her son. When Nina realizes that Nathaniel meant to expose “Father” as in a priest, it results in the death of an innocent man. That is the negative consequence of Nathaniel learning sign language, but the positive side is that they did figure out who the criminal was with the same evidence later. The one little thing that Nina did for Nathaniel out of love created much bigger waves than originally thought.

     These are all examples of how actions, however mundane or important, always have consequences. The effects can be positive, negative, or a mixture of the two. Nina shot Father Szyszynski and taught Nathaniel sign language out of her love for him, both of which had negative effects but the latter also had positive ones. Nina dealing with her son being molested may have changed her for the better or for the worse, but either way she has learned a valuable lesson. This repetitive theme of action with consequence can help readers understand that they can make an impact on the world with just one endeavor. The lesson may also warn readers that they must think of the consequences if they do something extreme for someone they love.

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