Connections to the Real World

How can a book about young boys stuck on an island have anything to do with modern society?

Well, the struggle for power between the boys when they are trying to decide who is going to be their leader is something we can see in modern politics. Both Ralph and Jack would like to be the "chief" so they decide to take a vote. When Ralph wins he soon discovers that running the island is not as easy as he thought, and some of the plans he has aren't working as well. I think that when most people in our society decide to run for election, they have good intentions in mind but once they actually get elected they find its difficult to achieve all the things they wanted to.

The most obvious way the novel relates to the world outside the novel is in the fact that the reason the boys ended up on the island is because there was an atomic explosion and when they were being evacuated their plane was attacked. And of course we know that there actually was an atomic explosion once.

The way the other boys treat Piggy is something that unfortunately a lot of kids can relate to, whether or not they're stuck on an island. He is excluded and treated differently because of his weight and his asthma, yet he is the nicest of them all as well as the smartest. He doesn't deserve to be treated this way, but he is for the sole reason that he's a bit different than the rest of them. I've noticed that they don't want him around, unless they decide they need him for something, which so far seems to be his common sense. I think a lot of students can relate to this, people who want you to help them with homework, or be in your group for a project but they never talk to you other than that. They only want Piggy around when they feel they can gain something from it.

In the first little while on the island, Ralph feels they should just have fun until they are rescued. He thinks all they need to do is light the fire at the top of the mountain and wait for a ship to see the smoke and come and get them. He soon realizes that this is not going to be enough to survive. Piggy is helpful in pointing out that they are going to need shelters and that they have no idea how long it will take to be rescued, this is something that I have definately experienced. Not not knowing how long it will be until I get rescued of course, but expecting something to be fun and realizing it's actually going to be a lot of work and not much fun at all. It reminds me of a saying my Dad always says "The fantasy is better than the reality". Ralph expected his fire to be lit and attract a ship, instead they burned down a huge part of the forest and ended up losing one of the boys and there's still no ship to be seen.

Finally, by chapter 3, Ralph has noticed that when they have their meetings, everybody is willing to take on a job and says they're going to help with building huts and keeping the fire going or whatever and then as soon as the meeting is done they go off and do whatever they want. I can totally understand how frustrating this must be for Ralph, I know people who are like this, no commitment! You're depending on them to do something but they keep flaking out, and they just keep promising they're going to do it next time, but yet somehow it never happens.

So that's it for the connections, I'm sure there are others, but none that I can find relate particularily to my life. Oh, well, Piggy wears glasses and so do I, does that count?

-Christina