Gone Mad

Gone Mad

 

     Do the natural outdoors have a big enough impact on someone to make them go ¨mad¨? In this day in age people are used to their luxuries. Even the littlest things that people may use everyday such as air conditioning or heating or the ability to flush a toilet are in fact luxuries. These functions are now now considered normal. So if  someone with these luxuries were dropped on an island with nothing but their will to live, what is their first thought? Survival.

 

     In the novel ¨The Lord of the Flies¨ by William Golding, a group of boys were stranded on an island and could be described as crazy. The author had been in a situation related to the boys when he served in the Royal Navy for about six years. His experiences may have influenced his writing of the novel. After days of surviving on an unknown island, in ¨Lord of the Flies¨, a young boy by the name of Simon starts to see what he perceived to be a demon.  The poor boy was being chased by a pig's head on a stick that was held upby the older boys. But through his exhausted eyes, it was a beast, something the children had dubbed “The Lord of the Flies”. This was Simon's fear being brought to life to terrify him, but was also a way that the other boys could have fun terrorizing the young boy. As the ¨beast¨ followed Simon through the woods, it spoke, ¨There isn't anyone to help you. Only me. And I'm the beast.¨(143) The fear that Simon had been experiencing had caught up to him in an abrupt moment causing him to imagine the pigs head on a stick to be alive. The Lord of the Flies received a small victory when Simone looked deep into the beast's eyes and blacked out.

 

     In an article about the studies of APA President Philip G. Zimbardo, it talks about the reasoning for certain behaviors that may be viewed or even diagnosed as ¨mad¨. Zimbardo had a theory that maybe madness is a symptom brought on by an unexpected event or change in a person's everyday life. Zimbardo did a study on a few college student volunteers and found out that if the student is under a lot of pressure and stress, or if his/her surroundings are stressful or any other emotion to the extreme, that their response to it can be influenced by the amount of one emotion being forced onto them.

 

     In relation to the book, Simon had been influenced by the over producing fear that him and the rest of the boys were surrounded by. The boys had experienced a huge change in their day to day pattern when they were dropped on an island and relied on each other to survive. Simon, being one of the younger boys, was more susceptible to fear, causing his emotions to get scattered more easily and in result, he started to go mad. Zimbardo had talked about when someone is put in a situation they cannot deal with, that their coping mechanisms may result in behaviors labeled psychopathology. ¨When the volunteers were unable to come up with acceptable explanations or social comparisons for their arousal, their inability to deal with it would eventually lead to predictable symptoms of psychopathology.¨ This can relate to Simon in that he could not find a way to deal with his fear, and so it soon turned into a beast.

 

     The novel ¨Lord of the Flies¨ by William Golding represents the fact that normal people can go mad, and this relates to the real world because there have been studies proving the how and why normal people go mad. The environment in which a person is placed can have a big enough impact on that person to make them go mad. This study can help society by recognizing that it is possible to go mad due to a situation or surroundings of a person.

Works Cited:

Week 10 - LINK • Artist's statement • Blog

For this quarter I have done many different assignment arts assignments that could have done a lot better on and ones I did really good on. 
For week 1&2 I have draw a bike using a pencil first then outlining it with a sharpie. I liked how I draw the it but I could I missed out with the color which costed me 5 points of my grade. If I was to do this over I would add more details around the bike to make it pop out more. Also, I would redraw my wheels and try to  make it look much better.
For week 3&4 I was to draw an optical illusion and I choose to draw a picture I seen online but made it my own still. It took me a while to draw it with adding details but I really enjoyed it. The color is what really made the picture pop out in have that illusion look. One thing that I missed up on was time management. If I handled my timing better I believe I would have draw the black lines much better making it look real.
For week 5&6 I was to draw shading forms. I chose to draw a cube, cylinder, and sphere. I draw the the cube the best, I shaded it well and it looked good for my first time of shading. I could have done a lot better with the other two because with the cylinder the shading could have been much better and the sphere could have been draw better, more of a circle.  
For week 7 I really enjoyed the way I draw this because the eye looked real and I added good detail to it with a lot of shading. I could have done better with shaping the eyeball better and making the pupil less dried out and bettering the lighting out in it. 
For the last week, week 8&9  I have draw a mandala. This was different for me to draw because it's not really my style but this was a good start for me than overdoing it. I liked the design I chose, it is similar to the crazy big one but doesn't have a lot of detail. If I could do this project over I would color much better and have a different color selection, I think this is what really made this project not look so good.


The Fear of The Unknown

Kai Payton

Ms. Pahomov

English 2

April 5, 2018


Fear of The Unknown


The fear of the unknown is a powerful aspect of people’s lives. There are many different forms of fear that a person could experience in their life. People are not aware of the things that cause the fear inside of them, or what fear can do to a person. Most of the time fear lives inside of you and it seems to become a reality. Fear can sometimes control a person to the point that they do not think before taking action. It is something that isn’t controllable. People fear the unknown because they do not know what is going to happen if that fear becomes real.

   In Lord of The Flies, by William Golding is a book that revolves around the idea of fear. Boys are stranded on an island and have to find a way to survive. At the beginning of the story fear wasn’t something influential and important, but as the story went on it can be seen taking over the boy’s minds. A moment in the story occurred where Sam and Eric, the twins, were watching the fire on the island. While doing this they fell asleep and when they woke up they saw a dead man hanging from a parachute. In Chapter 6 the narrator says, “The twins stared at their identical laughter then remembered the darkness and other things and glanced round uneasily.” (97) They saw that man as the “beast” on the island. There was no actual beast, but this still built up fear inside of the boys. The beast started controlling and impacting the way they made a lot of decisions on the island. It influenced the way the leaders made decisions in certain situations. When the twins came back to the rest of the group and told them about the beast, the rest of the group was startled and frightened by their story. The twins along with the other boys have things they fear which in a way brings them back to reality.  The fear continues to grow because there is nobody there to tell them the beast is just in their head and there's nothing to be afraid of. They don’t know what the beast could do to them if they allow it to get them. In addition to that, the boys are only 12 years old or younger. Their imagination is still running wild while it can.

A form of  fear can be as simple as a young child's nightmare that follows people their whole life. It could be that one distinct thing people have been afraid of. Recurring fears are something that makes people feel like they can’t escape. When people go to sleep and have a nightmare they eventually wake up but that fear stays with them. You might go to sleep again and have that same nightmare that fuels your fear to stay and linger within. According to KidsHealth.org nightmares usually, occur for no apparent reason or occur when a child is going through a time of stress or change. With the young age of these boys, they’re going through a lot of changes since they’re still growing up. Seeing as though the boys are stressed with the constant fear of the beast they’re in a living nightmare. Along with that they have built up stress from the fact that their stranded on an island with no adult figure for reassurance.

   Essentially fear is in your head you make yourself scared of things or the people around you give you reasons to fear. With fear people have to think of a way to overcome it because it’s not something, people deal with easily. With the boys on the island, some people were doubtful of the idea of the beast towards the beginning. Then as time went on and things related to the beast started to happen more and more of the boys began to believe that the beast was a real. Just like many other fears, it was just in their heads and it’s not real. When kids are that age they usually have someone to tell them everything will be okay when dealing with fears. Sadly for this group of boys, the only ones who could be of any authority showed fear of this beast too which only strengthens the idea of it. Referring to KidsHealth.org again it states that parents should encourage nice dreams during this time. No one is telling the boys the beast is actually a nice guy and won’t hurt them.

   At one point in the book, some of the boys kill what they believe is the beast. When doing this they had no remorse for it and didn’t stop until it was lying lifeless and still. Once this happened the fear of the beast was alleviated in some way. They carried themselves in a different way after the “death” of the beast. They no longer had as strong of a fear following them while on the island. They felt as if the beast was able to come back they would be able to kill it again since they did it before. Killing the beast brought the boys a form of closure in this situation. This killing of the beast was a way of having a parent tell a child everything will be okay when having nightmares. The points of closure to a person's fear is what destroys the fear piece by piece.

   Fear has a strong effect on many people's lives. The beast influenced many of the boy's choices because they didn’t know what it could do to them. Children fear their nightmares because they never know when they’ll happen or what they’ll see when they have them. People don’t like the feeling of fear because it causes problems outside of it. With nightmares, it can cause a loss of sleep and with the beast, it can cause you to think some things aren’t what they really are.  It affects people in many different ways some stronger than others.




WORK CITED

  1. Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. New York: Penguin, 2006.

“Nightmares.” Edited by D'Arcy Lyness, KidsHealth, The Nemours Foundation, July 2013, kidshealth.org/en/parents/nightmare.html.

Adult supervison

In William Golding’s dystopian novel, The Lord of the Flies, the boys initially celebrate the absence of adult supervision and attempt to create a new civilization.

When they first go to the Island Ralph is there with piggy and Ralph ran down the hill and fell then piggy told him “My auntie told me not to run”(PG.9). After that Ralph says to piggy “Ass-mar”(PG.9). As you can tell but if you can't I will tell you. There are too different people on this Island the ones that want the comfort of a adult like piggy, and the one that is happy of the fact that there are no adults on the island and will have fun more than survive. In this quote there was a meeting and jake had to conch and started to agree with what Ralph was saying “We have got to have rules and obey them. After all, we are not savages. We are english and the english are best at everything. So we have got to do the right things.”(42) This quote by Ralph shows that they were trying to make their own civilization without supervision or guidance from adults. But they do not want to even listen to there themselves  They try to survive so they set a plan to appoint a leader and a group of hunters to get food. However, the leader and the hunters have a argument about what to do and then they separate into two tribes.  


In the book “Lord Of The Flies” by William Golding Piggy, one of the main characters to wake up on a island and one of the first things he said was. “This is an island. At least I think its an island.That's a reef out in the sea. Perhaps there aren't any grownups anywhere” (8). When Piggy said “perhaps there are not any grownups anywhere”, to me I think that he was relieved and yet he was scared because no one was there to supervise him. It seems like today's civilization operates the same thing within the government. Relieved that there are some things that are out of the way and accomplished yet society is scared of what might happen if that “thing”, such as resources, laws, organization, etc. fail that they have. Or they will make work, so to me it seems that they forgot the simple answer to the problem and that then made it more complicated. In a study talking about why teenagers are more impatient than adults. In a paragraph in the article is says that  The structural connections between two key areas activated during decision making are not yet as strong in adolescents as they are in adults. So I think this means that when the kids were on the island they were trying to think of the fastest way off. Instead of trying to survive long enough to think of a good plan off the island. Another way to prove that the kids were have thing a hard time working on there “new Civilization” without parents is, when they were at the meeting about what to do and Ralph tells piggy to shut up and Ralph says the same thing piggy says After that piggy gets angry. “ That's what I said! I said about our meetings and things and then you said shut up-”(PG.43)

Another article that I found talks about why teenagers don't really want to be around their parents     



In the book, “Lord Of The Flies”, by William Golding, kids are not understanding how hard it is to create a civilization. Without any guidance from adults they can not really tell the wrongs from the rights and that's why some of them did not make it off the island in one piece.                




Work Cited

Golding, William. Lord Of The Flies.New York: penguin, 2006

Why Adolescents Are More Impatient than Adults | Max Planck Institute for Human Development, www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/en/media/2015/06/why-adolescents-are-more-impatient-than-adults.

A PARENT’S GUIDE TO CPS and the COURTS - SF Superior Court. www.bing.com/cr?IG=0B1EEFDA0B1A44BD92D14EF7EE34B3D3&CID=125909FB71466B7A1B24023370E96A6F&rd=1&h=aeZte1aNkqUHJXzamVkkIBpjys8XmCEhCGJt-1s-aY8&v=1&r=http://www.sfsuperiorcourt.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/2669 ParentsGuide.pdf&p=DevEx.LB.1,5068.1.   


Leading By Fear and Cruelty

Teyonna Little

English

Ms. Pahomov

April 6, 2018

Leading By Fear and Cruelty

As a leader, what people say, do, and act upon is what others follow. Rather or not it is good or bad doesn't matter, it’s how ineffective or effective people are at being what they claim to be. Leadership qualities and skills are essential when leading a group of people who fully relies on their leaders and what they teach. In today’s society and in the novel, Lord of the flies written by William Golding, there are specific persons in leadership who controls the citizens under them and scare their opponents with intimidation simply because they have the power to do so. Leaders can be most effective by asserting their authority through fear and cruelty. This ability can help them even get power over other leaders.  

In the novel, a group of young boys are stranded on an island and left to fend for themselves. One of the main characters, Jack is a leader upon a part of the group of boys. Throughout the book,  he takes this responsibility for granted by intimidating his followers and opponents. When all of the boys gathered round for an important meeting talking about the beast, everyone shared their ideas for how to deal with this beast. Jack responds to some ideas in rude ways. For example, “And you shut up! Who are you, anyway? Sitting there telling people what to do… I’m chief! I was chosen!”  The tone of his character is ultimately authoritative, but it is not a take control of the situation, it is a “control” by force situation. He wants to feel rather superior and in doing this he leads through fear. The way he talks to his people is rather scary and this only makes it easier for him to get what he wants. In this particular moment, he uses the phrase “I’m chief” to also remind people who he is. They might already know, but saying this is a demand of remembrance, so they know exactly who to listen to even if other people comes up with ideas or takes the place of a leader for a split second. Leading this way gives him leadway to have controlling power.  

Leading by fear is a common thing among leaders today. After researching examples of leaders who leads through fear, I found the website businessinsider.  This specific article gives 18 influential and well known people who leads by fear and provides specific details of what they had done. Most people that appeared on this website are bosses or someone at a high level of leadership. The one that was surprising the most was Martha Stewart. The report noted,  although she is cheerful, “Martha Stewart can be a very intimidating boss. She’s not great at giving up control either.” Research also shows she “pushed down” 2 CEO’s within a year. Usually in business, when saying “pushed down”, this means making someone want to quit or resign from their position. In this case, 2 other leaders. The connection between Martha Stewart and Jack is clear that they both are very aggressive. They use this to their advantage to get their followers to do what they want how they want it. When it comes to oppressing their opponents, they succeed in getting this fear that their followers have to spread to other leaders.  

Although Jack’s influence is yet effective, his actions can sometimes be intensely unpleasant and cruel. As readers know, Jack as a leader possesses good and bad leadership qualities, one of his worst tactics to rise to power would be cruelty to others. In this case, Jack is attempting to prove his power to the other boys, including Ralph and Piggy, 2 other leaders of the boys. He explicitly shows the transition from just an ordinary school boy in charge of the choir, to an angry boy who lust for power and leadership over everyone and the island. The book reads, “... and the wails of agreement from the hunters drove Jack to violence…  He took a step, and able to last to hit someone, struck his fist into Piggy’s stomach… You would, would you? Fatty! … Jack smacked Piggy’s head.”(71) When leading by fear, there is a strong lust for power, and there are different ways people use to get to that level. Cruelty can be used and expressed for different reasons and different ways. This strategy cannot just be used to put other people down, such as people who do not follow that specific leader, but to gain control over other leaders. And may I remind you, Piggy has the quality of a leader, but is in no shape to be one.

Surely, many should be aware of the presidential election of 2016, and the reputations of the candidates and the series of events leading up to this point. During the campaign, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton go head to head to be president. Everything is out there, when you run for these spots in society. Leading through fear and putting people down can ultimately scare people into being their follower. Research was done to obtain specific details of Trump putting other people down just as Jack belittled Piggy. Here is one example of Donald Trump belittling women indirectly, these were his words, “beauty and elegance, whether in a woman, a building, or a work of art, is not just superficial or something pretty to see.” It is acceptable for a leader to be angry or frustrated, but it is unacceptable when they use this for control. Not only is this cruel treatment, this is cruel treatment to the ones following the leader and the opponents.

There are many tactics that leaders who are not bad, but have bad qualities use to gain control over people and things.  Two of these tactics are to lead by fear and cruelty. These unnecessary, but yet effective skills can help them gain power over other leaders. This is not something people would  want to be acknowledged for, but try to be acknowledged for their good qualities, like confidence and patience.

Works Cited:

  1. Golding, William, Lord of the Flies. New York: Penguin, 2006.

  2. Cohen, Claire. “Donald Trump Sexism Tracker: Every Offensive Comment in One Place.” The Telegraph, Telegraph Media Group, 4 June 2016, www.telegraph.co.uk/women/politics/donald-trump-sexism-tracker-every-offensive-comment-in-one-place/. I found this source by researching specific leaders who put other people down. I know this source is credible because it contains evidence of each thing listed and backs it up with explanations and it is a timeline. This influenced ,my thinking by drawing certain connections to the book and my thesis statement.

  3. Nisen, Max. “18 Executives Who Lead By Fear.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 12 Sept. 2012, www.businessinsider.com/18-executives-who-lead-by-fear-2012-9#film-and-theater-producer-scott-rudin-7.  I found this source by researching people who leads by fear and how they do. I think this source of credible because it gave several leaders and well-known people and descriptions of what they done to lead by fear.


Lord of the Flies: Fear of an Outcast


Fear may be one of the most paralyzing experiences, not because it can physically kill human beings, but because it can damage them emotionally. Human beings are afraid of being outcasts, and therefore, they attempt to join groups so that they do not feel so isolated. The fear of not being accepted forces human beings to adopt behaviors and personalities that are not our own. In a society where people are heavily influenced by one another, it is easy for human beings’ overwhelming fear of being alone impacts who they choose to be and how they choose to act. In Lord of the Flies, William Golding challenges readers to witness the many ways young boys, such as the littluns, follow the sometimes irrational leads of the older boys because they fear they will not survive otherwise. Humans will change their behavior and follow group trends when the fear of being an outcast outweighs all other factors.

Human beings often feel the need to fit in, and throughout each generation, the need to follow others’ lead grows stronger. In the case of Lord of the Flies is we see the younger boys try to follow the older ones in the means of finding a place to belong. In the beginning of the chapter, readers have limited access to the histories  of the different characters in the novel. Before the boys elect a chief,they begin to figure different things out. In this moment they are learning each other names and when they boys call piggy ¨Fatty¨ Ralph is quick to correct them and tell him his name is Piggy when we all know that is not his actually name. It than states ¨A storm of laughter arose and even the tiniest child joined in. For a moment they boys were a closed circuit of sympathy with Piggy outside¨ (21)  Here, even the tiniest of the boys laughs, but we do not know the child’s intention. Because everyone else is laughing, the littlun joins in. He at the time may have not knew what was going on because they were so little but because they saw others laughing they decided to join in. If the child had chosen to ignore the laughter and remain quiet, he would have served as an outcast,image if he had not joined in with the others and then he too would be next to be the joke of the island. There was this fear of better him than me and that was the compelling reason for them to join in with the laughter rather than stick up for Piggy. In what we are trying to address it’s natural to want to belong and there will always and forever will be a need to belong. This behavior is also exhibited in the real world as well. According to Today’s Psychology, there is psychological evidence for the reasoning behind us wanting to follow the crowd. One reason others influence us is because humans are social. Based on several studies we have survived because of our ability to band together, seeing how early humans who formed groups were more likely to survive than those who went solo. Both the real world situation and the book corealate, in the way they go about join the groups. It is as if they are not willy joins the groups but are doing it by force because they fear the outcome if they don't.

In chapter seven of the novel, the boys have been on the island for quite some time now and learn that in order for them to survive they need to hunt for their food. At this point the boys are already losing faith in their hopes to go back home. That afternoon while wondering the island looking for the beast, the boys find pig droppings. It is then Jack suggests they hunt the pig while also looking for the beast. It then continues to say “Well. We shan’t find what we're looking for at this rate. One by one they stood twitching rags into place.” (135) In a decision that is made by the chief they  they now go out and hunt for food in the hopes that they will find what they are looking for, but instead it causes for the boys to bring a side of themselves they have not seen before. The boys decide to follow the lead of their chief and side with best the decision they believe is best at the time, though they did not have any other choice at the time I believe they did this out of pressure, because if one were to go against the rules of society.  the one that was placed on time being on this island alone. It would not only leave that person a stray but also be harmful for that person because they would turn on him as well. This forces them to do thing they have never done before and this solely because they don't want to be an outcast. I image not everyone was comfortable with the idea of killing, but to say if they did not help than the would not receive any food.there would be consequences if the boys did not follow after Jack, but there is also the conquest of knolling that they have lost their insconces. An example of this behavior is represented in the reaklworld as well. There was a case of a man who did not want to be muslim anymore and for that reason he was banished from his home and was forced to move away. If there a family member that felt the same balfieds that would not speak up after witnessing this because them too would become an outcast.

In conclusion, though there are a myriad reasons why our brains tell us that we need to be like one another, there is also a part that tells us we should be different. Just as it shows us from what is right and wrong. In a world that is fixated  on following other people’s lead, r it is only a hope that we will break free from this pattern.We know there is such a thing as a leader and a follower, but followers can also serve as leaders.



Quarter 3- Alexa Lahr

Quarter 3 Art
My art this quarter was definitely something that helped me calm my nerves. I used different things I was feeling and put it into 6 pieces. Starting off each of these projects I automatically spent the first day visualizing my ideas and thinking of ways to mirror the image. By the next day, I started working on what the final product would be. If I could describe my art in one word, I would say it is abstract.  I also use a lot of symbolism. For example, my collage piece is very different from a typical college, there’s a story behind it. I used the newspaper to symbolize the history our eyes tell and in another piece, I used flowers to symbolize peace. 

Savage or Grieving

Traumatic events cause different reactions in people depending on their personality, but they have a higher chance of being  detrimental to children. Think of a child getting lost in store for a second that child thinks they are all alone in the world, and that memory can stick with them. Some children refuse to speak after trauma, while others act out in destructive ways, and many children become numb to the trauma. In The Lord of The Flies by William Golding, one may see savages and boys reverting to natural, predatory, tendencies. But through a psychological lens, the reader can take  a different view. The boys are not acting on savage instinct, but rather coping with the loss of adult figures and the stress of being on their own.

A group of boys ages ranging up to 12 get stranded on an island. They vote for a leader, Ralph, who remains the leader throughout the book. The boys create a character called the beast who one boy, Simon, says that the beast is just a man.  After the boys behavior really gets out of hand and the boy, Simon, ends up dying. Piggy, who seems to remain a voice of reason throughout the book is comforting Ralph after the Murder of Simon and Ralph says, "I’m frightened. Of us. I want to go home Oh God, I want to go home." pg 157  I want to go home is a statement that shows the youth of Ralph. He was placed in a position of power and now we can see his weakness. Out of the loss of theadults they attempt to make their own civilization the death of Simon is the beginning of the fall of their society. They created the character of the beast to personify their fear and when that idea was challenged they lashed out. Now that Simon is dead, Ralph feels that he has failed as a leader and he now longs for home where everything is in order and he doesn’t have to run his own life. If he was acting solely on savage instinct this wouldn’t be part of his reaction. If he was only acting on primitive instinct he would feel guilt or be mourning Simon.

The boys behavior can be examined from a psychological perspective. In an article written about Children and Teens with PTSD.  THe following was said, “They might also think there were signs that the trauma was going to happen. As a result, they think that they will see these signs again before another trauma happens. They think that if they pay attention, they can avoid future traumas.” The article is talking about how if a child initially saw signs of the traumatic event they may act out in order to stop another similar event from occuring. In Lord of The Flies the boys do just this. They are in a plane crash so their original social order failed them and in an attempt to create a new social order another tragedy, Simon’s Death happens so they readjust and moe more and more away from the systems that failed them.

After the death of Simon the civilization aspect of the boys completely falls other than the conch. The conch is a tool the boys use as a talking stick. If you have the conch you can speak. In this moment Piggy has the conch and he is forcing the boys to listen to him. He is trying to stop the full transformation from civilized to savage.   “Which is better - to have rules and agree, or tp hunt and kill?” pg 180. In this moment you can see the

boys have the ability to reason. They listen to Piggy which is rare occurrence. They listened to him which means they aren’t savages they are just looking for a leader. The last point of structure is the conch and they still see rules. The whole structure falls after the conch is destroyed.

When you were young did you ever lash out when you were scared? Traumatic events cause different reactions depending on who a person is, but they can be most detrimental to children. Some children refuse to speak after trauma, while others act out in destructive ways, and many children become numb to the trauma. On this island, the boys act out in violent ways. Through a societal lens, one may see savages and boys reverting to natural, predatory, tendencies. But through a psychological lens one may get a different view. The boys are not acting on savage instinct but rather coping with the loss of adult figures and the stress of being on their own.


Imagination and The Fears They Make by: Donald Moses

People imagine all kinds of possibilities for their life like for example what their dream job will be, what kind of house they’ll live in, and what their future family would look like. But when it comes to fear, our imagination tends to wander and over exaggerates what is currently happening from a small incident to a big life threatening risk. People repeatedly conceptualize potentiality however when it comes to fears or concerns our imagination tends to roam and overestimate what is presently happening from a minimal circumstance to a serious life threatening incident.

 

The boys on the island over exaggerated a mighty beast out of fear and believed there was on the island and their imaginations included what the beast looked like and where it came from. Their imagination made them believed one of their own friends and the corpse of a fallen soldier was the beast without confirmation that what they saw was real. In the real world the world sees this similarly with police officers on a case at night and they imagine their suspect is armed with a gun when their suspect is actually not armed and they shoot without hesitation because they imagine their lives are at risk.

In Chapter 5 of “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding, the survivors stranded on the island fear of a beast roaming on the Island based on talk of the little children. While this is happening they also start to act uncivilized in many ways. After seeing these Issues Ralph calls an assembly to address these issues and then ends it with trying to debunk the talk and fear of the beast. “You! What were you mucking about in the dark for?” (pg 85). This shows that the fear in the little children about a beast was there imagination and that what they thought was a beast was actually Simon as he was walking around at night. When Simon went out

 

In an article made by Shaun King about Police Brutality. This article relates to my thesis as it talks about how Police are trained to shoot the imagined possibilities instead of waiting for confirmation and reality of the danger. This connects to the children as the police images the danger of each case while the children image the danger of a beast roaming around on the island which lead to them to fear that their lives are coming to a close end.

 

Later on in the book the boys are more split than ever with Jack leading the Hunters as savages. During a thunderstorm, after discovering the corpse of a dead soldier that crashed on the island Simon grabs the parachute off the corpse to tell the others of his discovery. After finding the boys he is quickly mistaken as the imaginary beast they believed was real and then assaulted by the savages and died in the water. “Softly, surrounded by a fringe of inquisitive bright creatures, itself a silver shape beneath the steadfast constellations, Simon’s dead body moved out toward the open sea” (pg 154). This shows how powerful imagination has on people’s speculation and quick actions without any real proof their thoughts are real and not false images. Being far from the fire and with the lightning behind Simon all the boys saw from him was just his darkened figure with the parachute in hand so the others believed Simon was the beast out of fear and because they had no logic to proof that it was Simon because all they saw was shadows and their imagination took over their true senses.

 

In an article on LA Times talks about a police shooting that happened not too long ago that caused a whole commotion. The police involved in this article were on a case about somebody breaking windows and running through people’s backyards. They had a police copter flying over and saw the guy they were about to shoot and lead the officers as the guy was running and ended stopping in his grandmother’s backyard where the police caught up to him. On the article there is a video from the body camera of the officers and then one of them say something similar to “He’s got a gun!” and then they shot about 20 shots at the guy. What the officers thought was a gun was actually the guy’s phone.

 

Imagination has lead us to our entertainment but the darker side of imagination lead us to fear inanimate objects or fear ourselves and those around us. Imagination also is what makes us believe something is something more deadly. This is a problem we see in our own life from police on duty, and in “Lord of the Flies” with the boys at night.

 

Works Cited

Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. New York: Penguin, 2006.

Winton, Richard, et al. “Stephon Clark Shooting: How Police Opened Fire on an Unarmed Black Man Holding a Cellphone.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 23 Mar. 2018, www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-stephon-clark-shooting-sacramento-explainer-20180323-story.html.

King, Shaun. “KING: Police Violence Based on Imagined Threats Must Be Illegal.” NY Daily News, NEW YORK DAILY NEWS, 23 Aug. 2016, www.nydailynews.com/news/national/king-police-violence-based-imagined-threat-illegal-article-1.2762461.

The Projection of Fear

The Projection of Fear

Projection is a natural occurrence where humans press their feelings and emotions on to other people or sometimes even imaginary things. Humans project their emotions into theoretical things because they want to try and make their fears less scary by including them in reality. Many would identify projections as a hallucination, but does this justify the irrational or violent actions that can be caused by them?  The savage behavior displayed by those who project their emotions could be completely avoided if the fears were never instilled in their heads. For some people there is nothing more frightening than the unknown. When humans allow these fearful projections to take over, they engage in violent and other unsafe behavior.

In the book, The Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, a group of young boys survive a plane crash on a deserted island and are left to fend for themselves. This causes them to begin to hallucinate and project their greatest fears into something they call “the beast.” One of the boys, Simon, has had the most encounters with the so called “beast,” even having a conversation with it at one point. Later, the beast is renamed as “The Lord of the Flies” and appears to Simon as a talking pig’s head on a stick. “‘Pig’s head on a stick.’ ‘Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill!’ said the head.”(143) One of Simon’s greatest fears, along with almost all of the other boys on the island, was this so called “beast.” Due to this fear, Simon hallucinated, or projected, this onto the pigs head to include the beast as a part of his reality. As the reader sees in this scene of the book, Simon thinks that he is speaking with the “beast” in the form of a pig’s head, when really, this “beast” is just a projection of his fear. Simon’s withdraw from the real world and adults, causes him to fear the things he has never had to do himself. His fears of starvation, dehydration, and death, are the ones who cause him to project his emotions into the beast.

In a later scene of the novel, Simon makes it back to the camp where the boys were living and things take a turn for the worst. The other boys believe that Simon is connected to the “beast” and end up murdering him for what they think is their own safety. “With the running of the blood Simon’s fit passed into the weariness of sleep. He lay in the mat of creepers while the evening advanced and the cannon continued to play.”(145) The boys projection of fear lead them to go as far as killing one of their own allies. This so called “beast” triggers them to do irrational things, such as killing one of their own allies who they believe the beast is connected to. This is a prime example of how the projection of emotions can lead to atrocious and deadly actions.

Although the book is fictional, the world sees situations like this happen all of the time in the real world. For example, in 2014 two teenage girls attempted to murder their friend because they were convinced that if they did not a fictional character called “the Slenderman” would kill their families. People create unrealistic scenarios in their heads because they are unable to live with their fears, and this can sometimes can cause the person themselves to become the one to fear. In a article about the case from the LA Times, it states, “The two girls came to believe internet folklore about Slender Man so strongly that they thought he would kill them or their families if they didn’t attack.” This is a prime example of how projection can lead people to commit outrageous acts and sometimes even go mad themselves. The girls who tried to commit the murder are now both serving time in mental facilities and will be there for 20 plus years.

Much like the girls in real life, the character’s in the book were fearing the unknown. The boys in the book greatest fears being  starvation, death, and dehydration, while the girl’s fears being the death or harm of their loved ones. These fears can lead some to try and commit fatal actions, but others could be lead to actually committing them. The fear of not having control over something is enough to drive people mad, so people are willing to do anything to conquer this fear and feel like they are the ones in control of the situation. When people fear things they tend to let it take over them, but with projection, people push that fear on to other things, rather than themselves. For many this is a way of coping. But does that justify irrational or even violent actions that may come along with that? This debate continues in real life, as the sentencing of the two girls did not go how many thought it would. Many people disagree with the fact that the girls are serving their time in a mental facility instead of an actual jail.

The projection of fear can lead to crazy things. Humans see this in real life, and in fiction everyday. Some people blame fictional characters as to why people may do bad things, others would just blame the mental health of those responsible for the actions. Looking through a sympathetic point of view, one could think that the girls in real life, and the characters in the book only have the mental health of themselves to blame. They both allowed their projection of fear to take over and this lead to their violent and semi-fatal actions. Although their actions were wrong, because of their state of mind, one could argue that they could not help their own actions. All of these savage actions could have been avoided if the fears had never been planted. If everything is presented as the way it is created to be, then then there would be no fear to project.





Works Cited

Golding, William. Lord of The Flies. New York: Penguin, 2006.


Cosgrove, Jaclyn. “The Story behind 'Slender Man' and How Fear of This Fictional Character Nearly Ended in Murder.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 22 Dec. 2017, www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-slenderman-sentencing-20171222-htmlstory.html.


“Psychological Projection.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 4 Apr. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_projection.


What Is FriendShip?

There are different types of friendship, such as the ones that have known each other for years and consider themselves "Best Friends", and those who just met. Friendship is a strong thing to keep, with that power, you and your friend could discover new things. Sometimes friendships can be destroyed by the people and the things around them, while others friendships can be very influential, and last very long . Someone’s surroundings is the most important things towards friendships because it can cause either a tremendous downfall or an increased rate of gaining friendships.  The environment around someone is the most important factor in the strength of a friendship.

In the 20th century, there were two valuable British authors. These authors went by the names of  “J.R.R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis”, their art was very beautiful, and was able to allow their readers to personally connect to their writing, or just enjoy their style of writing on just a reading level. They were not just regular authors, they were authors that had their own styles, and was able to target people who don't even speak their language. As you may think that even though they were very creative authors, they didn't really have a great relationship at first. The people around them made them think that they wouldn't be able to work together. Tolkien met Lewis at Merton college, just like others, it wasn't ¨friendship at first site¨. They didn't have any problems with one another, Lewis actually described Tolkien as a ¨smooth Pale. After they found out that they both shared an interest in Norse mythology, their bond began to grow them together like some type of magnetic force. Throughout the years that they shared in college together, they found more interest such as Writing books together. The ¨The pair agreed the fantasy and science-fiction genres, while enticing in their promise, lacked entries they actually wanted to read. That quote shows that they both felt as though that authors in their timeline were not doing their job, which was to entertain their readers through there writing. They both understood that they were not ordinary Writers, they both agreed that they enjoyed caring about stories that no one else cared about. That is very important because that is one of there most valuable moments, they understood that they were different. So they did what any upcoming potential authors would do, they Began to work on their own ¨Book¨. ¨Tolkien¨ was very excited about his work, so he decided to show ¨Lewis¨ what he had so far, And Lewis as a ¨Great Friend¨ told Tolkien to keep writing and too never give up. If we look back towards My Topic Sentences, you can tell that everything that they are doing, is just being translated into words. Both of the Authors known their surroundings, because they were able to interpret their surroundings on a higher level than others, they were able to use that which allowed them not to influenced into different directions which would have to spit them up.

     In the book Lord of the flies by William Golding, the characters go through several different events that pull them together. The events Allowed them to express who they really are. The reason why this is a good thing is that as I stated before, it formed a friendship. Today we won't really need to focus on 1,2, characters, but we will focus on all of the characters. Being able to relate to something with someone is very important because it shows that you both had to go through something serious, or just a simple event. Before the children landed on the island, they had no insight of who one another was. Them surviving the plane crash is the thing that allowed them to come together, all of the boys were able to relate to this event because they all went through it together. The environment somewhat influences them to come closer. Even though they didn't really have a way of the island just wet, they knew that they had to work together to survive. All of the boys came together to assign jobs. As I stated before, friendship is when you have respect from another, and that's what the children had during the assembly. They had to give someone an important role in becoming their new leader. The leader wasn't someone who can make someone do something such as get the leader some food but to make sure that everyone is doing there specific task. In chapter 1 “the sound of the shell” the character Piggy has been through a lot.  Piggy feels "intimidated by the uniformed authority and the off-hand superiority in Merridew's voice" and draws closer to Ralph (21). The reason why I chose this quote is that this quote shows how piggy feels towards the character Ralph. Some of the other children were laughing at how the characters name was “Piggy”. As a friend should do, Ralph had Piggy back. He shut down all of the laughter that the other children were doing and explained how piggy was his real name and why it wasn't funny, with that only, you can tell that Ralph was acting like a true friend. The character piggy wasn't too open, or in other words, he wasn't very friendly. He was able to keep things to himself, but while the kids were giggling and making fun him, As any kid would react, piggy began to become angry. Over time, their friendships began to expand, and they became more open with one another. “Piggy was so full of pride in his contribution to the good of society, that he helped to fetch wood." That quote is important because if we look through his perspective from the beginning of the story vs now, you can see how much the other characters allowed him to open up. Before we end off, I want to look at this last quote. “Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy. This may be one of the most powerful quotes in the story, it shows that at times the most valuable character is your friend, and sometimes, challenges are things that bring people even closer.  

  

The characters in “lord of the flies” and  “J.R.R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis” share rare similarities. They both had to face one of the most challenging events ever which are the term Friendship. Being a friend comes with huge responsibilities, you have to be there for your friend, go through some many obstacles, but the most important, Never Give up. In the book, the characters went through a lot, but never gave up, in the end, they were able to find their way off the island. That's because they had each other and never gave up. Lastly, “J.R.R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis” both went through remarkable obstacles together, and the¥ stayed together, which signifies true friendship.

  Everyone needs a taste of friendship, it allows people to meet new people, and to express their feelings to their friends. Without Friendships, you feel alone, and I know that through experience. Friendships bring people together and learn new things. So that's why friendships are important.



Sources

1 “Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. New York: Penguin, 2006.”  

2- “How C.S. Lewis Helped Encourage Tolkiens Lord of the Rings.” Newsweek, 9 Mar. 2017, www.newsweek.com/men-letters-jrr-tolkien-and-cs-lewiss-bond-563509.


Art Presentation - End of Quarter

This quarter, I did many different art pieces for each individual assignment. We focused on things from shading, to mainly just color. While doing my pieces this quarter, I hit some hard bumps along the way. Most assignments were meant to be very accurate and intricate. There were not many assignments that were very free hand, which was very challenging. I tried to approach each assignment with a positive outlook on everything and do each one in a creative manner. The outcome for each assignment was very different each time. Which is something I am not very used to. I used to have one way of how I wanted the pieces to be structured for each assignment that I did.

It was really fun to do new things that I have not previous done, for example the mandala assignment. I did not realize how hard it would be to create a mandala until I started attempting to draw one. A lot of things had to go into it when thinking about the shapes, lines, and colors. It was one of the more time consuming assignments. I think that one the most difficult assignments was the bicycle. Although it does not sound all that tricky to accomplish, it is. There are so many structural elements in a bike that made it very challenging to interpret onto a sheet of paper. It was the assignment I was the most unhappy about. Overall, I liked all of the assignments that I had to complete. I think that this quarters assignments were the most challenging compared to the other ones which was difficult but also really exciting. Even though it was tricky, it gave room to converse with others in the classroom who were having the same difficulties and problems.


Is Pride Always Hidden

Mamadou Samassa

Mrs. Pahomov

03/31/18

English

Is Pride Always Hidden

                                                        

In Lord of Flies by, William Golding shares a deep understanding of how much pride a person can maintain within themselves when being cherished by those around them. Sometimes it is hard for people to see their true colors, could it be that they want to be different? There are people that use their pride as a way to get ahead of everyone, others who use it to look bigger than they really are, and this is all the result of being influenced by their own action. This pride people are so daring to try is like a drug one good taste of it and there is no return, it becomes a habit an addiction. Pride is the destroyer of hearts, the grave for the arrogant, the cause of losing someone important. A person becomes a liability when pride barricades them from other people. The author of the novel presents Ralph the main protagonist in the story as having arrogance because he wants to show how pride turns friends into enemies, and how pride leads to guilt.

            An example of this arrogant behavior also took place during 1301 BC. There was a ruler during the  Moses, named Ramses ll, he was the third pharaoh of his dynasty, his father, King Seti the first. Ramses ll lead many expeditions including the Levant and the battle of Kadesh. Ramses led several campaigns south of Cataract to the land of Nubia which was later taken by him. He was a cruel leader which loved to see his people in great agony. According to the Old Testament and the Quran, Ramses ll was the same man who was a contemporary of Moses and the Jews. He was also the one who adopted Moses when he was only a baby. After Ramses ll took the throne at the death of his father he became a very arrogant, prideful, and even calling himself “God” he had possession of all the riches of Egypt, and was the most powerful man of his time. Muslims mention that he was also married to Asiya which was one of the most honored women in Islam, amongst Mary, Khadija, and Fatima (peace be upon them). She was tortured to death because she refused to call her husband Ramses a God, and made sure to discontinue his self-pride. Ramses eventually received a punishment from God after constantly refusing to give the Jews freedom, and saying he is the greatest later dies at the crossing of the Red Sea. According to the Quran Allah (God) says, “So this day We shall deliver your (dead) body (out from the sea) that you may be a sign to those who come after you” (Quran 10:92). Allah ordered the sea to drown the Pharaoh then to spit him out whole, without any decomposition streaking his body so that he may serve as proof to the people who believed in him and to us today. His arrogance put him in a place where he forgot the one with supreme power over all things.The quote can be found true today because if you visit the Museum of Cairo today this man is found in the Royal Mummies Chamber and he is preserved and displayed just like Allah promised. When Allah says “so that he may be a sign for those who come after”, he was speaking of people which act with so much arrogance, and are full of themselves just like the Pharaoh. Arrogance is dangerous because it causes a change in a person, making no longer a person, but trying to become something more superior, and it destroys the friendships and love, the Pharaoh lost his son, his wife and his people because of his arrogance for himself, the Prophet Moses came to him day after day telling him  your Lord orders you to free his people and he refused, he knew the truth, but refused, for what to show people he is strong?

It’s time for the election and the boys are deciding on who should be the leader, and who has the capabilities to sustain a healthy living community of survivors, however a leader which will also have no second guess as to what is best for their community. Jack seemed to be the obvious choice for becoming chief, and piggy demonstrated a lot of intelligence. Ralph on the other hand “appeared” very attractive, without even having a stable qualification was deemed to be the leader of all the boys. "Shut up," said Ralph absently. He lifted the conch. "Seems to me we ought to have a chief to decide things." (22). This quote clearly shows how prideful Ralph was, he was the one which brought forth the idea of even having a supreme leader, as for Jack was arrogant after saying, “ I ought be chief”, but Ralph was self-conceited he said, “It seems to “me” we ought have a chief to decide things” referring to himself, he was showcasing that he was the only one capable of being chief, he didn’t tell the others he had floss when he was spoken good about, and always had something to saying if anything negative was said about him.

Ralph has now been on the island for quite a while starting off when he and his group of survivors first arrived at the island, to know where he is alone. Once upon a time in solitary with Piggy, Simon, and Samneric, now they are no more. He hides in the thick underbrush wondering in isolation how he’ll be able to heal his rib wound, he desperately wants to wash, but there is no guarantee that he won’t risk being caught by Jack and his group of savages. He finally realizes he is the one who caused all this grief and suffering, he is the reason why Piggy no longer is by his side. “And in the middle of them, with filthy body, matted hair, and unwiped nose, Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy. (222). The phrase that shows Ralph was arrogant the whole time was “Ralph wept for the end of innocence” he knew he was never innocent, he knows why he brings the brutal truth after the loss of his closest friends. The darkness in his heart is due to the regret of not looking out for his people before himself. Sometimes being a chief means the loose joy, it means doing the good for the people over the individual, something he missed interpreted. Ralph wept in despair and regret, just like a sinner who sinned their whole life and felt that sense of repentance after coming back. It had taken him all this time to finally realize, he lost everything, he had forced himself to a place which never belonged to him, he knows what was bad for him, but still stuck to it because it made him feel good. It could be that something which he liked was bad for him, while something which made him feel bad might have been good for him, as there could be some many benefits that come with it. Ralph revoked seeking others aid, while he focused on himself, and anyone that had possession of what he was looking for, which was respect, honor, power, but what use is having all these blessings if those blessings are not shared back?

In conclusion Ralph from the very start, Ralph gave signs of his self-pride which later evolved into arrogance. Ralph became boastful of himself, forgetting the people that cared for him, once he lost those people he learned their worth. In society, the greatest rulers occasionally forget what it means to be a leader it means to be equitable to all the people, audacious whenever and wherever, it means having discretion. Pride is a major reason why relationships no longer share a strong connection, pride is a damning human characteristic.   



Work Cited  (MLA) format


Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. New York: Penguin, 2006.



Meaning of the Verse "So This Day We Shall Deliver Your (Dead) Body (out from the Sea)", islamqa.info/en/72516.

https://islamqa.info/en/72516


“Why Pride Is Nothing to Be Proud Of.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/intimacy-path-toward-spirituality/201506/why-pride-is-nothing-be-proud.



Quarter 3 Maya Kohl's Artwork

In this unit we were asked to create a bike drawing, an optical illusion drawing, shading forms drawing, an eye drawing and a mandala with color. I like my work personally to have a lot of shading and color blending but I also prefer using pencil I think the black and white effect leaves room for imagination. With the bike drawing I wanted to make it with older types of bike because I like the vintage look it has. It reminds me of my mom’s bike.
For the optical illusions the first one I chose to do a more rounded out illusion because I thought it looked like a jewelry chain piece and that interest me. For the second one that was given as an example from the assignment but I liked how it combined this assignment and next weeks assignment which was shading forms. I enjoyed this assignments because I learned more control on how much pressure to apply on the pencil as well as making my images look somewhat 3D.
For the eye drawing I chose to do a friends. In the original assignment you were supposed to draw your own eye. I found myself always frustrated with the way my eyes fold and to draw them I felt could frustrate me more. This was my favorite assignment because I felt I could really enjoy it. To me the eye is more than just an eye.
For the mandala’s I wanted to create the design and color by the elements. The sun, water and a flower for earth. Some techniques I enjoyed using this unit were color blending and shading for a shadow effect and more ombre effect. I also enjoyed the simiatry of the mandala. I prefer pencil I find the texture to be easiest and most creative to work with in a lot of different types of art.

Robert's Lord of the Flies Essay

When a civilized person is moved to an environment where civilization does not exist, they will eventually become savage because their mind adapts into the environment, has a chance to go insane, and only care about what they want when they go into this situation. When you the reader will look into the past, you see that we (humans) were/are savages, but now we have evolved and became more civilized, with our minds adapting into high kinds of people filled with different kinds of emotions. So when we think about it, there were alot of times that mankind turned in savages. In this essay, there is about 2 big moments in history that humans were considered savages.

In the book Lord of the Flies, written by Golding, William, and published by new york penguin, in 2006, is about a group of boys, whose plane got shot out of the sky during a war, where on the island their on has no adults, and a group of boys who are in the church choir, back where ever they lived, and later on in the book, their “leader of the group” Jack, becomes bloodthirsty and savage. This somethings happens in our world, here are 2 or 3 examples.

Cortez killed and enslaved the aztecs even though they gave them gifts, even though they were defined as savages, yet cortez killed and them in ways that today in the modern world, and probability was looked on in shame back then as well. Knowing this, you can somewhat understand why it is savagery since, when he got gifts, he then murdered them all. I the writer define it as somewhat savage.

The other time that might of, or was savage, was the Freddie Gray, he was handcuffed in the back of a van without a seat belt. By the time he arrived at the police station a half hour later, he was unable to breathe or talk, suffering from wounds that would kill him, and those wounds did kill him. The van made about 2 or 3 trips until they got to the police station which was 30 minutes after. When he got to the station, he was unable to breath or talk, and the case of this tragic story, is still going on today. When you see the full report, you can think it was savage for several reasons. 1: When he was first arrested his leg was hurt, and officers were dragging him in a position that would look like it would make it hurt more. 2: When he was put in the van, he was handcuffed, and wasn't put in a seat belt and was in their for 30 minutes. 3: He had asthma, and when he asked for it, it was denied to him. This is like savagery for a few different reasons. The first one is how he was dragged like how jack killed the pig by engaging it in a circle -or a cage, like how Gray’s injuries were caused from being in the back of the van. How he was treated which was savage (not the roasting type, the old age type, or from the book in the lord of the flies).

This is why there is some savagery in our world still. It takes different shapes, and it always exists. Most of us, think savagery is the opposite of civilized which in some cases it is, but in other cases its just power hungry turning savage like, what happen with jack when he became a leader of his “own” tribe, and started spilling blood and killing his the others who don't agree with his intentions about the island.


The Evil Within

What if laws no longer existed? Would people have the same beliefs as to what is right and wrong, or would their actions change? If there were suddenly no rules against what people consider to be bad, they would slowly accept those behaviors. Some do what other people believe to be wrong but not themselves, while the majority do not just because it is illegal. Which elucidate the impression that some actions are only wrong because they are forbidden. Is everyone capable of doing  the ‘wrong’ thing without remorse? In theory, the ability for humans to kill each other is always present. It is believed that what prevents that behavior is organized civilization, which has rules against killing. So if humans are placed into an environment where killing is not prohibited and has no consequence, they could potentially find themselves capable of taking a life.

Kids are young and can be easily influenced, if given the chance, would they be capable of taking a life? In William Golding’s “Lord of The Flies,” kids went from an organized and civilized environment to the complete opposite. It changed them by stripping their away their innocence. By chapter nine in the book, the second death occurs but it is the first murder. The boys killed their fellow peer, Simon, out of fear because they mistook him for the beast. “The beast struggled forward, broke the ring and fell over the steep edge of the rock to the sand by the water. At once the crowd surged after it, poured down the rock, leapt on to the beast, screamed, struck, bit, tore. There were no words, and no movements but the tearing of teeth and claws”(152). Technically it is ‘accidental’ because in their minds, they were killing ‘the beast’ out of self defense. However, does that justify their murderous actions? This kill may be debatable but the second one definitely is not.

When Piggy dies, the conch shatters, signifying all the order and control and civilization in the story. Once the conch is smashed all chance of civility is gone to the point of no return. In addition to this, Piggy was the voice of reason, with him gone it indicates the end of rational thinking. “The rock struck Piggy a glancing blow from chin to knee: the conch exploded into a  thousand white fragments and ceased to exist.”(181). Roger Kills Piggy because he can, and has realized that no one on the island can or will limit his cruelty. There is no fear of consequence, therefore, no fear of action. Nevertheless, this is talking about a piece of fiction, yet it speaks to many, why? The reason is simply because there is truth to it. Furthermore, if there are no consequences, then people will start to think their actions are not wrong and will not learn or change for the better.

Nikolas Jacob Cruz is a 19 year old boy who has already taken the lives of 17 people, most of them being his old classmates. Was he always capable of a mass murder or did his environment influence it? According to an article from sun-sentinel.com, who interviewed Cruz’s family and peers, Nikolas wasn’t an easy child. He had been diagnosed with a string of disorders and conditions: depression, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, emotional behavioral disability and autism. His mom told sheriff’s deputies he also had obsessive-compulsive disorder and anger issues. How did these ‘issues’ develop? By the time Nikolas was 3, he was diagnosed with developmental delays, and by the time he was 6, he'd suffered the trauma of witnessing his father's death. In eighth grade, he was assigned to a school for students with emotional problems. He badly wanted to attend a “regular” high school and his wish was granted, the school he shot up, Marjory Stoneman Douglas, was that school. By the time he was 16, he was preoccupied with wars, death and killing. Later, his girlfriend left him, his mother passed, and he had been kicked out of his dream school. Nikolas was lonely, angry, and surrounded by negativity. Reportedly, Cruz once took a dead bird into the kitchen of his home and cut it open, saying he wanted to see inside. A similar example of this behavior also took place in the novel, when the boys brutally killed a pig. “All at once, Robert was screaming and struggling with the strength of frenzy. Jack had him by the hair and was brandishing his knife. Behind him was Roger, fighting to get close. The chant rose ritually, as at the last moment of a dance or a hunt. "Kill the pig! Cut his throat! Kill the pig! Bash him in!"(114). Both, the boys from the book and Nikolas Cruz, were bloodthirsty. However, neither of them were always like this, not until a change of environment for the worse occurred. Killing the pig quick and easy is one thing, but making it slow and painful is torturous.

To conclude, the fictional book, “Lord of The Flies,” is not as fictional as it seems. One example is used to connect the book into the real world, but no doubt there are plenty more. Almost anyone could be one if pushed far enough. In the book, the beast is not a tangible object that can be killed or destroyed by conventional means, but an idea symbolizing the primal savage instincts within all people. It is Golding’s intention to illustrate the intuitive evil inside man. In almost all cases of murders and/or mass murders, the suspect has some kind of “mental issue” that is connected with the environment they were raised in and/or the negative experiences they have had. Is everyone capable of evil? Is civilization and their rules the only thing stopping them from becoming ruthless savages? This essay started off as a reflection of two things, the boys from the novel, and Nikolas Cruz. Nonetheless it has ended with a reflection of oneself. If put in a position such as the one listed above, anyone could be able to commit the crime.


Works Cited:

Golding, William. Lord of The Flies. New York: Penguin, 2006.

Wallman, Brittany, et al. “School Shooter Nikolas Cruz: A Lost and Lonely Killer.” Sun-Sentinel.com, 1 Mar. 2018, www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/parkland/florida-school-shooting/fl-florida-school-shooting-nikolas-cruz-life-20180220-story.html.

Lord of the Flies

Have you ever been so frightened you’ll never forget that moment in your life? Fear can have a long-term effect on people’s mental health and can affect their physical health as well. Fear is a very powerful emotion that can be very well a positive thing a can be a very much a negative thing. This is also present in real life when people dream because when they have a nightmare it can stick with them  When people are dealing with a threat to their existence, they let fear rule their behavior. As a result, they cannot fully be themselves and the threat of the fear will constantly haunt them.

In the “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding there are a bunch of boys stuck on a Island and the main character is a guy named Ralph.  In this scene there are two twins who are names Sam and Eric. They are talking to Ralph about their “encounter” with the beast. ”The beast moved too-’ That was awful. It kind of sat up-’ The fire was bright-’ We’d just made it up-’-more sticks on-’There were eyes-’ Teeth-’ Claws-’ We ran as fast as we could-’Bashed into things-’ The beast followed us”(100). You can see obviously that the boys were scared and all that jazz but what the boys didn’t know was that there was literally nobody following them. When they were mentioning the description of the beast, that was just their imagination and you can see it’s having a mental effect on their brains because what they are describing didn’t happen. They probably just heard some noises and they thought that was the beast and started running, either way there wasn’t any beast in this scene.

A little later in the book there is a scene where there is a boy that is named Simon who is having a conversation with a dead pig alone in a forest, which is called the Lord of the Flies. ”We are going to have fun on this island. So don’t try it on, my poor misguided boy, or else-...Simon was inside the month. He fell down and lost consciousness”(144).  In this quote you can see that fear has affected Simon too because he is literally talking to a dead pig and the reader is to believe that the pig is talking to him. Simon’s fear got to a climaxing point as you can see since he put his head in the dead’s pig mouth and went unconscious. If they never even heard or saw the beast this whole scene wouldn’t have happened. You can see that Simon is not himself and isn’t functioning fully since he is in this state. This beast senario is having mental issue with him and is having a hard time in this scene.  

Now a little after the previous scene we see Simon again with the Lord of the flies on his head is trying to tell a group of boys about a dead man on a hill. ”Simon was crying out something about a dead man on a hill. Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood! Do him in!...The beast struggled forward, broke the ring, and fell over the steep edge of the rock to the sand by the water...they could see how small a beast it was; and already its blood was staining the sand.”(152-153) In this quote you can see that the group of boys were definitely not themselves because they were chanting a really morbid chant. They were so blind that they didn’t realize that the person they was hurting was there fellow comrade Simon. Then later in the scene he ends up dying because of their ruthlessness and how much fear had control them to the point where they took a life of a person, their own friend. They were so obsessed with the beast that they were going to kill it no matter what but the things is there was never really a beast.  

A real world example of this is dreams. In some of the websites it was explaining that the environment can affect people’s behaviors and how they function. Also, dreams are also powerful because if you remember them it can stick with you. This is important to remember because when you have fear it can have a mental and physical impact on you.”The environment can influence mood. For example, the results of several research studies reveal that rooms with bright light, both natural and artificial, can improve health outcomes such as depression, agitation, and sleep.”(Found here) It said this in one of the articles and basically it’s saying that being in a good environment can improve your health physically and mentally. “The environment can create or reduce stress, which in turn impacts our bodies in multiple ways. This is because our brain and our nervous, endocrine, and immune systems are constantly interacting. As neuroscientist Candice Pert puts it, "What you are thinking at any moment is changing your biochemistry."(Found here) This is also stating evidence that depending on the environment it can decrease or increase stress. When your stressed you can’t fully be yourself and you’re going to be worried about every single thing in your life just like in the novel.

Having fear in your life can have a very dangerous impact on you both physically and mentally. When you’re being threatened, it can cause you to do things you wouldn’t think of doing until you’re in the moment. In that moment fear is ruling their behavior and it is allowing to dictate their actions and choices that they make. Just like in the lord of the flies dreams in the real world can impact you to the point where you act out of your normal character.


Works Cited

Golding, William. Lord of the Flies, New York: Penguin, 2006.

Kollmuss, Anja. “Mind the Gap: Why Do People Act Environmentally and What Are the Barriers to pro-Environmental Behavior?” Https://Www.tandfonline.com/Doi/Abs/10.1080/13504620220145401.


“What Impact Does the Environment Have on Us?” Taking Charge of Your Health & Wellbeing, www.takingcharge.csh.umn.edu/explore-healing-practices/healing-environment/what-impact-does-environment-have-us.


“Impact of Fear and Anxiety.” Taking Charge of Your Health & Wellbeing, www.takingcharge.csh.umn.edu/enhance-your-wellbeing/security/facing-fear/impact-fear.


“The Impact of Dreams on Your Social Life.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/dream-catcher/201105/the-impact-dreams-your-social-life.


Choose Our Leaders!

How do we as people choose our leaders? When we vote we have the right to choose the person that will have the right opportunity to be the best person to make decisions for us at a local level. According to a news article in Daily News Philly, that states the way in when we are guided on how to vote,When voting, we oftentimes choose our leaders based on who appeals to us the most. This is observed through their physical characteristics, their actions, and what they advertise. These are all things that make making this decision a lot easier. In William Golding’s The Lord of the Flies, a story that tells about a group of schoolboys, who are trapped on an island, between  the ages of 6-11. With the loss of the adults, as days pass, the boys decide that they need a leader and a hunting pack. Remarkably, the boys have  the understanding of a conch shell to guide them if they ever need to gather up and have meetings. Going forward the boys began to see the true views of one another and they realized that they are in the middle of the war and that things need to change because the way in which the boys chose to pick their leader for the island, was decided but what they observed from the candidates and who they thought would be best to make their decisions for them. Because there were a variety of boys, all with different abilities, choosing a leader was not as easy and became a thing of who appealed more to them. Some candidates appealed more with physical characteristics while others with their ideas and knowledge about the next steps they should take before being rescued.

One of the candidates Jack was considered based on, a former choirmaster at his school when the plane crashed he sense the success in controlling over others since he has the eager to make rules and punish those who break them. His main interest is hunting, a seek that begins with the desire for meat and builds to an overwhelming urge to master and kill other living creatures. Jack has an attempted to dominate the groups of boys rather than working with Ralph to benefit him. But with the thought of the boy's decision of a remarkable leader of their actions he commenced to lose the boundaries of attending to any of the other responsible for the betterment or survival of the group. But the autocrat that becomes in jack grows to dominate in his personality during the fear of the beast being sighted. But as the days go by, Jack strives additionally to establish on becoming the prime leader of the group, he reinforces the illusion of power by using the other boys who were in the group choir at his school understood that he was a considerable lead.Notwithstanding Jack becomes power-mad.¨ painted and garlanded, sat there like an idol¨ (115) ¨Power lay in the brown swell of his forearms: authority sat on his shoulder and chattered in his ear like an ape.¨(116) Therefore, Jack is a represented as an evil and violence, a dark side of human nature, he is with the devil on his shoulder as his own animality, looking to master other creatures.

Additionally, the next candidate Ralph was considered based on as a socialized, civilized and decently intelligent. Ralph is the one who conceives the coming together place, the fire, and the huts. He synthesizes and applies Piggy 's knowledge is worth keeping for reasons, and he recognizes the false fears and superstitions as a barrier to their survival. He works hard and makes sure that the group is still in the thought of being rescued. But overtime Ralph began to lose his power of organized thoughts such as when he struggles to develop a docket for the meeting but finds himself lost in an inarticulate maze of vague opinion. Ralph's departure from verbal ability bodes ill for the group because his authority lies. He becomes worn down by the hardships and awe of primitive life history and is gradually infected by the savagery. Therefore, he Ralph got punished and was tracked down by Jack and his pack and Once Ralph becomes prey,¨lying there in the darkness, he knew he was an outcast.¨(145) But when he began to get frustrated with staying in one dark place, he began to knock things down and headed to the beach and encounters the officer and gets rescued ¨Squirming a little, conscious of his filthy appearance¨ realizing that the world is not all positive but does have evilness in it as well and is in all people of all.   

Moreover,  the next candidate is Piggy who was considered based on, as an intellectual with poor sightedness and has a weight problem. He looks at the world different than other, he looks at as a rational world, he has the calm and negotiator thought process. Yet the boys saw that piggy would not be a great and leadership, and he lacks the qualities and has no understanding of other boys. Piggy thought of the idea of the conch and thought that he could have a heard. Piggy asserts that "Life . . . is scientific."(64)  Piggy is so purported on preserving some remnant of refinement on the island that he assumes improbably enough that Jack group have attacked Ralph's group so that they can get the conch when of course they have come for fire and the reason for that was to preserve some remnant of civilization for the groups.Therefore,“What are we? Humans? Or animals?? Or savages? What're grown-ups going to think? Going off- hunting pigs- letting fires out- and now!” (99) Piggy meaning of this is saying that we as children think more creative and crazy when adults are no longer present.

In conclusion, The Lord of the FLies is the theme of which fierce/cruel is occurred of civilization. We are shown that the boys have all different characteristics,  Ralph represents civilization as he wants to enforce convention and let everyone have a match say and vote on intelligent wise.Whereas Jack who represents viciousness and is not interested in what they have to say, worried about getting voted for the strengths he has. Considering Piggy represents civilization as he think of the world as a different and scientific place that everything can be solved if you look at it from a different perspective, as well as acknowledging that voting shouldn't be for the intelligent or the ability to control other but to make sure the human that are around you can get the help from you and you get the help from them. So with this saying the boy's action show us consciously that forces them the infamilar things to make sure society functions properly.


Works Cited

Golding, William. Lord Of The Flies New York: Penguin, 2006.

Fitzgerald Thomas. Voters Guide  Pennsylvania and New Jersey general elections, 2017.



Lord of the Flies

Maddy Malloy

Jack’s behavior proves that “crazy” behavior does not happen randomly -- it is a natural reaction to emotional and stressful situations. If you are put under a lot of stress in an unresourceful environment like the jungle in Lord of the Flies, you will become distressed and act out like Jack has done. Throughout the book, Jack has become emotionally distressed and acted out in violent ways such as killing pigs in a heinous way. Anyone who sees someone that is involved in violent actions, they will automatically register it as that person is crazy or out of their mind. The way society runs and how people react to it determines the madness of people; along with stress contributing to the violent actions, which in this case is Jack acting out by viciously killing pigs.

In the show Naked and Afraid, you are placed on an island with absolutely nothing with just your brain trying to tell you how to survive. Along with trying to keep up with surviving, you do not have any provided food or water. This adds on to stress because these are the regular necessities to survive everyday. As the show comes to an end, you can see that the once nourished and healthy faces of the contestants, are now the hungry and worn down people that had participated in the game. “Thompson-Nelson is seen throwing a tantrum and verbally threatening Lautakoski. Producers for the show intervened and asked Thompson-Nelson to "tap out" or withdraw, which, according to Thompson-Nelson, was a first for the show.” This is an example of what happened to a contestant due to not eating properly in seven days which drove her to go a little insane and lashed out at another contestant; you need the right amount of nutrients everyday, and be in a stable environment to function normally, or you will become violent just how this contestant has become.

At this point in the book of Lord of the Flies, Jack lashes out at Piggy and calls him “Fatty”, and even physically abuses him. “This from Piggy, and the wails of agreement from some of the hunters, drove Jack to violence. The bolting look came into his blue eyes. He took a step, and able to last to hit someone, struck his fist into Piggy's stomach. Piggy sat down with a grunt. Jack stood over him. His voice was vicious with humiliation." You would, would you? Fatty!"... Jack smacked Piggy's head.” (pg. 71) Like in Naked and Afraid, the contestant had lashed out at her teammate, verbally abused them, and then quickly after was told to tap out. In the Lord of the Flies, this moment represents another moment  in which his innocence is slowly decaying from him; lashing out at his close friend, verbally and physically abusing him.

Going into more depth about people who act out in violent ways, contestant Honora Bowen threw all of her tools to help her and her team survive into a river. When placed on the show, Naked and Afraid, you are stripped of your clothes and can only take one thing with you. In this case, Bowen had two other men with her which made the group have three items to carry onto their island. These three items included a knife, machete and a water bottle; three essential items to help her and her team survive. This compares to Lord of the Flies when Jack and his friends got into an argument and Jack acted out in a violent way; Bowen had gotten into an argument with two of her teammates, and as a result, Bowmen acted out and threw important items to survive in the river. Although it was not as violent as what Jack was going to do, Bowmen still acted out by doing this.  

At this point in Chapter 3 of Lord of the Flies, the kids are hungry and want food; specifically pig or any sort of tasty, substantial food at this point. The conversation in this scene happens between Jack and Ralph, and quickly spins into an enraged conversation because of how Jack responds to him. “Jack Flushed. "We want Meat" ...The Madness came into his eyes again. ...." You wouldn't care to help with the shelters, i suppose?" " We want meat" " And we don't get it" " But I shall! Next time! I've got to get a barb on this spear! We wounded a pig and the spear fell out. If we could only make barbs-" (pg 51-52) In this quote we can infer that what Jack is saying is considered violent and this is where his personality is similar to what we would consider as insane. Jack comes up with other violent ways in which to kill the pig that they wanted for food, which hints that Jack is too violent. Like in the show, Naked and Afraid, Bowmen lashed out at her teammates, and threw all of their items into a river.

Crazy behavior does not happen randomly. From my two examples of Naked and Afraid, it is clear that without the regular resources that are provided for us in everyday life impact us if we are without them for too long. Another example that ties into this is when people get headaches from not eating for a long time and this ends up affecting their mood; they lash out at people. This is similar to my previous examples, except that being malnourished for several days would intensifies people’s actions, such as lashing out at close friends and teammates. The surroundings and lack of nutrients a person needs is what really affects others who act out in violent ways.
















WORKS CITED


  1. Cummings, Tommy. “Controversial Texas Contestant on 'Naked and Afraid' Upset with How She Was Portrayed on Show.” GuideLive, 12 June 2016, www.guidelive.com/reality-tv/2016/06/10/controversial-texas-contestant-naked-afraid-laura-thompson-nelson.

(2018). A meltdown continues to stir up more drama on 'Naked and Afraid XL'. [online] Available at: http://ew.com/article/2015/07/24/naked-and-afraid-xl-meltdown-clip/ [Accessed 6 Apr. 2018].

Leadership

When choosing a leader, you should look for certain qualities, but what are the qualities a leader should have?. A leader should be honest, reliable, and loyal. Sometimes leaders have bad qualities as well. Being a leader means that you have a lot of responsibility. Leaders have to stand strong on their good and bad days. Furthermore, leaders should not be full of themselves. If they only care about themselves, how can they be a leader to others. A bad quality can be pride. A leader with good qualities can have pride as their downfall.

The novel Lord of the flies is written by William Golding. This novel is about boys on a stranded island. The main characters that I will focus on are Ralph, piggy, and Jack. They meet other boys along the way. All of the boys stick together to survive. There are moments when They see bad things. While on the island they have hope someone will come rescue them. There are no adults so the boys do not have any supervision. Without order the boys go crazy. The boys have their own freedom to do whatever they please.

In chapter one of the novel Ralph and Piggy find a conch. When the two boys return to the crowd Ralph says “ Shut up, Seems to me we ought to have a chief to decide things” (30). Ralph was the first person to get everyone together. The boys always listened to the boy in charge. Since Ralph had the conch it was easy to get everyone to give him respect. Since they were 12 year olds they obeyed ralph because he was leader. The person with the conch is who everyone respects.

As a new leader, leaders realize that it will be a challenge to lead people. Ralph was struggling at earning respect from the boys.  He kept repeating “I’m chief” over and over. Meanwhile nobody was paying him attention. Ralph did not want to share his power with anyone. In fact he had a competitor try and take his spot.  Jack also wanted to be leader of the tribe. Jack wanted to be leader because he thought was smarter than everyone else. Unfortunately, Ralph got the most votes for chief. Jack only received votes from the choir boys. The choir boys felt their loyalty was for jack. In addition to this they felt obligated to vote for him and not Ralph.  

President Trump is a prime example of a leader. He makes decisions that people disagree with. After reading an article  about him I saw that he has a lot of pride. In the article he states “ he sees himself as a winner “. In other words he is always right and everyone else is wrong. Some people describe Trump as sensitive to others. However there were times when decisions he made, citizens were not thought of. Sometimes trump let his pride cloud the judgement of others. Due to this citizens of the united states are struggling more and more.

Sometimes leaders can have too much pride. They will believe they are better than others. Pride can get in the way of how you treat others. Certain leaders think too much of themselves. They put people under their leadership down. While reading a leadership article, I saw that pride can be a reason leaders fail.  For example, leaders can think they are above everyone else. There can be many types of leaders big or small. For instance there can be a team leaders who does not support their team. Instead of encouraging them to say they are strong, they bring them down.A team leader can have a main focus of winning.

 Later in Lord of the Flies, Ralph enhances in leadership skills. He starts learning how to share power. Jack and Ralph divide up the rest of the boys into 2 groups.

However, there is a time when Ralph talks about Simon who is under his leadership. On the island the boys meet another few boys.  He calls him “ delightfully gay, and wicked.” As a leader there shouldn’t be any negative about others. Others saw Simon as a helpful boy.  Ralph was talking down about his teammate instead of bringing him up. Towards the end of lord of the flies piggy questions ralph's leadership.  He says “i voted you for chief now do something”.

Ralph and Jack are completely different leaders. Jack only wants to be leader because he can a c- sharp and has a good voice. He brags about singing so good. That is an example of pride as well. Jack thinks He’s better than everyone else. Readers could view this as him being prideful about himself. Furthermore, the author refers to Jack as arrogant.  Jack uses his special hunting skills to fetch food on the island. Ralph has his own set of skills to guide the boys.

In the real word Directors are another type of leaders. They boss people around all day. A director’s purpose is create their own vision of someone else. Directors will shout and scream, if something is not right. They do not care if they hurt someone’s feelings or etc. Directors can be good and honest, but still be unsuccessful. People who work for directors get bossed around a lot. People do not normally hear directors say hey your doing a great job or a pat on the back. Instead they deal with being yelled at 24/7 and getting told mean things.

Leaders can have good qualities and be a big success. They can lead people towards greatness with the right qualities. Anyone is eligible to be a leader, as long as they are honest, reliable, and good. Someone who doesn't like responsibility should not be a leader. If you are a prideful person, be careful how you treat others. Being prideful can be good or bad and it shapes your successfulness. Let's say that you are always about you then nobody else will want to help you. Furthermore, be careful when choosing a leader for anything. Remember a leader with good qualities, can still have pride as their downfall.


Week 10 • Artist's statement • Slideshow• Blog

In the third quarter we were assigned to create eye, optical illusion, bike, mandala and shading drawings. The main focus throughout these drawings was shading. More specifically being able to distinguish different shades of color and then apply your knowledge of shading through the assigned art pieces.

Week 1-2 we were assigned to draw a picture of a bike. We had to find a picture of any type of bike you wanted and draw it to the last detail in full scale. For this drawing I chose an old fashion bike, because I admire the look of those types of bikes. First, I drew a draft of my bike on a piece of printer paper. Then I had to the bigger version, which was extremely hard. I spent about two days putting detail into the bike. Although, this drawing was very time consuming, I recognized that something like this was meant to take the amount of time it did. One thing I took away from drawing my bike, was, to not doubt myself. While drawing my bike I would continuously draw a certain part until I thought it was perfect. By the time it was done, there was an extreme amount of detail, yet I still felt I need more. I was proud of the outcome, but I wanted to make it better. Sometimes you just need to take the time you have, put in the effort, and if you're already proud with the drawing go with it.  Which I can personally say, definitely paid off.

Week 3-4 we had to draw two optical illusions, one being a square and the other being a sphere. First I drew my sphere, I started to think an optical illusion of a sphere was the same as a 3D circle. I watched a video on how to turn a sphere into an optical illusion, then showed Mrs Hull. With advice and redirection from Mrs. Hull I quickly realized I was drawing my sphere incorrectly. My shading was off, and what I thought was an optical illusion, wasn't. Eventually I was able to my sphere correctly, and had no problem with the square. I learned to, not refer to a video of someone draw a optical illusion version of a sphere, but rather look at a picture. This is because the person and myself had very different perspective of the sphere. I wasn't looking at what the person was looking at for them to draw the sphere the way they did. I was only looking at how the sphere was being drawn. Where as, if i'm look at a picture of sphere, I already know what it looks like and can tell that which direction im looking from. That way I could draw from my own perspective.

Week 5-6, shading forms. This assignment wasn’t particularly hard or time consuming. Following direction from the given pdf and taking what I learned the last two weeks, it was pretty easy. One thing I was proud of was the way the shading forms turned out. One thing I took away was, when you put in the effort to get better in a concept, whether that means practicing or asking question, you will always get better in that concept.

Week 7 we were assigned to draw an eye. However not just any eye, our own eye. We had to take a picture of our eye and then in as much as possible, draw your eye. When drawing my eye, I decided to veer away from the examples given and really take a look at my eye and see what was really going on. This really helped when trying to my eye not necessarily perfect but realistic in my own way. One thing I took away from this assignment was, a lot of people consider the term ‘realistic” as being something that is perfect, practical , real, as if there is only one version of what an eye looks like. However, there are many types of realistic, as well as many interpretation of what it means. In terms of my eye drawing, my interpretation of a realistic eye drawing, may not match others, but my version of what an eye looks like only pertains to me, considering its a drawing of my eye. Just like my version of real may never be your version of real, whether we have a similar mindset or not.

Week 8-9 was the last drawing, and we had to create a mandala. This was something new to me, so I decided to draw something low in complication but not simple. After drawing my mandala, I felt as though it looked a bit rough. I continued to had detail, and make certain part stick out more than others. I also decided to color it with a variety of different colors,  to make my mandala more appealing. I purposely made my color selection very eccentric, to give my mandala an exotic look, where different shapes and figures that normally wouldn't go together, are put together. One thing I recognized was that mandala’s in general look very exotic and normally, I wouldn't have given my mandala a colorful but odd look. However, the type of art mandala is, influenced my explore my artistic ability and forms of expressing art.


Fear of the Unknown

Fear; an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause mental or physical pain. People fear different things, some people fear deadlines and dates, some people fear loneliness and isolation, some people fear death, and for children a common fear is a monster underneath their beds waiting to hurt and scare them. This emotion is a plot-driving element in the book Lord of the Flies by William Golding. Fear is a recurring element that revolves around an image that the boys created known as “the Beast.” The Beast was powerful because of the fact that it was something unknown. The fear of the unknown is something that is much greater than fear of tangible situations because something unknown cannot be expected.

In the novel, the boys on the island are young, aging from ages 12 and under. As children, they have huge imaginations causing ideas to grow out of proportion. The Beast is an unknown creature that terrified the littluns at first until the image formed into something terrifying enough that even the bigguns were scared. Eventually the fear built up to the point that they killed one of the boys named Simon cause they believed he was the beast. Ralph the leader of the boys and Piggy his closest friend and the most intelligent among the boys discuss the situation regarding the beast.“‘But s’pose they don’t make sense? Not here, on this island? Supposing things are watching us and waiting?’ Ralph Shuddered violently and moved closer to Piggy, so that they bumped frighteningly. ‘You stop talking like that! We got enough trouble, Ralph’” (92) Children fear many things when they are young, but what makes the children brave are when their parents reassure them that the fear is just in their head. Most of the time on the island, the boys were not afraid of being stuck on the island or even starving. When some of the bigguns start to believe the Beast, there is no rational person to convince each other that is in their heads. This allows the Beast to become something much scarier than it first was. They had no control of their situation. If the boys had never feared the image of the Beast and if they’d learned to control their fear Simon wouldn't have died.

A similar incident occurred regarding the fear of a unknown or mythical being only this time it was not in a book. In 2014 a 12-year-old girl from Wisconsin was stabbed 19 times by two of her friends. The girl was left for dead, but she had managed to crawl to a sidewalk where she was found by a bicyclist. The girls stated they were trying to impress Slenderman, a fictional character found in horror stories. According to CNN “One of the suspects told the police that Slenderman is the site’s supposed leader, and to climb into his realm, a user must kill someone.” The two girls had attacked their friend out of fear of Slenderman. Slenderman being a very popular figure has had lots of online users create images with him, making him seem more realistic giving the girls more reasons to fear him. After seeing these images and reading the stories online about how he murdered and abducted kids, they hoped that with killing their friend the girls could enter his realm where they could be safe.  In his realm, they would not have to fear being killed or hurt by Slenderman.

There are many ways people attempt to overcome fear. According to the University of Minnesota there are a few key strategies; promoting positivity, find meaning behind the fear, go for a walk, and getting support from others.  A strategy often used with children is finding support and sharing it with an adult. Often parents try to reassure their children that they will protect them and that they should have nothing to fear. However, In Lord of the Flies the children’s fear is made worse with the children repeating the idea of the Beast. At one point the boys even put a pig's head on stake as a tribute to the beast so they would be safe. The support they try to build with each other just made the fear worse, especially with no authority figure telling them that they have nothing to fear and that they will be protected. With the two girls who stabbed their friend, they had no parent or authority figure reassuring them that they were safe because they never tried to get support. Slenderman was seen as an authority figure to them who could protect them if they entered his realm, similar how the boys left the pigs head for the Beast so they would not be attacked.

The Beast was only powerful because the fear of something unknown is worse than the fear of something realistic. Fear is caused by the unknown outcomes and possibilities in life. The Beast was only able to gain control over the boys because they had no reassurance that it was in their heads. Similar to the Slenderman story, the girls had let the monster control them and it led to the attempted murder of their friend. Fear is something very powerful and has the capabilities of controlling people and destroying people. People need to grasp ahold of their fears before they build up and begin to become a practical reality. In both scenarios, following strategies for overcoming fear, especially getting support can prevent these figments from maturing.

Work Cited

  1. Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. New York: Penguin, 2006.

  2. How to Deal with Chronic Fear and Anxiety.” Taking Charge of Your Health & Wellbeing, www.takingcharge.csh.umn.edu/enhance-your-wellbeing/security/facing-fear/how-deal-chronic-fear-and-anxiety.

  3. “Fear.” Dictionary.com, Dictionary.com, www.dictionary.com/browse/fear.

4. Hanna, Jason, and Dana Ford. “Slenderman Stabbing.” CNN, Cable News Network, 4 June 2014, www.cnn.com/2014/06/03/justice/wisconsin-girl-stabbed/index.html.

Artist Blog Third Quarter post

For quarter three I feel my art has improved than any other quarter. I enjoyed doing more than drawing. I did water color, and I tried a new art craft for my choice piece. I really enjoyed having the space to think outside the box. My creativity for all my art pieces showed. Im happy about my improvements. For quarter four I hope to continue doing more than drawings for art work. 

How Does this Voting System Work?

Niya Petty

Miss. Pahomov

English 2

April 4, 2018


How does this voting system work?


In William Golding’s “Lord of The Flies”, there are kids who are stranded on an island at their own survival without adult supervision and with being on their own, they have to take on some responsibility. At a point in the book there was a time that a leader had to be elected for the group. Someone to take charge and be there if things go wrong. So the kids had an election for who would be chief. Everyone picked Ralph. Wondering, what makes Ralph a good leader? Was it  based on intelligence, skills and attractiveness? Comparing this to a real life situation, we as U.S. citizens have to elect a president. We pick a specific person as a leader of the United States. What qualities do people value that makes them vote for a specific person?

In chapter 1, Ralph and Piggy meet the choir boys and Jack. They had assembled to retrieve roles as a pack  and vote on a chief. When chief is heard by Jack he immediately thought it should be him due to the fact that he was already “chief” of the choir boys. “´I ought to be chief ,´ said Jack with simple arrogance, “because I’m chapter chorister and head boy. I can sing C sharp”(22). In the novel it seems as none of the choir boys wants Jack to be chief but they could not think of a reason for Ralph to be chief. They also look forward to Piggy due to his intelligence. Then they come to a decision that Ralph is attractive and has the conch. “There was his size, and attractive appearance; and most obscurely, yet most powerfully, there was the conch.”(22)  Of course Jack tried to debate because it was almost obvious the Jack should have been chief since he knew what he was doing. Which bring us to the point when there are rules and priorities are involved and how they are pointless due to the method of voting the boys use to elect chief. It comes down to why he is chief is because he brought them together and since Ralph is chief he gets the conch is very important to the kids. Then again, everyone could see who was voting for who at this point which made people not go with true self towards who they wanted to vote for. Even though Jack wasn’t chief, he was still in charge of the choir boys and their hunting job which sort of made him a chief of something.

In the process of electing a president in the United States of America, americans are to go to a voting poll and vote for who they think shall be America’s next president. There are three requirements for being president in the U.S. given by the Constitution; the citizen must be 35 years of age, a resident of the united states for over 14 years, and a natural born citizen.  But as we get ready to vote, there is a purpose why we choose who we choose to be president. What values do these candidates bring to make people feel a certain way about them and want them president. What qualities should we look for in our given candidates which we elect. Some people look at the was they could manage the presidency. Or if they are great campaigners which could help to people of the United States make a better decision in what they want. Voting itself is a very organized process here in the U.S. knowing that we have an Election day which always falls on the first Tuesday in the month of November. US citizens have the right to vote. Some people use that opportunity  and others don’t. US citizens must be at least the age of 18 in order to vote. The process of voting, voters are put in private voting booths where they are to fill out their ballots. No one is able to see who is voting for who.From there, the vote is counted for whomever is voted for.

In conclusion, The way the voting process works between the novel and the real word is very different. In the novel, children are running an assembly of voting for chief were not everyone is eligible  to to be chief and everyone feels guilty if they do not vote for someone who everyone else's is voting for where in the real world when voting for president, everything is much more private with the citizens vote. Not knowing who voted for who and having to wait for who is the winner of the election. A similar  topic run by two different ages and processing can make a huge difference in results of voting.



Works Cited

Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. New York: Penguin, 2006.


Dickerson, John. “What Does It Take To Be a Good President? Four Things, Mainly.” Slate Magazine, 26 Sept. 2012, www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/features/2012/how_to_measure_a_president_/what_qualities_should_we_look_for_in_our_presidents_.html.

According to this website, there are some ideas given to what it takes to be a good president.


“To Choose A President.” National Archives and Records Administration, National Archives and Records Administration, www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2012/summer/archivist.html.


This website explains how we choose a president


“Voting in Person on Election Day.” USAGov, www.usa.gov/election-day.

How we as Americans vote in America