Camren Jones

Ms. Pahomov

English 2

25 March 2019

In the novel Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, he tells a story about how a group of young boys are stranded on an island due to a plane crash and create their own society to create peace among them, or so they thought. As more and more time passes the young boys' structured society slowly begins to fall apart. Their society quickly becomes total chaos as violence and disputes are prevalent. As a result of their society quickly they divide themselves, which ended up backfiring Characters such as Piggy who appeared weak were often belittled leaving them to feel abandoned. While never explicitly being revealed, many scholars argue William Golding utilized symbolism through Lord of the Flies. Furthermore, upon reading this one can make the case Golding used the boys' interactions to draw comparisons to the real world such as Uzbekistan governed by Islam Karimov.

One of the earliest moments in Lord of the Flies introduction of a chubby young boy. He later was referred to as Piggy as an insult and called this for the rest of the novel. Piggy eventually grew close to Ralph, the original leader. They bonded over the feeling of alienation from their peers. However, once the boys began to form different opinions they drifted apart. The ridiculing of both Ralph and Piggy begins once Piggy says, “What are we? Humans? Or animals? Or savages? What’s grownups going to think?”(91). Following this, a hunter Jack created a division between the other boys and Ralph. Maintaining his loyalty Piggy stood his ground with Ralph despite what others thought. Compared to the others Piggy’s ideas weren’t as drastic. Piggy says “Just an ordinary fire. You’d think we could do that, wouldn’t you? Just a smoke signal so we can be rescued. Are we savages or what?”(174). Even though a lot of Piggy’s actions were motivated by the desire of being accepted it didn’t stop him from making valid points. He knew that they weren’t going to be able to stay on the island forever so he thought ahead. Piggy was very methodical with the way he moved and how he thought things out, and since many of them were young it stops them from looking at the bigger picture causing them to ridicule the first person who thought differently. Piggy and Ralph lost all power in their society because they didn’t agree with others which later led to his death.

Similar to Piggy and Ralph, a writer named Hamid Ismailov was cast out due to his debatable beliefs. Ismailov was a writer who lived in Uzbekistan once he was recruited for a controversial freelance job with BBC. He later was informed that the government wasn’t too happy with his choice of work. He knew he had to leave but what he didn’t know is that it would result in him never coming home again. He was aware of the vile acts committed by dictator Islam Karimov he understood in order to remain safe the best choice was to leave his home. After he left there was no trace of him ever being there. People were desensitized to Karimov’s cruel actions and neglected the injustice Ismailov had received. According to the Guardian, Hamid Ismailov was completely removed from the Uzbek culture. His work is no longer published nor are the people allowed to use the words “Hamid Ismailov” in print without suffering the consequences.

Both Piggy and Ismailov feared for their lives because of their choice to speak in opposition to their leadership. In Lord of the Flies, Piggy was killed and Ismailov would’ve been too if he had stayed. They weren’t afraid which caused their leadership to feel threatened and attempt an assassination. Without fear Jack and Islam Karimov were powerless and he knew which resulted in their resentment towards Ismailov and Piggy. It was their only leverage over the others. After the death of Piggy, the young boys' hands were no longer clean. Golding illustrates this by saying “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”. Unlike the death of Simon, which was accidental, the death of Piggy was done with intent to kill. Throughout the book, Piggy was somewhat a balance that kept them from turning completely savage.

The difference between the two societies is that Ismailov knew what his people were capable but in Piggy’s case, he didn’t.  Piggy was aware of the fact that not everyone on the island would be to avoid the temptations of savagery but he didn’t know that his death would also relate to the death of their humanity. The risky thoughts of both Piggy and Ismailov caused them misery because their leader felt challenged.
Many ideas emerged from the Lord of the Flies such as one not being allowed to express how they feel. In the real world scenario, I related it to Piggy’s death due to their similarities. They both were removed from their environment one more drastic than the other but it was because of their leader feeling challenged. The fact that their leaders weren’t fond of their beliefs they dismissed.

Works Cited

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

M., Morris. “10 Tragic Tales Of Modern People Forced Into Exile.” Listverse, 29 Dec. 2018,

listverse.com/2015/06/24/10-tragic-tales-of-modern-people-forced-into-exile/.

“Hamid Ismailov.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 8 Mar. 2019,

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamid_Ismailov.

I always feel like I’m going to throw up and I’m always so tired. I knew what I did was going to haunt me in the end but I like him so much. What was I supposed to do? Every time I have to go to the bathroom I look like a little kid on Christmas morning just praying something will happen, but deep down inside I know it won’t. I’ve been calling Maliq for the past week with still no answer. Maybe I should call him now since he just got out of school, but maybe I shouldn’t because I’m still at school. I’m just going to go to the bathroom and call.

[ring ring ring ring]

Hey, It’s been a minute and I miss you.

(...)

So what you, you don’t miss me back? (sucks teeth as she rolls her eyes)

(...)

No, no don’t say it now. I don’t want you saying anything that you don’t mean

(...)

if that’s the case why haven’t we spoken in the past week?

(...)

Busy my ass! (Martina begins to yell but once she realizes it she policing her voice)You always seem to make time for your hating ass best friend Maya. ( tapping her foot at a steady pace because she starting to become annoyed)

(...)
Whatever yo, I didn’t call you to argue. I got something to tell you.

(...)

You go first.

(...)

Nawl I really wanna hear what you have to say.

(...)

Alright, Alright(throws her hand up in the air) I’ll go first. I’ve been feeling really sick ever since we last you know.

(...)

I’m telling you because I’m scared (Someone walks in and she puts her feet on the toilet)

(...)

I’m scared of… ( Martina begins to choke on their words)

(...)

(She takes a pause to see if they leave)

(...)

Yeah, I’m still here, but Maliq I’m really worried.

(...)

Calm down there’s always a possibility of it happening”

(...)

Do you remember if it broke? ( she says in a whisper)

(...)

What you mean you didn’t use one probably? So you telling me you lied?

(...)

Well, I remember you telling me you were putting one on. How could you lie about something like that?

(...)

It is important!

(...)

I’m not acting like anything nigga. I am fucking pregnant because of your dumbass thinking shit isn’t important.

(...)

I’m talking to the dumbass on the phone.

(...)

What you gonna do about it, Maliq?

(...)

Stop cappin, you and me both know you love me.

(...)

( he’s yelling at her and sadness comes across her face)

I’m sorry I didn’t mean to say those things. I was just mad at you bae, but what are we gonna do? Hold on.

(Someone is knocking on the bathroom stall door.)

Someone is in here!

(Puts the phone back up to her ear)

My bad someone keeps knocking on the door, but what was I saying again?

(...)

Oh yea, hold on again

(the knocking stops)

That girl left finally

(...)

We need to talk about this now

(...)

What’s more important than this and who keeps on blowing up ya phone?

(...)

Oh it def is mine. Let me check it real quick.

(she scrolls through her phone to see all of her business posted around school)

Bae!!!! We have a problem. That girl who was just in here just posted all our business on the socials

(...)

I'm not playing you think everything is a joke, I'm scared to walk out the bathroom it's all over Instagram.

(...)

Even if she does.What about the 6,000 people that already saw it Maliq? Do you think?

(...)

I'm getting smart with you, And i know you don't care because you’re the boy it doesn't look bad on the boy it never does.

(...)

After all we been through your going to end it over an argument? While I'm about to have your baby? Are you fucking serious.

(...)

How could you do this to me yo(tears falling down)

(...)

(Yelling) What do you mean you don't give a fuck about me Maliq.You just was telling me how much you fucking love me and how you would never leave. So that was all a lie?

(...)

How can you sit here and tell me that all you wanted to do was have sex with me Maliq( wipes tears from her face).

(...)

Maliq you no what. GO TO HELL.

(...) ( phone hangs up )

(talking to herself) What am i going to do. I gotta tell my mom.

Sari call mom (calling mom with red heart suit) Mom I have to tell you something.

(...)

I'm pregnant.

A week before my sophomore year had begun, my emotions were all over the place and not just before of first day jitters. I honestly didn’t know how to feel, but I knew something was off. My body was no longer at ease. All I knew was that I was supposed to feel something I just didn’t didn’t if it should be pain, sadness, awe, angry, or grief. I knew my mom felt something but I couldn’t interrupt what she was feeling either. I only had one specific memory that I could base my emotions off of.

The first time I met him was at a Fourth of July cookout at my brother’s house. I had to be around eight or nine and he was a year younger than me. I distinctly remember our conversation. We were talking about our zodiac sign and how we were a year thirteen days apart. Even though we were connected by blood I didn’t know him enough to feel a strong connection, but I did feel some sort of hurt because I knew this situation was not okay. What brought me the most discomfort was the fact that no one felt the need to tell me what had happened; I had to find out through Instagram. The funny thing is, if it wasn’t for my older cousin pointing it out I would’ve kept scrolling. Even though I have around 25 first cousins we still should know each other or at least be aware of each other’s existence.

My uncle has seven kids in total and I only knew about three of them existed until the Janazah (Islamic funeral), but I still didn’t meet all of them because the youngest lives in Florida with his mother and stepfather. I love my uncle to death but I felt a little anger towards, yet I was still hurt for him. I was sad because I knew my “ fun young” uncle’s light would be dimmed. As much as my family pretends that everything is okay nothing will ever be the same. There will always be a hole in my uncle’s heart that will never be filled because of the lost of his son and that’s what hurt me the most.

On August 22nd of 2018, Mu’aawiyyah Jalil Meekins was taken off life support and it felt like the world was at a standstill. It was sad that he had died but there was a slight feeling of peace. There were no more long nights or early mornings at the hospital nervously waiting for any sign of life. Since majority of my maternal side are Muslim, we had to move quickly because the burial had to place no later than three days and my uncle asked if the gathering to be at my house. I knew I wasn’t going to the viewing or the burial because I knew there was going to be a lot of people and I’m too emotional for funerals. My mom and I had a day in an half to clean the house. There had to be at least 400 people at the Janazah and at least 150 of them came back to my house. At first I was annoyed because all these people that I didn’t know were at my house and my mother constantly kept telling me “Be nice, they’re your family.”, but it honestly didn’t feel like it.

I knew eighteen out of twenty five of my first cousin and most of us were extremely uncomfortable. I’m not really a people’s person so I tend to be very distant to people I don’t know and I found myself doing and so did my mom. My cousins and I had realized that, that day wasn’t about us. We had to understand that we have to people to these that our parents call family. When I did eventually open up to “my family” I felt comfortable with them.

It was sad that we had to get together as a family because of the death of a young one but on the brightside we finally got to meet, and I can thank Mu’aawiyyah for that. He brought us together as a family and we are forever connected. Once everything was over, I realised that you never know how important something is until it is taken away from you.  

For my final part of my You and The World project, I decided to use social media to my advantage. I created an Instagram account that is about food. In my two previous posts were showcasing a plant-based diet. My first post was mainly me glorifying not eating meat because it is bad for you. Looking back at it, it was biased but my second post level the playing fields. For my second post, I decided to gather my own research to back up my original research. I interviewed 3 people, the first person decided to be vegan for health reasons, the second person my friend who has been a vegan her entire life, and her mother. By searching for my own research I learned that having a plant-based diet isn’t as good as I thought it might be, but that just wasn’t enough for me to believe that not eating meat was beneficial to me.

I had two parts to my Agent of Change; the first part was to stop eating meat and the second was to document it. I created this change for myself where I would stop eating meat for six weeks but I broke it up in parts. Every two weeks I would increase the intensity of my diet by making it more strict. The first week 1&2 I was a pescatarian, week 3&4 vegetarian, and 5&6 vegan. The hardest part was being vegan because I felt like I couldn’t eat anything and the easiest was being a pescatarian. I after completing the 6 weeks I didn’t feel much of a difference other than the fact of knowing the I’m not eating an animal. Then I created an Instagram to show people how easy it is. I decided to create the account because during the six weeks I followed multiple food accounts on Instagram and YouTube, so I decided to make my own.

Follow me @whatinthefood

My experience of not eating meat wasn’t necessarily hard if I did it correctly. When I wasn’t eating meat I had to find other things to eat. The main thing I found myself a lot of starch. I ended up gaining 10 pounds at the end of the 6 weeks because I wasn’t watching what I was eating. When you don’t eat meat it is easier to gain weight unless you plan out what you’re eating. Several weeks later I still no longer eat meat, not for health reasons but because my body has adapted to being a pescatarian. I still struggle with my diet but I’m getting better by planning out my meals.

After completing this project I feel more aware of what goes into my body. By doing this my entire perspective on people who don’t eat meat. When I used to eat meat I thought people didn’t eat meat were crazy and not eating meat was the dumbest choice in the world. I felt as though I wouldn’t be able to survive with having a burger in my life but when I tried it for myself it blew my mind. I wanted to break the stigma of eating meat is the only way I could survive, and that is how my Finsta( food Instagram) was created.

The process of doing my Agent of Change was a little bumpy. My original plan was to document everything I ate but then I lost all my content because someone stole my phone. So then I was back to square one, but I still pushed through. I later came up with the idea of creating an Instagram and finding recipes to recreate. My project didn't turn out exactly how I planned but I managed.

What's really the best for you?

In my previous post I spoke about what people's food actually contains and how it affect their body. In my post I explained how meat can have a negative impact on your body. When I wrote my first post, it was based on the documentary What The Food and it glorified being vegan, but I wanted to personally find if being vegan is as good as it seems to be.     

To find my original research i decided to do interviews to get different perspectives on being vegan. I did three different interviews. The first interview I did was Gabe Sosa he is the father to one of my classmates, Miranda Sosa. He responded to  my question via email. When I did get a response I was shocked because I didn’t think he would say those things. Here are my following questions:

Q: What was the reasoning behind you becoming vegan?

A:I became a vegan because I was having health issue.

Q: Do you believe that becoming vegan was a drastic change?

A:I think that for some people it can be a drastic change for them, I know how to cook so for me it was just about making good wholesome food. So my instead of eating meat and dairy products I made substitutions. For example, for my cereal in the morning I used Almond milk, (has the same flavor of milk) and for meat products I used beans and made beef patties. For me it was not a drastic change. (for my kids it was, because they don’t like good food)

Q:What is the hardest part of being vegan?

A:The hardest part was taking the time to plan out your meals, For example I work a lot on the road, so I had to makes sure I have food to eat. A lot of food has animal products in it. So I could not eat it. it hard because you can’t just run into McDonalds and get some fires. Because they have beef flavoring on them so a vegan cannot eat there, and just so you know a lot of fast food does not have Vegan options.

Q: How much has being vegan benefited you?

A:I feel that being a vegan has not benefited me as much as it would have any other person. I think that if someone became vegan it would benefit them a lot more than it did me.

Q:·  Have you seen a change in your health after changing your diet?

A:My health has declined even after 3 months of being a vegan, as my issues are not with what goes in my body but what stays in my body. My blood holds on to too much iron in the blood, and you can get a lot of iron from Lentils, spinach and other vegetables (that I have been eating a lot of) along with meat. So I think that eating more of these vegetables might have hurt me as much as eating meat.

After reading his answers I was surprised but he had a valid reason why being vegan didn’t work for him. By searching on the internet I believe that Mr. Sosa might have a disease known as Hemochromatosis. This is when you have iron overload causing it to affect your heart, liver, and other organs. To manage with this disease doctors advise you to stay away from high contents of iron or vitamin C and vegetables are full of those.  When Mr. Sosa became vegan his body continued to absorb an excess amount of iron. He said that he consumed a lot of green leafy foods such as spinach, but spinach contains more iron than red meat.

Which one is really good for you?

My next two interviews they were completely different from Mr. Sosa. I got in touch with my friend Nile Shareef-Trudeau because her and her family are vegan. I sent her my questions and she interviewed herself and her mother because this was the only way the questions could be answered at the time. This is the interview for Nile’s mom and this is Nile’s. Nile and her mother believe that being vegan is the epitome of being healthy, unlike Mr. Sosa because of his condition.

By doing both interviews I get different perspectives of being a vegan. I learned that being vegan isn’t meant for everyone. I also learned this by changing my food habits for six weeks. For the last part of my project I decided to not to eat meat for six weeks. I broke the six weeks into three sections. For the first two weeks I was a pescatarian which means that the only meat I could eat was seafood. Then the next two weeks, I was a vegetarian, and the last two weeks I was a vegan. During the six weeks I gained 10 pounds because I wasn’t eating properly. The hardest part wasn’t the fact that I wasn’t eating meat, but that most of the time I was hungry unless I did a meal prep. When I was vegan (which I did not continue for two weeks) I learned in order for me not to starve I would have to carry food with me, everywhere I go because there were never any vegan options. Instead of me being vegan I went back to eating dairy and fish.

My annotated bibliography

Most people don’t know what’s actually in their food or how it affects them. My project is mainly based on the documentary What the Health, which promotes eating a plant-based diet, also known as veganism. The reason I chose this topic because both sides of my family have genetic diseases that made somewhat hypochondriac. On my paternal side, the diseases are diabetes, hypertension, and cancer. On my maternal side, there are cardiovascular problems. After watching “What the Health”, everything I thought I knew about these diseases.

Diet is closely linked to a lot of health problems that humans have, such as diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular problems, cancers, and asthma. In the documentary, it demonstrates how those diseases and meat are connected. The IARC (International Agency for Research on Cancer) pronounced that processed meat is a Type 1 carcinogen. This is the same category as formaldehyde and tobacco smoke. The American Cancer Society made an article in response to the IARC on their website telling cancer patients to limit the amount of processed and red meat consumed. Why do they advertise limiting the consumption of it instead of just telling them to stop completely? In the article, it states “Colleen Doyle, MS, RD,... says, ‘We should be limiting red and processed meat to help reduce colon cancer risk, and possibly, the risk of other cancers. The occasional hot dog or hamburger is okay,’" but on the website they do not tell you to only smoke one cigarette a day, instead they tell you to stop completely.

Another disease connected to red meat is diabetes. A report taken in 2015 found that 30.3 million American citizens have diabetes(9.4%), and 84.1 million are pre-diabetic. Being diagnosed with diabetes shortens your lifespan by 19 years. Researchers have found that in the next 25 year one out of every three American will have some form of diabetes. Most people are taught that eating sugary food is the main reason for diabetes, but it isn’t. The main source is a diet that builds up a large amount of fat into the blood, such as a meat-based diet. Sugar has zero calories all it is, is excess calories, but when you do eat sugar your body stores most of it as glycogen or burns it off as calories.The main focus has been put on sugar instead of meat causing people to believe sugar is the reasoning for diabetes.Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health did a study about diabetes in comparison to red meat. They found that red meat mainly when processed it increases the risk of getting Type 2 diabetes. In the Harvard article, it talks the percentage rate that it is increased by, “They also found that one daily serving of half that quantity of processed meat—50 grams (for example, one hot dog or sausage or two slices of bacon)—was associated with a 51% increased risk.”

This photo shows how much the U.S. spends on research on diabetes

Humans are the only species that still ingest milk after infancy. Cow’s milk has zero benefits for a human compared to any other type of animal’s milk. It is full of hormones that are meant to help an infant cow grow. Therefore, when a person says “ I only get hormone-free milk” it is an oxymoron. Most humans are lactose intolerant, 73% of African Americans, 95% Asian, approximately 70% Native American, and about 53% Hispanic Americans cannot break down the sugars in dairy, but it is still advertised by our government. In schools, food guides/pyramids show everything that you eat which promotes dairy. There is a false conception that milk helps makes your bones stronger but studies have shown the more milk you drink the more prone you are to hip fractures. In HuffPost article, they did a study on men who drank milk, “A recent study found that elderly men who drank a lot of milk during their teenage years actually had an increased risk for hip fractures.”

MyPlate was published by the USDA

After doing my research I hope that people become less ignorant about the topic of their food and start to care more. I just want people to be more aware of how their food affects them and their environment.

Annotated Bibliography

I presented my slide to a smaller group which made my critique more personal and less nerve racking rather than sharing it with the entire class. I had  Preston in my group which I was frightened by but also happy about because i knew he was a harsh critiquer who would give me good advice. After seeing half of my class present i knew that some things needed to be changed and my group agreed with me. The first thing I changed was my placement of everything on my slide.

The reasoning behind changing the placement is because it wasn’t aesthetically pleasing to the eyes. My shapes were overlapping and my pictured seemed stretched. I fixed my shapes by overlapping shapes that were supposed to and moved things around to make it proportional. I deleted my picture entirely because in order for it not to look stretched it would be too small for my liking. After deleting the picture, I made my name my focalpoint and it made everything look more aligned. When the picture was placed in the middle I had to move my name to the counter and it caused it to look awkward because it wasn’t proportional, but that wasn’t the only thing I had to change.

I also had to slightly change my color pallet. My group told me that my wording didn’t have that much of a contrast. In my opinion color/contrast is one of the most important to a slide, because that’s the first thing I pay attention to. My mind works through color so I made sure that i had good contrast which I learned learned on a color pallet website. The changes I made did make my slide more appealing and more clear to read.

Sources

http://www.presentationzen.com/presentationzen/2008/08/learning-from-the-design-around-you-ikea.html

https://zachholman.com/posts/slide-design-for-developers/

http://www.colourlovers.com/