How do people react to incidents and tragic events? Most would mourn, others would try to put the blame on others. In the story, Lord of the Flies, this theme is brought up repeatedly throughout the book. When the boys end up stranded, they initially rejoice and think of it as a good thing, however, tragedies overtime can begin to break down a person's morals and values.

Towards the beginning of the story when the boys first end up on the island they immediately begin to think about their new found freedom and who should be in charge of the island. "Shut up," said Ralph absently. He lifted the conch. "Seems to me we ought to have a chief to decide things." "A chief! A chief!" "I ought to be chief," said Jack with simple arrogance, "because I'm chapter chorister and head boy. I can sing C sharp."(100). An example of this same type of mindset is when the tragic 9/11 attacks occurred. Many had mourned and wanted revenge so there was many injustices to people who were of the Islamic faith. History.com says, FBI Director Robert Mueller said, “vigilante attacks and threats against Arab-Americans will not be tolerated.”  When something as tragic as 9/11 occurred people were quick to want to retaliate, but the director and others wanted to keep the peace and make sure that there was still order in this time. He could’ve acted irrationally and justified the harm that was being done to the Muslim people, but he knew morally that it was wrong and decided to protect those who were being targeted.

During the feast that Jack threw after killing the pig, the boys had killed Simon, because they were afraid of the beast and thought that he was the beast. When it happened Piggy and Ralph were talking to each other about it and they both realized that they were afraid and it caused them to act so irrationally and impulsive, “I know there isn't no beast—not with claws and all that, I mean—but I know there isn't no fear, either."Piggy paused."Unless—" Ralph moved restlessly."Unless what?" "Unless we get frightened of people.” The boys said that they were afraid and admitted to it killing Simon, because they were afraid. During World War 2, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, President. Franklin Roosevelt started to force Japanese-American people out of their homes and into internment camps. USHistory.com says, “Over 127,000 United States citizens were imprisoned during World War II. Their crime? Being of Japanese ancestry.” American officials and American people had said that they were afraid of the Japanese turning on them in and being loyal to the Japanese government and military. In both examples both sides, Piggy and Ralph and the American people and government were afraid and acted on it and caused for someone to get hurt.

When Simon was initially killed and everyone ran back to their shelter Ralph and Piggy had a conversation about it, Piggy had tried to brush it off and make excuses for their actions saying it was dark and such, while Ralph was taking the blame and said that what they had did was murder and they acted like savages. ”It was dark. There was that- that bloody dance. There was lighting and thunder and rain. We was scared!’ ‘I wasn’t scared,’ said Ralph slowly, ‘I was I don’t know what I was.’ We was scared!’ said Piggy excitedly. ‘Anything might have happened. It wasn’t what you said.”(156) Piggy justifies the brutal killing by saying that it wasn’t their fault they were dark and afraid and he shouldn’t have been there. While, Ralph owns up to his mistake saying that it their fault and they had intentionally murdered him and just acted without thinking.

When the boys made it to the island there was a lot of bickering over whether someone should be chief or not, but Ralph was more focused on using his power for creating signal fires to be rescued, but Jack wasn’t all too interested in this. Jack apologizes to Ralph for burning out the fire saying that what he had done was wrong. Jack says, “I’m sorry. About the fire, I mean. There I-’ He drew himself up. ‘I apologize.” (72) Jack had made the others upset and had tried to sincerely apologize to the others for causing the disturbance in the lighting of the fire. The fire was an important aspect throughout the story and told the reader a lot about the types of people Ralph and Jack were, Ralph was the one who tried to stay more civilized through the awful situation that they were put in. While, Jack had tried to use this situation as a way to gain power and was the less civilized one and convinced the other hunters to act like monsters.

        All throughout the book we see how the boys have acted either inhumanely or civilized when a major event had occurred. Throughout U.S. history we see how we’ve either acted unjustly or justly towards another group of people when we’ve felt threatened by them, when these injustices happen there is usually people who stand up for what is right and don’t stand with those who do wrong to other people.

Sources Cited:

Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. Penguin Books, 2006.

“Japanese-American Internment.” Ushistory.org, Independence Hall Association, www.ushistory.org/us/51e.asp.

Editors, History.com. “Reaction to 9/11.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 13 Aug. 2010, www.history.com/topics/21st-century/reaction-to-9-11.

Canavan

It’s a boy! I’m gonna be the best dad ever, I love children, I and my girlfriend have been trying to have a kid for three years now. This is the closest we’ve ever gotten. After all the failed attempts and pregnancy tests, it’s finally going to happen. My life wasn’t always as happy and cheerful though,  I grew up in Philadelphia to a single mother who had three kids that she busted her ass every day to support, we didn’t get to go to DisneyWorld or get to go to school with the new Jordans and Nikes, but we got through. My father’s absence forced me to be the man of the house. Even though my mom owned everything, someone had to make sure she was taken care of since obviously that deadbeat you call a father wasn’t capable enough to step up and be a real man.

I’m going to be a dad now, and I swear to God, I won’t ever be like my father. I got through college without him, learned how to drive without him, went to prom without him, got my first job without him, I did all of this without him, and I’ll surely get through this pregnancy without him.My child will never worry about when his father will come back or if they will go to bed hungry, or if it was their fault for me walking out.

Everything was starting to look up for me until I get the news that shook up my entire world. Our unborn child was going to be born with Canavan Disease, but how? I feel so helpless and weak, I should be able to protect my child and I can’t even do that! Canavan, It’s an extremely rare disease, that damages the ability of nerve cells in the brain to send and receive messages. As far as I know, nobody in either of our family’s has a history of this disease. The doctor says that he is expected to live only through his childhood. All the things that I was supposed to accomplish with my child, won’t be happening. He won’t even have a chance to go prom, shave, or date a girl, he’s getting cheated out of all of these things. I know for a fact that all the school kids won’t go easy on him either, kids are extremely cruel, and he’ll be ridiculed, I don’t know how either of us will be able to take it. I don’t know what to do, my world feels like it’s collapsing and there’s no way to stop the inevitable destruction, I can only watch.

But maybe this whole predicament isn’t the end of the world, God does everything for a reason, so there must be a reason for this happening. It’s been my dream to have a child of my own and start my family, and now that I’m getting the chance I’m having doubts? Seriously? I’m finally going to be able to have a child, I’m not gonna give up on this child just because of some disability, I’m not like my dad was and never will be. I’ll make all the short years with my child the best he’s ever had. Some tasks and activities might take more effort and time, but it’ll be worth it in the end. I love my unborn child unconditionally and always will. I hope that he knows daddy will never walk out or give up on him, I hope that he knows I’ll be there through all my hardships and never put my stress on top of his. Thanks, Dad, for nothing. I’ll always do everything in my power not to be like you.

“Nicola Breedy-Caesar please board the plane at gate C”

My body froze, I knew it was time to finally face one of my biggest fears and hop onto the plane. I had never been on a plane before and 6 year old me, listening to all my older cousins the night before talking about how birds love to fly into engines and cause the planes to crash, my imagination began to run wild. I started to imagine all the possible ways the plane could have crashed into the ocean. My mom yelled at me and told me to hurry up before we missed our flight. This was a big opportunity for me, I told my mom that I had to go the bathroom. I was trying to find anyway to make us miss the flight, my mom said that there were bathrooms on the plane. I knew that there was no way to try and make us miss the flight, if I had tried anything else the belt would have made sure it didn’t happen again.

The flight attendant had passed us our boarding tickets, and I wanted to just throw it away. The flight was booked and because we were riding on standby, I wasn’t going to be able to sit next to my mom and sister. This made the ride even scarier, I got onto the plane and went to my seat nervously. I got the window seat and sat next to an old man and his wife. The flight attendant had gone over all the things to do in case of an emergency. When they said it was time to buckle up, I grabbed the seatbelt and tied it so tight to point it felt as if I was stopping my blood circulation. We were on the runway just waiting to go into the air, and we soon began to takeoff.

When we got into the air, I had felt some turbulence and it made me go insane. I started yelling, “We’re going to die, we’re going to die!” I had caused a scene and all the other passengers had started to look at me. I kept going on and on for about 5 minutes, until the co-pilot had came up to me. I thought that I was going to get kicked off the plane, but he smiled and told me that everything was going to be fine. I didn’t believe him, and said that we were going to fall into the ocean. He laughed and told me to follow him into the cockpit. I was a bit skeptical at first, but still decided to follow him.

“Woah this is amazing” I said.

The cockpit was beautiful, there were so many buttons and I was able to touch the wheel. It was a lot of fun and the pilots were really cool to me, the kid that had caused a bunch of hell on the flight. I had almost completely forgot my fears and that we were almost 30,000 feet in the air. Those kind pilots had taught me to not be afraid of airplanes and that you should always face your fears. When we had gotten off the plane my mom had reminded me of what was going to happen once we got home, because of the scene that I had caused. I didn’t really care at that point, I was really happy, because I was able to face my fears and get a cool experience to brag to my cousins about, except for the crying and yelling part. From that somewhat embarrassing experience, I learned that you shouldn’t let your biggest fears haunt you, and that you should try to think about how to overcome those fears instead.

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