(Challenge #6)
Book summary: This book is about a group of young boys that finds themselves alone on a deserted island. They develop rules and a system of organization, but without any adults to serve as a civilizing impulse, the children eventually become violet ad brutal.
Plot of the book:
In the midst of a raging war, a plane evacuating a group of schoolboys from Britain is shot down over a deserted tropical island. Two of the boys, Ralph and Piggy, discover a conch shell on the beach, and Piggy realizes it could be used as a horn to summon the other boys. Once assembled, the boys set about electing a leader and devising a way to be rescued. They choose Ralph as their leader, and Ralph appoints another boy, Jack to be in charge of the boys who will hunt food for the entire group. Ralph, Jack, and another boy, Simon set off on an expedition to explore the island. When they return, Ralph declares that they must light a signal fire to attract the attention of passing ships. The boys succeed in igniting some dead wood by focusing sunlight through the lenses of Piggy’s eyeglasses. However, the boys pay more attention to playing than to monitoring the fire, and the flames quickly engulf the forest. A large swath of dead wood burns out of control, and one of the youngest boys in the group disappears, presumably having burned to death.
I think this text is going to be hard to teach because students really won't be able to really connect with the story with it talking about British boys that is on a island by themselves. But I think it is good to read with your students because your students will be able to learn so many important things. Even though the book is out dated there are still some really good themes that happen in this story. When teaching this lesson , the students can also can watch the movie after reading the book. This book touch base on friendship, leadership, trust. Those boys had to depend on each other to survive, they had to work together to figure out a way to be rescue from the island. Also, let them to do an activity on what they think the most important thing that they have to have on an island. Have a discussion with them about how they would feel in there were left on an island and they don't have anyway to contact there family. Thats would be a great discussion because students have became so use to technology. It will be interesting to see what they are thinking and what they will all do if they were on the island. After we have that discussion, I will let them watch the movie, so they can actually see what the boys were doing, how they survive, and the way dress.
I think their are a few different themes, one of the themes is the need of civilization is important because there were no adults supervising them and that they needed to follow the rules in order to survive in the island. Rules were the only thing that they’ve got. Various boys didn’t follow the rules anymore and started to break them by doing the things that they want.“We've got to have rules and obey them. After all, we're not savages. We're English, and the English are best at everything.” Since they were on the island for a while, they started to branch off and finding what they wanted to do. “The rules!" shouted Ralph, "you're breaking the rules!""Who cares?". Another theme is Loss of innocence in the book the boys on the island progress from well-behaved, orderly children longing for rescue to cruel, bloodthirsty hunters who have no desire to return to civilization, they naturally lose the sense of innocence that they possessed at the beginning of the novel. “We did everything adults would do. What went wrong?”. They had to grow up so fast and learn how to provide for themselves and there was nobody to teach them anything. Some students can relate to that because there are so many students have grow up so fast and take care of their family. Students reading a book about how these boys had to be responsible for each other , they became a family. These themes impact our students in our everyday life and they need to be aware of them.
Students can think about how the world view them and what rules they have to follow. One of the quotes “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.” Ralph was really hurt after, he lost a friend, he didn't know what to do with himself. I believe that students can relate to that because we all have lost someone that meant a lot to us. Some people that would be great to talk to your class and discussion this town is police officers, military people and any government official or any from some other young adults that had to grow up fast and had to take care of their family. If students hear from someone around there age they would be able to understand where they are coming from and maybe want to learn more about that young adult. I think that would be great for them to hear their thoughts about the book and have they had to grown up fast in a certain situation.
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