Song Selection- Lord of the Flies

"Welcome To The Jungle"

Welcome to the jungle
We've got fun 'n' games
We got everything you want
Honey, we know the names
We are the people that can find
Whatever you may need
If you got the money, honey
We got your disease

[CHORUS:]

In the jungle
Welcome to the jungle
Watch it bring you to your
knees, knees
I wanna watch you bleed

Welcome to the jungle
We take it day by day
If you want it you're gonna bleed
But it's the price you pay
And you're a very sexy girl
That's very hard to please
You can taste the bright lights
But you won't get them for free
In the jungle
Welcome to the jungle
Feel my, my, my serpentine
I, I wanna hear you scream

Welcome to the jungle
It gets worse here everyday
Ya learn ta live like an animal
In the jungle where we play
If you got a hunger for what you see
You'll take it eventually
You can have anything you want
But you better not take it from me

[CHORUS]

And when you're high you never
Ever want to come down, YEAH!

You know where you are
You're in the jungle baby
You're gonna die
In the jungle
Welcome to the jungle
Watch it bring you to your
knees, knees
In the jungle
Welcome to the jungle
Feel my, my, my serpentine
In the jungle
Welcome to the jungle
Watch it bring you to your
knees, knees
In the jungle
Welcome to the jungle
Watch it bring you to your
It' gonna bring you down-HA!

14. (favorite character)

My favorite character in the book is definitely Simon, as you may have gathered from reading my previous blogs.  Unlike most of the other characters in the book, who generally have at least one large societal flaw, usually violence, Simon contributes positively to the boys' society.  He helps out Ralph in his ventures, while preserving, or at least attempting to preserve, the boys' society.  Although people usually think of Simon as odd or unusual, I think he is a very interesting character, who has very interesting and often very valid opinions.  The best example of that I can think of is his opinion on the beast, which is actually the opinion I believe to be true.  One of Simon's most beneficial traits in this book is the ability to think things through.    He is more like Piggy than anyone else in that sense, and is less impulsive than the rest.  He is also the only boy among the group that really seems to appreciate the island.  The others are mostly just focused on killing things, or having fun.  Lastly, I think Simon's priorities are in order, much more than the priorities of Jack, who appears like he couldn't care less if they never got rescued, so long as there were pigs to kill.

13. (analysis of the circle game with Robert)

To me, this event presents a serious red flag to the little society the boys have going on.  In my mind, what happened here was the boys wielded the hatred and anger they have towards pigs on the island and unleashed it on Robert.  This is concerning to me because this shows that the passion for killing some characters, namely Jack, have in this story can and just might be translated into violence against their own.  It also shows that the boys are at the point where a game, however simple or seemingly harmless, can turn into an activity of violence and brutality.  The boys certainly have no problem isolating members from their society, as they did with Piggy so handily and nonchalantly, and did again with Robert in this instance.  If you put these circumstances in play with a situation where there is actual conflict, this could easily result in the death of one of the boys.  Keep in mind that Robert never even did anything, and that lead to Jack drawing his knife.  Imagine what could happen if it was someone who Jack thought deserved punishment.

12. (the future of the beast and the boys)

Since as readers we know there is no beast, save for a stranded man with a parachute, it is safe to assume that the boys will never find the beast.  Thus, the fear that has been haunting the boys will remain in place, especially within those that have, indeed, seen the beast (Sam n Eric).  The actual future concerning the boys remains up to this point unclear, although it has been made very clear that there is the potential for some serious conflict.  Piggy and Jack have a strong bond of disliking for each other, while there is also the constant power-struggle between Jack and Ralph.  Throw all of that into a situation full of constant tension, possibly violent individuals, and the fact that Jack blew a chance to get them rescued, and it could all just boil over.  The fact that the boys seem to be becoming more violent as the story progresses is all the more worrisome.  At the same time, however, you do have certain individuals that could keep the peace.  Piggy would fall into that category if he didn't cause Jack so much anger, but the real mediator will have to be Simon.  The only issues there are that Simon is shy, and nobody really listens to him.

11. (what is the beast?)

Although nobody initially gave Simon a second look in assemblies, and Jack at a point even says: "What good does Simon do speaking?", I still think that out of all the opinions voiced during the late-night assembly, Simon's makes the most sense.  I think the fear the boys have of the beast is just a label being thrown on the internal fear on the island, which comes about due to the boys' fear of each other.Although up until this point nobody has really physically harmed or injured anyone else, there are many people on the island who show the potential to do so.  I think this just creates all sorts of tension on the island, which ends up becoming a collective fear.  I believe that the reason this fear gets translated into the fear of a beast is because, in all honesty, this is just a group of young boys.  No matter how much bravado they put on in the face of danger, they're still just boys, and they have no way to grasp such an internal and penetrating fear, especially the littluns.  Simon is the exception to that rule, and his quiet, subdued wisdom might be the only thing that can save the boys from what they have become.

10. (opinion of Simon after his experience in the jungle)

Even up until this, point, Simon had been generally thought of as a strange person.  I don't think this changes that much when we read of his sneaking into the jungle alone, but at the same time I think we can discover some new layers to Simon after reading this passage.  He really thinks about things in depth, and is a very perceptive and deep person.  Really, the others are just a bunch of boys, stranded out on an island.  In reading this passage, we can learn that Simon is just a little bit more.  He has the capacity to truly appreciate his surroundings in a way that Jack, Ralph, or even Piggy would.  As the story progresses, more evidence does emerge to support Simon's intelligence, especially when he suggests in Chapter nine that "...maybe it's only us", referring to the beast.  Really, what I think the author is trying to get across through this section is that there is more to Simon that meets the eye, and much more than the other boys think.

9. (observation on the differences between Jack and Ralph in chapter 3 of Lord of the Flies)

From the beginning of the book, it was clear that Ralph and Jack are by no means the same person, but it is in chapter three that significant differences appear in their character.  There is actually a confrontation towards the end of the chapter between Ralph and Jack, which stems from their personality differences.  Jack, ever since his initial confrontation with a pig on the mountain, has up to this point become more and more obsessed with killing a pig.  While Ralph worked on matters which required more immediate action, namely the building of huts on the beach, Jack was out hunting.  When Jack finally returned from his hunt, once again empty handed, Ralph asked him if he was ever going to catch anything.  In my mind, this specifically is what set Jack off.  Jack had always tried to assert himself as a leader and the epitome of toughness, and to have his ability to accomplish anything, much less a many task questioned, was an insult.  In this chapter, Jack's obsession with killing really comes to the surface, and Ralph's exasperation with Jack's lack of contribution to their society is verbally conveyed, and this really differentiates the characters from one another.