Journal Number 3 - A Seperate Peace

            The final chapters of the novel were marked with numerous instances of the boys’ quest for the truth, and the avoidance of it as well.

            At this point in the novel, things have progressed quite well. Finny and Gene were continuing their friendship and Gene was making progress with his physical training. They organized a Winter Carnival and it was going swimmingly until they received a telegram from a friend who had left Devon to enlist. His name was Leper and the telegram brought news that he had “escaped”. Gene soon set out to find out, travelling to Leper’s home to learn the story. When he arrived he saw that Leper was not well and that he had left the Army to avoid dishonorable discharge for mental health issues, a death sentence for any future jobs. Leper was always a nervous kid, Gene noted, but he was past the point of no return when Gene saw him. Gene upset him and left in a hurry.

            Upon his return to Devon, Gene met up with Finny and the boys. The whole time that Leper was gone before hearing the news of his desertion the boys spent a majority of their free time examining the news and inserting Leper’s name, putting an identity to their faceless war. Not until they heard of his escape did they believe that there was actually a nasty conflict. Only one refused to accept the war.

            Finny, crippled from his broken leg, refused to acknowledge the war, or any war for that matter. In a school where all the rest of the boys were looking for the truth, Finny stood out. Any time Gene would begin to talk of the war or share a picture of Eisenhower and Churchill Finny would respond with statements of the farce that was Finny’s World War II. To the Churchill and Eisenhower picture, Finny said that they were meeting to plan the next fake war and how to best provide fake information for the presses. His denial of an outright truth (to Finny anything that was read in a book, taught by a professor or written in the newspaper was false; only word of mouth was fact, as long as it didn’t involve the war) was revealed with the bringing out of another truth.

            Even before Finny returned to Devon, Gene faced the same question numerous times.  He was often asked in the Butt Room (the depressing basement room where the boys went to smoke) what happened on that day at the tree. He often quickly turned the story into a joke, adding false details about affairs with Finny’s sister and national espionage; but the boys were not convinced. Only a few weeks after Gene’s meeting with Leper, the boys took Gene and Finny from their rooms to an information gathering session. In this session, Gene and Finny were held on trial. Finny’s memory was prodded to the details of the scene: “Was Gene in the tree? Did he push him?” Both boys’ memories were similar to the scene, but neither were sure (well Gene hid the truth) if Gene was actually in the tree. Lucky for Gene, the only person who would remember such a detail was Leper, but his luck ran out when it was revealed that he was visiting Devon that night. Once Leper spoke on trial, the truth came out: Gene had shook the branch. This shocking truth shook Finny to the core, and he hobbled out of the building… until he broke his leg again.

            The truth that had been hidden from him for so long, Finny’s relationship with Gene was drawn into question. Gene was worried about this fact, but he decided to visit Finny at night in the Infirmary. More truths were revealed when Finny told him that he had a suspicion that Gene had caused his accident. He went on to explain the reason that he denied the war’s existence, he wished more than anything to be a part of it. He went into detail of the pain of getting denied service by every military, even Canada’s. His denial of the harsh truth of being crippled was almost as blind as Gene’s.

            During the surgery to fix Finny’s second break, he died. His heart stopped, and one could argue that it was broken by a wicked combination of his friend’s act of violence towards him and his denial to join the war. Gene, though, continued to deny his involvement in the injury he caused to his best friend. Worse yet, when he acknowledged the fact that he had, in fact, caused the death of Finny (albeit indirectly because he would have died in combat as a result of “acting Finny” anyway) he turned his denial towards their friendship. The entire novel followed Gene in his jealousy of his best friend, which he in turn acted upon, but in the end he revealed that he had not killed his best friend but his enemy. A startling view of a boy’s avoidance of the truth, but it is also startling to know that this view isn’t that far off…

            The truth was an important part of these last chapters--- whether it was the quest for it by the other boys, the denial of it due to its staggering reality, or the outright denial of it because of petty jealousy. The truth prevailed over friendship and growing up, stark contrast to a typical novel written about teenage boys.

Journal Number 2- Seperate Peace

Finny’s falling from the tree marked a turning point in the psyche of Gene. At this point in the story Gene realized that Finny was not jealous of him and his academic excellence. This realization, found when they were on their way to a Society meeting and Gene wanted to continue to study his French, filled Gene with anger and frustration. While he acted upon it by stepping on the branch to make it bounce while his friend was precariously perched above the shore, Finny is not the one that Gene should be mad at. In fact, as the story develops through the ninth chapter, it turns out that he will begin to turn into a Finny because the old Finny is no longer.

            Gene was always jealous of Finny, a typical teenage boy emotion. He wished to be as skilled in academics as Finny was in athletics. Gene wasn’t able to understand why Finny was so easy to forgive him for the incident, even when he nearly admitted to causing it out of anger. Gene doesn’t understand why Finny was not willing to share the fact that he was such an incredible athlete that he was able to break a record without training. Jealousy is a typical teenage emotion, and Knowles does an incredible job of portraying it through Gene’s relationship with Finny.

            Finny experienced a palpable change with the injury, although he did retain some traits that make him noticeably Finny. Obviously he was no longer able to do sports, but despite this he wasn’t angry with Gene. Even in the hospital and laid up at his own home, Finny always gave Gene his unique form of friendship. When he returned to Devon (an interesting day for Gene) instead of feeling sorry for himself and moping about not being able to do sports his only complaint was that there were no longer maids. Hobbling around the campus on crutches and slipping on the snow and ice and still his only complaint was the maids. He doubled his efforts in school with the guilt-driven help of Gene and he adjusted his goal of making the Olympics to instead help Gene get there. This was one of the main points that Gene notices his transformation into Finny.

            A surprise phone call from Finny on the first day of school began his change. When Gene revealed that he was planning on overseeing a sport instead of participating Finny spoke up and told him that because he was unable to means that Gene must. What Finny was not aware of was that Gene was incredibly guilty and short on the phone call because he knew that if it were not for his anger and jealousy, Finny could be participating in all the sports at Devon. Gene’s reaction when Finny told him to play sports: “I lost myself to him then, and a soaring sense of freedom revealed that this must have been my purpose from the first: become a part of Phineas.” When Finny returned to the school this purpose was only intensified. Not only did Gene tutor him and help him get around the school, but Finny made it his new goal to get Gene to the Olympics, working him out every second that he could. Finny still does not know that if it were not for Gene he may have been able to reach the goal for himself, but Gene’s guilt has put his goals in the hands of Finny. The life that he ended for someone else was quickly becoming his own.

Journal Number 1- Seperate Peace

Five chapters into John Knowles novel, A Separate Peace, and it appears to have an interesting perspective into the psyche of adolescent boys. The main character and speaker, Gene, has struggled with juggling school at Devon- a boarding school preparing the boys for military service during World War II- his friendship with Finny and his jealous, love-hate relationship with Finny.

            Finny is Gene’s best friend and arguably the school’s most gifted athlete. He created a club with Gene which he called the “Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session” because of the initiation process of jumping from the smallest limbs of a tree overhanging a river. Gene is reserved while Finny is much more daring, goading Gene into jumping with him. The best friends are the only boys in the junior class that have dared to jump in, making them the leaders of the Society. It is important to note that the first jump of the Society (they jump in to mark the beginning of each daily meeting) was almost a disaster. While up on the limbs, Gene stumbled and almost fell. Finny caught him and they jumped in. While the reader would argue that Gene should be indebted to Finny, Gene believes that the life saving act is balanced out by the fact that Finny forced him to go up there. He would have been saved if Finny were there or not. This is the first example of the intrigue of the teenage boys mind.

            Finny is an interesting contrast to Gene at this point in the story. Gene is in the top two of his class academically. He works everyday to ensure that he stays there, and he really wants to be valedictorian. At first he disagrees when Finny points this out, but he realizes that he does, in fact, feel this way. Although he never admits it, he wants to match Finny’s athleticism and lack of fear. Every time the Society meets Gene is scared to jump, but Finny doesn’t know. Finny suggests they take a day to go to the beach. Gene has a trigonometry test the next day, but he doesn’t say no and Finny never asks. While Gene is too afraid to deny Finny, Finny likewise never takes Gene’s thoughts into account. Gene wants to be valedictorian because of the speech and recognition he will receive. In direct contrast to that, Finny and Gene are in the pool and Finny breaks a longstanding record. To Gene’s surprise, instead of sharing the feat with the student body, Finny insists on keeping it a secret. Finny was content with knowing that he had broken it, rather than everyone knowing that he broke it.

            Gene was extremely jealous of Finny, and all he hoped was that Finny was jealous in the same way. Finny was such an incredible athlete, creating a game that he would excel at, his courage on the tree, breaking the swimming record, ability to escape trouble with ease. Gene only hoped that Finny was equally jealous of his academic prowess. Finny began to try as a result of the trig failure he had caused for Gene. In turn, Gene believed that this was a sign that he was jealous too, because Finny admitted to not being able to get anything better than a B. When the Society meetings continued to happen during the time of finals, Gene believed that this too was a sign of jealousy. If Finny could not raise his grades, he could just as easily damage Gene’s. This, as the reader soon learns, is not the case. This jealousy leads to a potential turning point in the story, when Finny falls from the tree.

Lord of the Flies- A Third Journal

Numerous scenes can be argued as the most important in any novel, and the Lord of the Flies is no exception. No one scene had quite the impact (even the climax) that this one had. The scene I am referring to, of course, is the scene I will call "The Broken Specs" Scene.

In "The Broken Specs" scene the boys are on the island and the "biguns" are scattered. Jack took the hunters off in thirst for meat, while Ralph and the others stayed and played in a bathing pool. While searching the horizon, Ralph spotted the smoke swirling upward in a “tight little knot” (66). With excitement and tight nerves they focused on the smoke. When sure of the sight, they turned towards their beacon fire. Ralph was shocked and horrified when the spot where their smoke should billow from was dormant. His vehemence was met with opposing excitement when Jack and the hunters returned with their kill. The hunters danced and sang, unaware of Ralph fuming. Not until it was revealed what they had missed did the hunters realize the error in their ways. All dancing and story-telling and excitement ceased when Jack and the others recognized that their absence from the fire allowed potential rescuers to float right past. Piggy stood to repeat their offense and was met with an angry crack in the head by Jack, sending his specs flying and shattering one lens. It was at this point that "not even Ralph knew how a link between him and Jack had been snapped"(73).

At this scene, something definitely snaps and this can be argued as the point in the novel where problems begin to run downhill. The lit fire represented their hopes of survival, and up to this point they had kept it lit until the precise moment when it was needed. The quote used above, about the “knot” of smoke, shows how the boys were bound to the smoke of their own fire and the rescue of others. Jack and the hunters refused to acknowledge their fault, because their minds had long since drifted away from rescue and instead moved to survival. The hunters turned into savages without the presence of adults, a common theme throughout the novel. The savages were so caught up in their thirst for blood that they no longer thought as a human would and focus on getting off the island. With their first taste of blood they felt “that they had taken away life with a long satisfying drink”(70) of blood, the blood that caused the end of their human stay on the island. The hunters had been long on the turning point of going from human to savage, but their first success in the hunt tipped the balances and they were suddenly swept up by primal instinct.

There was one symbol in this scene that stands out above all else, Piggy’s specs. Going along with the end of humanity and beginning of savagery, his specs represented human intelligence. When they were destroyed, so too was any chance that the hunters had at going back to being human and looking for a way out. The specs were the boys' fire starter, and the fire represented escape. When Jack attacked Piggy, he shattered one of the lenses. One shattered lens represented the beginnings of the boys dividing. The broken specs would answer when the boys’ separation began; it is at this point that Jack and Ralph would be divided, snapped like a broken pair of glasses. Only having one lens leaves Piggy partially blind and helpless and “islanded in a sea of meaningless color” (73), he was now even more of a burden placed upon Ralph more and more as the novel goes on. But this blindness is not limited to Piggy. There were two lenses before the snapping, and each represents a leader: Jack and Ralph. Ralph was focused on fire, which is why his lens did not snap when the specs flew. Jack, on the other hand, was so overcome by savage instincts. This is represented by the lack of lens. The specs were necessary for fire and when Jack chose hunting over rescue his lens for fire broke. Because the lens had broke, there would be no fire for the hunters because “Jack had no means of lighting it”(73). He and the other hunters are now forced to travel the forest blindly, without the lens of fire and the human thought that Ralph possesses. The damaged specs represents so much more than just a broken piece of glass, it shows the beginnings of a schism within the boys and one groups turn towards savagery: the turning point in the novel.

The Scene- Lord of the Flies

Again, as with the last blog, I offer you a choice:
Disregard the small scribblings of a journal about Lord of the Flies and play with the penguins at right by waving your mouse above them or maybe enjoy a poem below...
Or you could zoom in and read this arrangement of words regarding the most important scene in Lord of the Flies.

Numerous scenes can be argued as the most important in this novel, Lord of the Flies, but none had quite the impact (besides the climax) that this one had. The scene I am refering to, of course, is the scene I will call "The Broken Specs" Scene.
In "The Broken Specs" scene the boys are on the island and the "biguns" are scattered. Jack took the hunters off on in thirst for meat while Ralph and the others stayed and played in a bathing pool. While searching the horizon, Ralph spotted a stream of smoke on the horizon. With excitement and they focused on the smoke. When sure of sight, they turned towards their beacon. Ralph was shocked and horrified when the spot where their smoke should billow from was dormant, the chief was furious. His emotion was met with opposing excitement when Jack and the hunters returned with their kill. The hunters danced and sang, unaware of Ralph fuming. Not until it was revealed what they had missed did the hunters realize the error in their ways. All dancing and story-telling and excitement ceased when Jack and the others realized that becuase they had left the fire, potential rescuers had floated right past. Piggy stood to repeat their offense and was met with an angry crack in the head by Jack, sending Piggy's specs flying and shattering one lens. It was at this point that "not even Ralph knew how a link between him and Jack had been snapped"(73).
At this scene, something definately snaps and this can be argued as the point in the novel where problems begin to run downhill. The lit fire represented their hopes of survival, and up to this point they had kept it lit until the precise moment when it was needed. Jack and the hunters refused to acknowledge their fault, becuase their minds had long since drifted away from rescue and instead moved to survival. The hunters turned into savages without the presence of adults, a common theme throughout the novel. The savages were so caught up in their thirst for blood that they no longer thought as a human would and focus on getting off the island. The hunters had been long on the turning point of going from human to savage, but their first success in the hunt tipped the balances and they were suddenly swept up by primal instinct.
There was one symbol in this scene that stands out above all else,  Piggy's specs. The specs were the boys' firestarter, and the fire represented escape. When Jack attacked Piggy, he shattered one of the lenses. One shattered lens represented the beginnings of the boys dividing. The broken specs would answer the quote above; it is at this point that Jack and Ralph would be seperated, snapped like a broken pair of glasses. Only having one lens leaves Piggy partially blind and helpless, a burden to be placed upon Ralph more and more as the novel goes on. But this blindness is not limited to Piggy. There were two lenses before they snapping, and each represents a leader, Jack and Ralph. Ralph was focused on fire, which is why his lens did not snap when the specs flew. Jack, on the otherhand, was so overcome by savage instincts. This is represented by the lack of lens. The specs were necessary for fire and when Jack chose hunting over rescue his lens for fire broke. He and the other hunters are now forced to travel the forest blindly, without the lens of fire and the human thought that Ralph possesses. The damaged specs represents so much more than just a broken piece of glass, it shows the beginnings of a schism within the boys and one groups turn towards savagery: the turning point in the novel.

You're Probably Thinking Too Hard

Below is a poem entitled: "Poem"
It reads:

Like an educated mule
I begin this poem with one simple rule:
No love connotation
Just an empty sensation.

Now don't assume from above
That I have no belief of love,
This is a meaningless poem I have made
For nothing more than a check grade.

Lord of the Flies- Illusion

 If you would like to read this, it would probably be best to copy and paste into your favorite word processor and increase the font. 

If you don't want to read this, you are probably in the wrong place but feel free to enjoy the rest of my blog, play with my fish, leave comments on stuff and snicker at pictures of me riding a pink bike.          

            William Golding begins his first novel, Lord of the Flies, with many obvious distinctions of a piece of commercial fiction, but it soon develops into something deeper than that.

            The story opens with two boys found on a beach after a mysterious plane crash. The early descriptions of the boys were entirely stock characters. There was a fair haired boy, Ralph, with casual movements and mischievous, almost arrogant, actions who quickly and (in the most clichéd way possible) took the protagonist role. The other boy could not have been more of a stock character, even down to his name, Fatty. His chubbiness, spectacles, curiosity and relentless questions quickly contrasted the traits of Ralph. While Fatty questioned and spoke nonstop, Ralph quietly and wittingly grabs a conch from the bottom of a pool and blows. The conch brought together the other survivors of the plane wreck as would be expected in a typical commercial story. The conch brought numerous kids, and a typical antagonist. As any reader would guess, when it came time to find a leader Ralph was an obvious favorite. As all works (commercial and otherwise) need an antagonist, this was the clear spot in the story where one would step up. Jack, one of the oldest boys and head of the choir, stepped in for the vote as chief. While Jack and Ralph quickly worked together on a voyage to see if they were in fact on an island, time would quickly damage the relationship between the chief, Ralph, and the one who thirsted for control, Jack. Their stay on the island under their new chief began with numerous great ideas, but their utopian illusion would soon fall apart.

            Illusions began with the fear of unknown creatures, and moved on to belief in civilized living without adults.  Ralph, as chief, took the ideas of what they needed to do on the island (fire for rescue, shelter, and hunting pigs) and distributed jobs amongst the kids. He was approached by one of the younger kids (lilluns) that shared his fear of the “beastie”. This is the novel’s first sign of disillusionment, the lilluns believe the boy but the older kids believe there is no beastie on the island. The theme continues when that child went never turned up after sharing his fear, whether swallowed in the fire on the mountain or taken by the beastie the reader has yet to learn. While the older kids attempted to brush this lose aside, the lilluns recognized his absence and maintained their fear of beasties.

            As any kids faced with the situation of survival in a land without adults, what was said was not always accomplished, and duties were abandoned and forgotten. Ralph and the boys decided the need for a signal fire and shelter was pertinent. All of the boys began making shelter, but as time went on (an unspecified amount, to continue the illusion) the lilluns moved on to playing (as any little boy would) and it was left to Ralph to build them. Angered by the fact that the boys did what ever they wanted instead of what was needed to do (maintain signal fire, keep living areas clean) his frustration reached a peak when their first chance of survival was missed when the signal fire went out. Jack, who was in charge of the hunters, was overcome by thirst for blood that he took all the boys from the fire with him to hunt. Their excitement when they caught a pig was met with Ralph’s rage and realization that they needed to live like he said earlier, and not whatever way they wanted. This illusion was a main part of this reading and if he continues believing that he can have a grown up civilization without the grown ups he will continue to struggle.

            Golding appears to take a stock story and add deep themes of illusion and thoughts of an ideal society amongst boys to add to the mystery and desperation of the island.      

Journal- An In Depth View at the Harry Potter Series

For my first journal I selected the Harry Potter series, a clear example of non-commercial literature.

Voldemort tried to kill harry, harrys face exploded, Voldemort died, harry was orphaned, harry went to school, voldemort returned, voldemort attempted to kill harry, harry killed voldemort, harry died, harry lived, all lived happily ever after.

Tyler_Birsch
5BC

Finding the Black Fish

I challenge you to find the black fish in the game at right.
If you can provide me proof that you have found the black fish then I will provide you with a prize of some sort.

The prize will be determined.

Find the Black Fish.
Name him if you wish.

Wikispeedia v2.0

http://www.wikispeedia.net/  
Best way to play wikispeedia by yourself.
Get some friends.