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LoTF Reading Response

[Piggy:] "I don't agree with all Jack said, but with some.  'Course there isn't a beast in the forest.  How could there be?  What would a beast eat?"
"Pig."
"We eat pig."
"Piggy!"
"I got the conch!" said Piggy indignantly.  "Ralph--they ought to shut up, oughtn't they?  You shut up, you littluns!  What I mean is that I don't agree about this here fear.  Of course there isn't nothing to be afraid of in the forest.  Why--I been there myself!  You'll be talking about ghosts and such things next.  We know what goes on and if there's something wrong, there's someone to put it right."
He took off his glasses and blinked at them.  The sun had gone as if the light had been turned off. [...]
"Life," said Piggy expansively, "is scientific, that's what it is.  In a year or two when the war's over they'll be traveling to Mars and back.  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." (83-84)


       I think that this passage is significant because it foreshadows that their own people will become frightening. At this point in the book, for me, I wasn’t sure if the beast was real or not. When I read this passage, though, I began to think: What if the beast isn’t real, yet that is what drives them apart? Piggy disproves the fact that the beast isn’t real, but he doesn’t say that the beast is real in their minds.


       Another thing I noticed in this passage is around this part in the book, the mood starts to change. At the beginning of the book, the overall feeling is fun and light-hearted but maybe a little questionable. But, it is this part of the book where fear takes over the physiological setting. Simple things in this passage convey the presence of fear, such as “The sun had gone as if the light had been turned off,” and “Ralph moved restlessly.” From this point on, the boys fear of the beast is always shown through their actions or thoughts and in the narrators language.

Comments

  1. julianaNovember 16, 2017 at 3:18 PM

    I agree that the mood changes from the beginning to the end of the book. It goes from light-hearted to fear and lots of action towards the end of the book. Good job!

    ReplyDelete

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