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Characters

Question #6

The main characters I think that are in this book are Ralph, Jack, Piggy, and Simon.

Ralph is the boy who summoned the boys by blowing the conch; he becomes the leader of the group by election. He first seems to be able to control the boys, but as the story flows, he gets kicked out of the group and gets chased by the boys.

Piggy is one kind of assistant of Ralph. He first met Ralph at the deserted island. He doesn't like his nickname Piggy, but can't refuse it. Piggy always tries to speak up with the conch, but always get disregarded by Jack or Ralph. He gets killed by the boys at the climax of the story.

Jack is the leader of the choir. During the story, he shows his ambition and brutality of killing. He naturally becomes an animal, killing and chasing the boys who disagrees with him(Ralph, Piggy.)

Simon seems to be a main character for me. He changed the plot of the story by realizing the beast's real look. However, he gets killed as soon as he talks to the boys.

In the story, I personally liked Piggy and Simon. I was miserable when they died because of the brutality of the boys, forgetting that they were their friends.

For Lord of The Flies

Question # 5

Entry of my choice.

The reason I chose this book was because of the cover page. I was attracted to this unique cover page that is different from other books. Also, the logo that stated that it was sold 100 million copies was also attracting.
Before I started the book, I was expecting interesting story lines, like a boy living in a jungle by himself, trying to survive without getting hurt. The cover page gave me the feeling that the story would be like one that i imagined. However, after finishing the book, I was quite dissapointed at the ending, and found myself dumbfounded. The story was quite similar to what I thought so, but reading about the boys being a lunatic(just like an animal!) made me bewildered.

Comparing to the previous book, I would say that the previous one would be better because I definitely didn't like the whole story and the ending.

Question # 4 What is the climax of this novel? what happens? how do the events of this novel make you feel?

I think the climax of this novel is when Simon realizes that the monster they have thought was actually a parachutist. He quickly go down to the beach and tries to tell the boys that the beast didn't exist, and that they misjudged. However, the boys don't even try to listen to Simon's words, but beat him up and eventually leads Simon to death.

I thought that this was the climax because Simon's perspective have changed to look straight at the point; I was glad that someone actually realized the beast to a parachutist. However, when the story flowed to Simon's death, I could think that it is gross. Boys killing with their bare hands and teeth = EW. They became an animal, with no thoughts, no mercy in their mind.

The climax of thie novel totally shocked me, by showing the inhuman personality of the boys.

Setting

Question #3 Are there any settings in this novel which you have found to be beautiful or disturbing or memorable? describe these settings and comment on why they were meaningful to you.

The setting of this novel was 'deserted island.' The island contained jungle, and is surrounded by the ocean. The setting of bunch of boys shot down over a deserted island seemed to be interesting at the first place. However, deeper the story went, this setting meant that the boys have no supports of adults, they have to survive this predicament by their own power. Thinking of living by myself, with the kids in my age might be somewhat enjoyable and might feel the free of suppression of parents, but it would last only a week or less. Even though they are with their friends, or not, they would need someone to rely on, which is their parents and family. Being abandoned(not really, but kind of) in the jungle frightens thekid!

Question # 2 What is the mood of this novel? do you find this novel saddens you in any way? why?

I think there are lots of mood in this novel. All the moods are complicated, mingled in the novel. At the first scene of the novel, the mood was peaceful, people waiting for rescue. But as the story went on, the mood raged up, becoming crazy. The mood saddened me because it showed the brutality of the innocent boys. I hoped that they don't lose their innocence, but they eventually changed, and it saddened me alot.

For Lord of the Flies

Question #1 What is the major theme of this novel? why is this theme important to a teenager living in 2008?

The major theme of this book is based on the human being's instinct and the civilization.

Also, the character's instinct shows the savagery of the character. The instinct of living brought the characters to awake their savage feelings toward their friends. I thought this related to the teenagers living in 2008 because the society shows that person needs to be callous to any person for my own benefit. As the book shows, people in the reality actually kill-not the meaning of murder- other person for their own benefit, to get rid of the harm for themselves.

Entry #3: What qualities would you like to have as a Greek god or goddess?

I would like to have the ability to see the future. Seeing the future would bore me about living, but it make me more relaxed than before.
Literally, seeing the future means that I can know what would happen to me every moments. No failures would be made, yet successes would be given.
I would look like a normal person, as anyone else. The ability to see the future doesn't require any different facial looks, so I would just have the normal look.

Entry #2: Greek monster Minotaur

Minotaur was one of the most horrible monster in Greek. He had two horns on his head and ate human flesh. Since he killed so many people for his own benefit, he was confined in a maze, and to feed him, the king sent seven youths and seven maidens to Minotaur every year.

One year, Theseus went to kill Minotaur; he met Ariadne, the king's daughter. Ariadne and Theseus soon fell in love; Theseus told her that he is going to kill Minotaur, and Ariadne told a clever scheme to kill the beast and to get out of the labyrinth. She gave him a thread, and told him to unwind it while he walk down to the labyrinth.

Theseus walked down, and heard Minotaur roaring, so he followed the sound of Minotaur. Theseus faced Minotaur, and waited the perfect moment of killing the beast. The moment came soon, and Theseus' sword pierced through Minotaur's body. After killing Minotaur, Theseus winded up the thread and went out the labyrinth.

Entry #1: Greek God Hermes

Hermes is the son of Zeus and Maia, the daughter of Atlas, and was raised by the Nymph Cyllene in Arcadia.

He was clever but curious about the world; as he grew up, he sneaked out of his cave-where he lived- and went out for an adventure.
He soon arrived at Pieria; there was Apollo's herd of cows. As Hermes saw the herd of cows, he had his natural instict of stealing it. Also, he made a plan to steal the cows. First, Hermes padded their feet to muffle the sound, and then he drove fifty of them backwards in order to confuse pursuit(N.S. Gill). He stopped at the Alpheios River to make the first sacrifice to the gods(N.S. Gill). He killed two of the cows and divided it to six parts, for the 12 Gods in Olympus. All the remaining cows were for Hermes, himself.
On his way back home, Hermes found a tortoise which he took inside his house(N.S. Gill). Using leather strips from Apollo's herd as string, he created the first lyre(N.S. Gill).
When Apollo found out that his cows were gone, he went to Hermes and inquired Hermes about his herd of cows. However, Hermes kept on demanding his innocence of not stealing Apollo's herd of cows, but Apollo smartly didn't believe in Hermes' words; their argument was ended when Zeus was intervened.
At last, Hermes confessed that he stole Apollo's cows; however, this conflict between Hermes and Apollo was resolved when Hermes traded his handmade-lyre with Apollo's cows.
The other remaining cows had been slaughtered and served up into twelve portions, one for each of the gods of Olympus and one for Hermes, who was then accepted as an Olympian (Anonymous).

Hercules is kind of stupid but rightful and Hermes is mischievous and clever. However, these two characters have similarities, that they made themselves a god. Hercules lost his power, but by training with Phil, he earned his power back, and went to Olympus.
Hermes wasn't born to be a god, but he himself used his wise head, and became a god.

Citation

N.S. Gill. "Hermes - A Thief, Inventor, and Messenger God." About.com (2000) 11 MAR 2008 .

Anonymous. "Mythology: Hermes, god of travel and communication." Pollychrome's Pantheon 11 MAR 2008 .

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Question #6
Entry of my choice

There are two reasons I chose this book. The first reason for choosing this book is the title 'Fahrenheit 451.' The title was interesting, and I wanted to know what the title meant for the entire story. After I finished the book, I knew that the 'Fahrenheit 451' was the temperature where the books can be burned. Guy Montag was the fireman who burns the book, so the temperature is related to him, eventually.

I am satisfied to find the true meaning of the title :)

Also, people recommended me to read this book. I once read Ray Bradbury's stories, but disliked his stories because it quite saddened me by reading his stories. I think this book also had the point which contains the saddness, but I think the story consequently ended happily.

Eventually, I don't regret reading this book! So I also recommend other people to read this book :3

Question #5
What is the mood of this novel? do you find this novel saddens you in any way? why?

The mood of the novel was depressing, gloomy, and desolated. All three words represent the word: sad.

The problem of this novel was the restriction of thinking, which meant reading. The world in the book was totally different from our world; it made me feel that I am far away from it. Also, the restriction restraints the people to think, and restraints the people to have emotion. The setting of the novel made the whole book desolated........

The book sincerely reflected the sadness to me, so I think I would read something different

than the 'Fahrenheit 451' next time..

Question #4
Are there any settings in this novel which you have found to be beautiful or disturbing or memorable? describe these settings and comment on why they were meaningful to you.

The most disturbing setting of the book that I thought was 'burning books.' The world in Fahrenheit 451 doesn't allow the people to read books. So, the people only watch TV, watch TV, and watch TV. In their world, the term 'reading' seems to be disappeared. Unlike the world we live in, firefighters don't exist in their world; the firemen exist. Firemen are those who set fire on the books. People get disturbed by any kind of knowledge given to them, and report it to the fire station. Then, the firestation sends firemen, and the firemen burn every books they see.

I was disturbed by the setting they burn the books because books are one kind of source that helps the people to earn knowledge. I also like reading books during spare time, and find joy in the reading. So, I thought the restriction took out the joy from the people in the book, and was disturbed by it..

Question #3
What is the climax of this novel? what happens? how do the events of this novel make you feel?

I think the climax of this novel is when Guy Montag kills Captain Beatty. After Guy Montag goes to the firestaion to give one book to Beatty, they hear a alarm sound, and find out that the alarm sound was from Guy Montag's own house. When they arrive to Montag's house, Mildred takes her suitcase and takes a cab. Soon, Guy notices that Mildred herself put in the alarm and betrayed him. Guy, being dumbfounded, soon gets forced by Beatty to burn his own house. Then, Guy starts to burn everything in his house, because he wanted to change everything. After him burning the house, Guy gets arrested by Beatty; however, Guy twitches the safety catch on the flame thrower and throws the liquid fire to Beatty. Beatty soon turns in to a corpse. Then, Guy shoves the other two firemen who was with him, and runs away.........

This event made me feel the intense, because I thought that Beatty was one of the main characters, so he wouldn't die no matter what happens to him. Also, this made me think of farther conflicts between Guy Montag and the fire-station, for killing the captain.

As I thought so, he soon gets trailed by a new Hound, and other people. After this event, the story got more excited, so I looked forward for more interesting conflicts.

Question #2 What is the major theme of this novel? why is this theme important to a teenager living in 2008?

The major theme I think is looking yourself correctly. The novel starts with Guy Montag thinking of the reason of his unhappiness on his life; I thought that Guy really didn't know the reason of his unhappiness on his life because he didn't know himself well. He just reflected him as a fireman, thinking the kerosene as a perfume. But, after meeting Clarisse and being asked if he is happy or not, he starts to find himself. Also, at the end of the sory, Granger talks about building a mirror factory to take long look in themselves. This means that people living in their world should look upon themselves, to know what they really are.

Just as the people living in the world of 'Fahrenheit 451,' teenagers living in 2008 doesn't know who they really are. The people living in the book's world are buried in the media: television, radios; like them, teenagers are all buried under homeworks, projects, tests, or other playing materials. By spending time on the school works or spending time on using computer, teenagers don't have any time to spend on to find their real looks.

Since I am one of the teenagers, I also feel that I am buried under all other things; after finishing the schoolworks one by one , and playing, I get out of the pile, but soon realize that the day has already ended. I find myself standing in middle of the dawn, looking at the dark and black sky. I feel that the dark and black sky represents myself, because I don't recognize myself. Sometimes, I find the shining stars saying 'this is you!', but soon find that they already faded away, and forgets about the shining stars.

What I want to say is that we all seem to live by the rules, that are made by ourselves. We should spend a little bit of time to look at ourselves; like when we watch television or do some other stuffs. Then, we would know more about ourselves and enjoy our life :)...

1st question: Who are the main characters in the novel? do you like them? why or why not? what is special about them? what do they reveal about the universal human experience?

- The main characters of this book are Guy Montag, the fireman, Mildred Montag, wife of Guy Montag who always watches television, Captain Beatty, also a fireman like Guy Montag, but is a boss of Guy, and Professor Faber, who helps Guy Montag throughout his journey to find the real happiness by reading books and finding the real meaning of the books.

In these characters, I liked Guy Montag, but didn't like Mildred or Beatty because of their actions shown throughout the book. In the book, the character's world is totally different from our world that they hate and prohibit reading books; they also punish the reader.

Guy Montag, was a fireman, who burns books. One day, Guy meets a girl named Clarisse; Clarisse asks if he is happy, but Guy just smiles and comes into the house. However, he realizes that he is not really 'happy.' Day by day, Montag meets Clarisse outside and talks with her. He starts to be influenced by Clarisse.

One day, Montag heads to an old woman's house to burn the books on her attic. When the books fell into Montag's hands, he secretly hides in his jacket and takes it to home. Few days later, he hears that Clarisse died by a car accident; Montag gets shocked and after, he decides to read the books and find the solution for his dissatisfaction towards his life.

In this part, I liked Guy Montag because he was trying to find the real meaning of his life through reading the books. Even though reading the books were outlawed, he didn't refuse reading, but admit it. The most interesting part of the book was that Guy Montag never give up reading books. He continues his journey even though he was chased, and had no supports. As I looked at Guy Montag continuing his journey, I was affected by the endurance and the spirit he had.