This book is about a group of boys stranded on an island after a plane crash. The book starts without telling you what happened beforehand and ends without giving you any clue about what happens next. The author starts out by vaguely describing the main character instead of saying his name. You never really find out what happened for a group of boys (all boys- no girls, no adults) to be on a plane at the same time without knowing each other and having it crash in the middle of an ocean. All they tell you is little bits like the plane was being shot down, there was a bomb, the pilot was on the other half, and so on. They then quickly change the subject. Therefore, the information is all around the book.
When you do find out the main character's name a few pages into the book, you find that his name is Ralph. He becomes the leader of the group. For him, the main need is survival. He has the group keep a fire going at the top of the mountain so that any ship passing by will see the smoke. Food isn't hard to get because there are plenty of fruit trees on the island. They collect the fresh water in coconuts for future use. Ralph does not seem to need the other needs as much as survival.
On the other hand, there is Jack. He was the head boy of the choir group. Jack needs a lot of power and fun. He meets the need for fun by taking the choir boys with him to hunt the pigs on the island. He meets his need for power at first just by staying the leader of the choir. He doesn't find that to be enough, though. Jack leaves and starts his own "tribe" on the other side of the island which ends up to include everyone but Ralph and one other kid. There, Jack is the ruler. He really had a large need for power over.
I didn't really like this book. The boys became very crazy quite early in the book, and they got crazier throughout. Also, there are more questions about what happened than answers by the end of the book. Another thing is that there really isn't any plot at all in the book. I do not recommend this book.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Why was Jack's need to power over others so strong? Was Ralph a poor leader and unwilling to listen to the ideas of the others? Was this even close to a utopian society?
Have you watched Kid Nation? Are there any similarities between the book and the show?
Ms L
Here are my answers to your questions:
I don't know. All I know about Jack is that he was head boy and the leader of the boy's choir. You really don't learn much about anyone's past.
No, not really. They passed around a conch shell that you had to have to speak. Everyone was granted the right to speak. It's just that some people thought that Ralph was too serious. He wanted to have all these things done to make sure they survived, but other people didn't want to do that. They just wanted to have fun.
This was not even close to an utopian society. NOT EVEN CLOSE.
Mrs. Grendahl told me about that. I have never seen that show.
-Anna
I agree with your opinion of this book. It rates up there with The Chocolate War ( don't read that one either. We talked about why we didn't like it, but really I think it is because it shows such an animalistic side of society that I do not want to believe is there. MRs. G
Interesting to know.
Post a Comment