Post by 2amarcusgohsy12 on Jun 7, 2008 22:24:07 GMT -5
1) In my opinion, social order is the structure of our society which helped to maintain order and relationships in the society. Social order first come about on the island when Ralph blows the conch. Before that, there were no social order as the littluns just run about on the island, with no sense of order. However, when Ralph blew the conch, the boys immediately gather. This can be considered "order". After that, they also held a meeting and also vote for a chief. IN my opinion, this very much represents the structure of our society, which helps to maintain law and order. What they had done was actually very civilised. Plus, Ralph had told Piggy to do a headcount and take down the number of boys (Although it was discovered that he had not do so in chapter 2), which is a very civilised way of trying to keep order on the island. Thus, Ralph had tried in the first chapter to create and keep social order (representing our society), although he failed to maintain it in the end.
2) There are many reasons why Jack did not kill the pig in this this chapter. Jack was afraid as he was only 12 years old at this point of time and bruterly killing a pig need a certain amount of courage and guts for a boy his age to actually kill a living creature and their mind are still rather "childlike" (I believe that many of us, at 14 years old, still do not dare to kill. XD ) and does not harbour any ill intentions. Plus, it can be assumed that he did not kill a living creature before in their life, and i believe that for every one of us, trying out something for a first time need a lot of courage, which may be the reason why Jack hestitated before killing the pig. He could also be afraid of seeing blood following out and hearing the "cries" of the pig and the sight of it reacting in pain, which is quite disgusting.
The second reason could be due to the fact that JAck belongs to a civilised world. In his mindset, he may thought that only barbaric people will murder or kill as he is educated from young that killing is a bad thing, killing is wrong and murderers will be punished. He was also not used to killing a pig since he had not done that before (As i had mentioned above), being educated and not exposed to such murderous acts before in his life, which may cause him to feel uncomfortable at that moment. Thus, when he was trying to kill the pig, many thoughts were running through his mind. "Should I kill? I thought killing is wrong?", which caused the pig to run away in the end.
3) The conch represents leadership, order and power. How does the conch represents leadership? When the boys were voting on who should be the leader, all of them points to Ralph and votes for him to be the chief, as "he has the conch!" Thus, this shows us that the conch represents leadership and also power, which is also one of the reason why Ralph is elected chief, and those who have the conch will have the power to speak during the meetings. Ralph brings along the conch with hmi all the time as it can bring him "power" and "authority". Also, the conch represents order and democracy, as it efficently governs the meetings, allowing the boys who have the conch to speak while others have to keep quiet, and everyone had the right to speak as long as they have the conch. It also have the ability to summons the boys and gather them for a meeting etc. Without the conch, the meetings will be very messy and there will simply be no rules or law on the island, as we can seen from the 1st chapter: Before Ralph blows the conch, all the boys were scattered. However, when the conch appears, the boys immediately gathered and order seems to come.
4) Piggy's spectacles represents science and knowledge. Piggy is known to be the one of the smartest and knowledgeble boy in on the island. Thus, his spectacles could possibily represents the power of science and knowledge. In the 2nd chapter, when all other means failed to light up the fire, the boys used Piggy's spectacles to light it up. Thus, this shows us how the power of science (Using the spects to create fire is physics) had helped them to create a fire when there is no other ways. The glasses could also significents knowledge as Piggy was a smart boy. Having glasses often means that you are someone who had read a lot and is very smart, someone who is a nerd. (In the past, although this is not similar to the present times, as kids have glasses as they watched too mcuh TV or played too much computer games). Thus, Piggy's glasses could also show us that he was a very wise and knowledgeble person.
thanks. Zhi Rong.
I disagree with Zhi Rong's second point that Jack did not dare to kill the pig. Firstly, you said most of us do not dare to kill, but why do I see you stepping on ants during NPCC (killing an ant is also killing)? Furthermore, most of us do not kill our friends is more because of the law. That is what the law is for - to stop brutally acts (if there is no law, you will be the first to get killed by me =).. jkjk). On the island, there is no one before the children came. No people means no government. No government means no law. So Jack will still dare to kill the pig because, there will be nothing to punish him. And also, like I have said in my previous post: it can be seen clearly that Jack wants respect. So, no law plus his personality, he will kill the pig. But I believe there is some other reason why he did not kill it (maybe he is thinking about something? Or he suddenly froze for a moment due to some illness? Or could be even he saw a ghost or whatever. No one knows, only Golding will know because he wrote the novel.).
Marcus Goh
P.S. Nothing is impossible I always believe. Anything can happen to Jack at that time.