Close Reading Chapter 4Pages 63-64 Answer Key

1. Symbolism …………………………………………...Colour Symbols: “He made one cheek and one eye - socket white, then he rubbed red over the other half of his face and slashed a black bar” White symbolizes purity, red symbolizes passion, and black represents evil. This represents Jack’s evolving identity: evil is overshadowing all.

Water Symbol: “He looked in the pool for his reflection” Water is a symbol for rebirth. This represents Jack’s baptism into his new identity - his rebirth.

“He knelt, holding the shell of water” His kneeling connotes a spiritual moment and the shell of water, again, seems to allude to a baptismal ceremony.

Light: “Patch of sunlight fell on his face and a brightness appeared in the depths of the water...he spilt the water” The sunlight is the divine wisdom. It attempts to highlight the brightness or hope for goodness in Jack. Jack dropping the water at that moment connotes his refusal to acknowledge that part of himself.

2. Animal Imagery & Characterization“bloodthirsty snarling” = animalistic/predatory

3. Diction…………………………………………………. “Appalled” = horrify

“Stranger” = Jack is not yet familiar with this side of his personality (this may represent the fact that the predatory nature was deep in Golding’s unconscious. This is the first moment when his Id, the part of the psyche that controls instinctual desires, surfaces to his conscious mind and seems to control him.)

“Sinewy body held up the mask”: held up is defined as “to keep from falling or from getting away”. Jack wishes to keep this identity from getting away. This shows that it is not fully one with him. This savagery is unfamiliar. He’s “trying this new identity on” as one tries on a costume. “Behind which Jack hid” Jack is concealing his true identity, which is not yet fully savage. In hiding, he is “liberated”. This brings to mind freedom. The mask helps Jack to feel free from the rules of civilization which make one feel “shame” for savage behaviour.

Psychoanalytic Criticism Topic SentenceIn Lord of the Flies, William Golding uses symbolism to show how the Id’s identity becomes more prominent after the psyche is impacted by war.

New Lit. Crit. Topic Sentence

In Lord of the Flies, William Golding uses symbolism to emphasize Jack’s transformation from an innocent school boy to a savage beast, which is symbolic of man’s transformation from moral to evil in the absence of civilized society.

Golding uses symbolism to emphasize Jack’s transformation from an innocent school boy to a savage beast,

which is symbolic of man’s transformation from morality to evil in the absence of civilized society. Jack makes a mask from clay and charcoal to conceal his pink flesh so that he might better hunt the pigs. He “ma[kes] one cheek and one eye-socket white” which represents the suppressed purity that is still present in Jack. Then he “rub[s] red over the other half” and “slash[es] a black bar of charcoal across from the right ear to the left jaw” demonstrating how impulsive passion and evil now surround the purity that once dominated Jack’s personality. There is light imagery used symbolically when “a rounded patch of sunlight [falls] on his face and a brightness appear[s] in the depths of the water”. The sunlight represents divine wisdom, which attempts to bring attention to Jack’s goodness. This is the last moment of hope where Jack has a chance to recognize that this transformation is happening, and this is the moment where he can see the mask as unnecessary and even dangerous. At this point, however, Jack sees himself as “an awesome stranger” and he “split[s] the water”. He sees that this is not his true identity, but in splitting the water he refuses to acknowledge the fact that this mask is a stranger. Instead, he embraces this new stranger and “the mask [becomes] a thing on its own, behind which Jack [hides], liberated from shame and self-consciousness”. Jack hiding behind the mask symbolizes his gaining security and power from the mask because he is “liberated” or free from civilized society which “shames” people for following the Id. Furthermore, Bill solidifies this power when he “blunder[s] away through the bushes” and when “the mask compel[s]” the boys to follow. Bill’s reaction symbolizes how humanity is drawn to instinctual passion and evil. Consequently, this passage represents a turning point in Jack’s identity. He embraces savagery in order to do acts that his innocent school boy identity can not accomplish because of the limitations civilization imposes on him; Jack, and Bill for that matter, demonstrate man’s willingness to embrace savagery in the absence of civilized society

Quick Recap

Chapters 1 - 4

New Literary CriticismAsk yourself:

1. What makes humans evil?

2. When removed from civilized society, what will humans do?

GOAL:

Analyze elements of fiction (setting, point of view, characterization) and literary devices (pathetic fallacy, imagery, symbolism) to determine an answer to the guiding questions.

Narrative Point of ViewOmniscient: this is used to represent God’s perspective on humanity along with Golding’s perspective on humanity.

This narrative point of view invites us to ask: Are humans naturally civilized or savage?

We get various versions of the human identity through the omniscient point of view.

SettingChapter 1: untouched island (see chosen quotes in your binder) impacted by the outside world (war of the adult world) = “scar”

Chapter 2: Focus on the mountain (ascending the mountain = gain enlightenment: there is a realization that there is a friendly and an unfriendly side of the mountain mentioned regularly + the fire on the mountain has two purposes (hopeful and destructive). Good and bad aspects in the setting reflect and possibly foreshadow the good and bad in human nature.

Throughout Chapter 1-4: mention of pigs and colour imagery (especially notice the colour pink repeated regularly); this represents the compassion and nurturing aspect of nature and humanity (colour psychology); it could also be passion mixed with purity (red and white) to represent the balance within nature.

Pathetic FallacyStorm when the boys arrived represents the chaos they are feeling

Darkness looms when fear is experienced

Fire represents their hope and their savagery

Distorted creepers represents how fear distorts perspective/rational thought

Beauty seen by Simon represents his purity due to his absence of fear (spiritual truth) - changes

ImageryLight Imagery: light = enlightenment; intellect; awareness; hope

Darkness = fear; danger;evil

Garment Imagery: changes in hair and clothes; Piggy’s glasses as well show the boys’ transformation from civil to savage and from innocent to predatory (which can be perceived as evil).

Animal Imagery: aka zoomorphism with the boys as well as the animals on the island and the impact humans have on them (bird in chapter 1 and pigs = man’s destruction of innocence) along with the change in man from civilized to animalistic (predatory).

Symbols So FarConch ship the pig

Fire pink the characters themselves

Beast red the scar

Water black imagery (animal, garment and light)

Mountain white

Sun the island itself

ZoomorphismDescent into savagery: embracing the animal aspect/primal instincts of humanity

characterizationSimon: remains the Christ figure throughout (constantly hopeful but a prophet in the sense that he says the island is not a good island, he is untouched by fear in the middle of the island and realizes it is not the island itself that is bad, he helps everyone selflessly, unchanging; feels the savagery beating closer but yet untouched as of Chapter 4

Piggy: remains rational (tea time, desire to make a clock, focus on the conch, the glasses and the fire) but he is being worn down (weakened) by the savagery around him

Jack: consumed by savagery (predatory), forgets the importance of fire and rescue

Ralph: torn between following his instincts and his rational thought... ex: play in the water vs build huts and force people to do their jobs (ex: tend the fire); ignore the meat or eat it; support Piggy or bully him, etc. Ralph represents “the everyman”

Mythological Criticism

What makes a human good or evil?

When removed from civilized society, what will a human do…?

GOAL:

Follow the hero’s journey and record the archetypes along the way to determine your answer to one of the questions.

Definition: Everyman

everyman in literature means an ordinary individual, with whom the audience or reader is supposed to be able to relate, and who is often placed in extraordinary circumstances

Remember Ralph is the everyman and our hero. Our goal is to follow his hero’s journey if using mythological criticism.

So far...Ralph = hero

Jack = threshold guardian or shadow

Simon & Piggy = mentors

All other boys = society

All archetypes on the handout (mountain, water, sun, fire, darkness, etc.)

WATCH HOW EACH OF THE ARCHETYPES INFLUENCE RALPH IN HIS JOURNEY AFTER BEING ISOLATED FROM CIVILIZED SOCIETY. WHAT INSIGHT DOES HIS JOURNEY GIVE YOU INTO THE NATURE OF HUMANITY?

PSYCHOANALYTICCRITICISM

What happens to the human psyche after being impacted by war?

GOAL:

Watch the way Ralph, the ego, is influenced by the Id and both the moral superego and rational superego. What aspect of the psyche has the most power and why?

What we know so far...The war has impacted Golding’s psyche

Textual evidence: the war leads to the crash which creates a “scar” on the island and leaves the boys (psyche) isolated from their normal, civilized society.

There are many indirect references to the war always in the peripheral of the main action within the text - watch for this!

The boys are scattered and confused at first, which represents the confusion and chaos experienced by the psyche when first affected by the trauma of war. Ralph, led by the rational superego (Piggy) tries to regain control and tries to return the psyche (group of boys) to their normal civilized nature (through the use of the conch meetings, building shelter, and creating fire).

What we know so far...Simon is weakened at the beginning and this represents the weakened nature of the moral superego after witnessing the horrors of war. In Chapter 3, Simon retreats to the center of the forest, away from the influence of the Id and the chaos and feels safe and regains his strength and hope (as evidenced through the nature, light, and colour imagery). This represents the desire of the moral superego to isolate itself from the effects of the trauma and the influence of the Id.

Jack (the Id) constantly fights to control Ralph (the Ego) in order to gain full control over the psyche. This represents Golding’s unconscious desire to fight back (fight vs flight reaction) when faced with the horrors of war. This is the human instinct to react using aggression when faced with the trauma of war.

Next Step: The Seminar1. Use the goals and thesis prompts/guiding questions from

this slide to guide your chapter analysis. 2. Approach it in the exact same way we approached the

passage analysis.3. Have your thesis and at least four quotes and comments

ready for Wednesday. You will write these on a chart I will provide, but you may only bring a quote sheet to class. Remember, your comment must dissect the quote in order to explain the connotative message.

4. You will create your slideshow and present your seminar starting Thursday.