Reading Reflection #3

Book: Lord of the Flies

Author: William Goulding

Pages Read: 50-65

          Dear Fellow Readers, I must admit I'm not yet loving this book...so far the beginning of the book is moving pretty slow. Not only that, but I'm getting the impression, even though it was pretty much obvious by the first page, that it is a book about survival. Movies like Cast Away or books like the Hatchet I never enjoyed because I found the content predictable with not a lot of action, twists, or mysteries, which I love. 

         Like I had originally thought, the boys hunger is a huge issue for them. Just the sound of the pigs running on the path is driving the boys crazy. They need meet and protein and can't just run off of fruit. I predict that if these boys don't learn to hunt soon some will die due to malnutrition. Also it seems like the old boys, especially Ralph are getting really annoyed with the younger kids for not helping out and I think that the older boys are going to eventually find a way to make it so that the younger boys help. I also don't think this will be done more aggressively than needed, more so to do with the fact that the older boys seem very angry and they want to show that they're tough. They aren't playing around with these kids and rules. However, these younger boys are already facing a lot of stomach problems and illnesses due to their time on the island, so I highly doubt all of them will survive as the book proceeds. 

         One comment, or something I noticed while reading that I found very interesting was that it seems as though the setting and weather reflects the mood of the boys at current times. When the weather is hot and sticky, the older boys become aggravated and the younger boys become lazy. In the evening when it becomes cooler everything is more laid back for the boys, they are a lot calmer. Another comment I had was that is only just now in the book, about 60 pages in, that the author is choosing to introduce new characters, names, and visual descriptions. I found it interesting that he waited this long to bring these people into the story line, which may mean they are not very important to the plot or it could show that they will be the kids who help out the most on the island. There are really two ways of viewing this approach. 

         For the most part, the section of the book I read did not have too many words that I were confused about, however there were a few. One of the words was opalescence (which sounded very pretty to me) that meant " having or emitting an iridescence like that of an opal." I really liked this word used to describe the stars and it gave a very captivation visual impression. 

          So to sum all this up, I am...once again, not loving this book. It may get interesting later on but I'm not to eager to get to that point. I also think that we are eventually reading this novel in my literary english class, so I may just put it aside for now until we read it in class. Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed this entry.