Blogger #20 - Joshua Lokshin - Period 9 - 11/4/2021

Blogger #20, Joshua Lokshin, Period 9, 11/4/2021


Aim: How does William Golding formulate the island into a microcosm of WWII through allegory?


Do now: Pair Share: Think about the structure of the school. You have a principal, assistant principals, teachers, paras, school aids, students, and other staff. Within each group, there are other organizations, such as the Student Council. If you were to compare school structure of government how does it equate.

While speaking with my group, one student said that such as governments have a President and their cabinet, Principals have their cabinet that consists of people like vice principals, deans, and teachers. Teachers are on the same level as governors, the rest of the staff are on the same level as mayors or local legislators. These hierarchical type systems help leaders like Principals and Presidents to keep order.

Another student said that the Superintendent has power and is a part of the executive branch. Teachers are on the same level as mayors. The Chancellor of the DOE is at the very top of the hierarchy and as we go down the list positions of the DOE fill roles of government. In another group, one student said that the students represent the people or the public that make up the vast majority of the population. Lastly we discussed that the people didn’t choose the principal and we did not elect them, which resembles a Monarchy.

The importance of the do now is that we learn how we view governments and people in leadership. This is impactful as it relates to the struggle for power and leadership in Lord of the Flies. When I went into this do now, I struggled to comprehend the connection to our recent lessons, until we started discussing how a hierarchical system like the ones in our government, our schools, and Lord of the Flies, in which I realized that all representatives of order have a common theme amongst them, which is almost like a feudal system that was used in the dark ages of Europe (476 AD – 1000 AD).

Microcosm: A representation of something on a much smaller scale. Microcosm means “small world”.

Allegory: A literary dramatic, pictorial device in which each literal character, object, event, represent symbols illustrating/ shaping an idea, moral or religious principle.




Plato’s Allegory of the Cave is a very famous example of an allegory. The picture is allegory for the idea that people are creating society, rules, and ideals as a way to imprison and thus control them.


WHOLE CLASS DISCUSSION:

What do you know about WWI:
After their tremendous loss in WWII, the German economy and people were very poor. Having a democracy emplaced the people. After a radical new idea starting in the enlightenment era of Nationalism, the people had no one to turn to and therefore turned to Nazism under Adolf Hitler. The people used Jews as a scapegoat and used to fuel Hitlers drive for war. Inviting Italy and Japan to the Tripartite Pact, he planned his invasion for Europe. This happened at the same time as the expansive reign of Hirohito of Japan, who similar to hitler wanted to expand, but unlike Hitler he desired Asia. Italy, who wanted to reform the Roman Empire, was under the control of Benito Mussolini, who shared expansionist ideals with the two other members. These three nations became the Axis and are considered the main enemy of WWII. Other students added on how the holocaust (the mass moving of Jews and other groups of people into death camps) also occured as a result of the war.


WWII
September 1, 1939 - September 2, 1945
The axis powers consisted of

• German Reich
• Kingdom of Italy
• Empire of Japan
• Kingdom of Hungary
• Kingdom of Romania
• Slovak Republic
• Kingdom of Bulgaria
• Independent State of Croatia
• Republic of Finland
• Kingdom of Thailand

The Allies consisted of

• United Kingdom
• Soviet Union
• United States
• China
• India
• Canada
• Australia
• New Zealand
• South Africa
• Brazil
• Mongolia
• Mexico

CLICK this link for an excellent oversimplification of WWII!





This picture is of those who suffered the horrific concentration camps created by Nazi Germany to suppress the Human rights of Jews, Blacks, Homosexuals, and all those he deemed inferior peoples. This represents the absolute barbarity that ensued from the start of WWII as mass murdered was even justified. This relates to “Lord of the Flies” as just as in WWII, the boys' conflict with one another escalated their descent into barbarity.


CLICK this link for a deeper dive into the history of the Holocaust.


GROUP WORK:

        1. The Boys were on a plane flying out of Britain to escape the war, what is so tragically ironic about the situation they’re creating for themselves?

Ahmad from in our group stated that as they left Britain to escape war, they got shot down and landed on an island and went to war with each other for territory and control as the nations in WWII also fought for territory and authority. Ironically becoming the thing that they flee from in the first place: CHAOS!

        2. Address the Aim (how does William Goldign formulate the island ointment a microcosm of WWII through allegory?)

Ahmad from in our group stated that as they left Britain to escape war, they got shot down and landed on an island and went to war with each other for territory and control as the nations in WWII also fought for territory and authority. Ironically becoming the thing that they flee from in the first place: CHAOS!

John Pierre said that as Hitler represents Jack for his territorial expansionist ideals. I pointed out that Ralph represents FDR for his originally neutral ideals and leadership qualities. To finish off, Ms. Peterson revealed that Piggy represents William Churchill as they both try to warn the powerful person that evil is going to catch up with them.


PROJECT: We begin to start working on the project in which we create a theoretical island with distinct characteristics. Refer to google classroom.


REFLECTION:

When I walked into class, the first thing I was greeted with was the delightfulness, or as I thought, silliness of the AIM. Although I knew that the book took place during the events of WWII, I didn't understand how such a book about castaways was a personification of WWII. Looking at the lesson with a newfound curiosity, I wondered how the connection could be made. After learning about the absolute barbarity that was WWII, we made connections to the slow descent into barbarity that the castaway children begin to face. The drive for power and authority and the use of scapegoats to unite the people under him allowed Jack to overturn the balance of power. Sound familiar? Well it should as Adolf Hitler, desiring a world united under Lebensraum, used a scapegoat of “inferior” peoples (Jews, Blacks, Homosexuals, the disabled, etc…) to unite his people under him and overturn the balance of Power. We also discussed Ralph, a boy with all the power and leadership, yet no desire to tame Jack, stating that Jack was not going to be a problem. Clearly, Ralph represents FDR as both of them are neutral on the topic of this evil enemy, yet are considered the powerful counterparts who have the ability to change the outcomes of the two respective wars if they act on it. The last character we discussed was Piggy, a boy being bullied by a stronger foe, a boy with great wisdom but with no great power, a boy who knew the truth. Piggy represents Winston Churchill, as both men are “bullied” by a stronger foe (Jack and the Nazi’s), who with wisdom, tries to convince their strong friend (Ralph and the United States) to foresee the future that will come if the friend doesn’t prevent the evil from spreading: chaos. This all illustrates how the book is an allegory of the major players of WWII, with distinct characters representing different leaders of nations. I learned that although the text seemed to have little correlation with WWII, it was a fault of mine to not look deeper and not analyze characters and symbols to correlate the two topics. We as a class have learned to look outside the box and search for the deeper meaning behind books and other literature such as “Mask of the Red Death”, where the red death represents the plague. All in all we took a deep dive into the inspiration of characters in the fine piece of literature “Lord of the flies”