Cry, The Beloved Country

The first thing I tabbed was almost the entire first chapter, but more specifically where he talks about the "grass-covered and rolling" (Page 33) hills. He spends 2 pages and the very start of the novel describing nothing but grassy hills which I believe is done to foreshadow among other things. He talks about this place making it sound beautiful only to tell us that its been destroyed. This might be a bigger symbol for the book itself.

Another thing I tabbed in the authors choice of vocabulary leading up to opening the letter in page 36. Before they open it Paton makes it sound sad, but exciting with words like "dirty, doubt, courage". I believe he does this to try and establish a tone of anticipation or anxiety.

Again on page 44 Paton talks heavily about fear. This makes the tone seem a lot more somber with words like "fear back again, the fear of the unknown, the fear of the great city" (Page 44). Maybe more than just the tone he is trying to setup a theme which is related to his seemingly excessive use of "fear" or its synonyms.

The last thing I tabbed was on page 46 where randomly dialogue starts. Whoever is talking however almost sounds primitive talking about how the "white men blow it out with the fire-sticks" (Page 46). I think this is the author trying to show to the reader that maybe the natives aren't as advanced as the Europeans. This could effect how we perceive the Europeans and whether they're a negative effect on the natives culture.

Lord of the Flies Theme

The theme I chose is that mankind can't survive unless it works together. One way Golding introduced and developed this plot was with the use of completely different characters. In The Lord of the Flies everyone needs everyone else to survive with Jack, Ralph and Piggy being key characters. However even though we know they need each other and they might as well know they need each other they still can't resolve there differences and Jack is overcome with human instinct over intelligence. The second way I believe Golding helped developed this theme is with the use of setting. The characters on a deserted island so they have to work together but they choose not to. The abandoned island, I believe, helps expedite their feelings and their human inability to work together eventually causing their characters to clash.

LOTF Journal

Rereading the first page of the book, one of the first things I noticed was the contrast between the sweater and the jungle. "Thought he had taken off his school sweater...the jungle was a bath of heat" (Page 1). The sweater would seem to symbolize civilization while the jungle represents savagery which I believe is a main theme in the book. The author has clearly chosen to put this motif into the book; probably to help us better understand it. However, a sweater is completely useless in the use it was made for in a jungle so maybe William Golding is trying to say that civilization or pieces of it is worthless in the jungle and instead you need human instincts to survive.


The second thing I noticed was the fact that Golding decides not to include any names on the first page, not even in the dialogue between Ralph and Piggy. I believe this is the authors attempt to make sure the reader realizes that its not particularly about the characters themselves instead what they embody and symbolize. This can be shown in the section where Piggy's glasses are introduced which play a crucial role of starting the fire later on in the book.