First Responses

2) One of the main points of this book is to look at the effects of authority, or the lack of authority, on people. The "society" that the boys created eventually begins to fall apart; do you think this is because of the leaders they chose (Ralph and Jack), or because of the situation they were in (meaning who their leaders were didn't matter)?

- I believe that the society that the boys created fell apart mainly because of the age group, or, the situation they were in. Most of the kids were around six or seven years old, and didn't want to do anything to cooperate with the rest of the group of boys. The older kids though, wanted to hunt, or create shelter and fire in a timely manner. They were unable to most of those things as fast as possible though because they didn't have many people to help them. All of the boys wanted different things, and most just wanted to play and fool around. When things fell apart, it was because Jack and Ralph could not see eye to eye and no matter how one another explained something, they just could not agree. They split apart, and this is when everything became a disaster.

3) Suspend your rationale thinking for a moment, and imagine that the place you all know best involving established authority - school - is suddenly without teachers, Ms. Nadeau, etc. for an extended period of time (think weeks). What would happen?

- If there were no teachers at school, I believe many people would fail to show up every day. I have a feeling that if anybody did actually show up, then there would be chaos. There would be different groups formed, such as; the ones who would trash the school, the people who would try to take over the teachers position, the ones who would try to keep the sports teams going without a coach, and so on. There would be so many people scrambling about, not even knowing what to do. The upperclassmen would be trying to make all the rules, as the underclassmen would be testing the limits and being immature in many ways, which is basically how it was in Lord of the Flies.