The Other Side of the River: A Story of Two Towns a Death, and America's Dilemma

Ambar A.
December 11, 2008

The Other Side of the River
A Story of Two Towns a Death, and America's Dilemma

The book I was reading was The Other Side of the River by Alex Kotlowitz. This book was about Alex Kotlowitz and his journey to find out what happened to a teenage boy named Eric McGinnis. He was found in the Saint Joseph River in between two towns and Alex Kotlowitz wants to find out how Eric ended up in the river.
I liked this book but at the same time I didn’t like it. I really liked the authors writing style because he would move from case to case and they all related to the Eric McGinnis Case. I also liked this book because once I read it had a lot of information so you could tell that the author really did his research. I also liked this book because it was based on a true story so you get to learn something about history while you read this book. I also like that the author interviewed some people and really got into the case.
The things that I didn’t like about the book are that sometimes I would get confused because sometimes the author went on a completely different topic and I would get confused. I also didn’t like that if sometimes the author stayed on a topic to long, then it would get boring and I wasn’t interested anymore. I also didn’t like that the author would use words that nobody uses in their everyday language.
I give this book a 2 ½ out of five because I didn’t like the book that much because I would easily get bored. I think that this book isn’t for people 11 and under because this book has inappropriate language for kids that young. Also it has adult situations that they won’t understand.
I would recommend this book to readers who like mystery and drama. I would also recommend this book to people who like to learn about things that happened that you haven’t even heard about before. I would also recommend this book to people who would want to be a detective and solve cases someday in their life because this book is a great example of what to do. I don’t recommend this book to people who easily get confused on what the author is talking about/ referring to.

Chapter 13

Ambar A.

Chapter 13

New World

As Ralph and the littluns were boarding the ship, Ralph looked around the ship to see if Jack was anywhere to be seen. He looked around and all he saw was the puffed faces and eyes from the littluns crying. There was no sign of him.
"Maybe he's still on the island." Ralph said to himself. Anyway he didn't even want to run into him right then because who knows what he might do to him. While he was walking away he remembered Sameneric.
"Sameneric!" He shouted. He wanted them to live and be on the ship so that they could be rescued. "Sameneric!" he called once again.
"Ralph!" someone from the crowd called "Ralph!"
"Sameneric?" Ralph called
He saw two boys pushing and shoving to get away from the crowd of boys with distended faces from all of the crying.
"Rr-"
"-alph!"
Ralph squinted his eyes to see if it was really them. "Sameneric!" he called and ran to give them a hug.
"Ralph we're so sorry"
"Really really sorry"
"For what?"
"For ratting you out"
"When did you guys do that?"
"Did you lose your memory of something?"
"We told Roger where you were so he could kill you…"
"We didn't mean to-"
"They were going to do us if we didn't"
"I think it was a good thing because if you didn't do that I wouldn't have seen the naval officer and we wouldn't have been rescued"
"Oh, but we are still truly sorry."
"We would never do anything like that again we swear"
"Hey don't worry you guys I'm just glad that you guys aren't still on the island."
A man walked by the three boys with a plate of warm food in his hands.
"Hey that man has food!" shouted Sameneric
"Get him!" Shouted Ralph and they all ran and knocked the guy down.
* * *
Jack was so mad that they had gotten rescued because he had so many plans when he was chief and he only did a fifth of them. He couldn't believe it and he fainted and hit his head on the platform.
"Jack!" shouted Roger
"Jack wake up! Are you still alive?"
"Ughh" Jack groaned and lifted his head up slightly. "What happened?"
"You fainted"
Jack smiled happily.
"Uhh are you ok? You're acting different…"
"Really I feel perfectly fine" Jack smiled once again.
"I think you hit your head really hard on the platform because you seem nice…"
"Wow have you noticed how beautiful the sky is?" Jack asked randomly
"No and I don't care"
"How can you not care look at it" Jack turned Rogers face with his hands so he could look at the dark grey sky above.
Roger slapped Jack. "What's gotten into you?"
"What do you mean? Nothing happened."
"Oh yea, well I think that you've gone loopy!"
Ralph was walking with Sameneric along the platform with food in their hands, when he heard Roger yelling. He saw Jack too.
"Roger, Jack!" Ralph said with his mouth full.
Roger ran to Ralph and almost knocked him down.
"Ow! Go get your own food!"
"Don't go any further!"
"Why not?!"
"Jack's gone loopy!"
"What do you mean loopy?"
"Well, do you remember when he used to be really waxy?"
"Umm yea..."
"Well he turned..." Roger's voice lowered into a whisper. "Nice"
"Really?" Ralph said with a smile on his face.
"Yes really. I think he lost his memory"
"Hey Jack!" Ralph facing towards Jack.
"Yes?" Jack said
"D'you remember what you wanted to do to me before we left the island?"
"No"
Facing towards Roger "Yup I think he lost his memory."
"No I haven't I remember that you are Ralph and you are Roger and you guys are Sameneric. I also remember that we killed Simon and Piggy." Once he said that aloud he noticed the bad thing that he had done. He began to feel all the guilt. Ralph's face changed from a smile to a frown.
"I'm going to miss them and Piggy's ass-mar"
"Yea"
"Same"
"Do you guys know where we're going?"
"I heard that we're going to America because it's not safe back home."
"Oh."

* * *

"Ralph" Sameneric whispered.
"Ughh what go back to sleep" Ralph groaned and began to shut his eyes.
"Wait, Ralph get up I think that we're here."
"Really?"
Ralph got up and stood by the railing. Further out in the ocean was a beautiful land.
"Whoa" They all said.
"Hello New World…" said Ralph

Lord of the Flies: Journal #12

Journal #12 by Ambar
Chapter 12: Cry of the Hunters
Perspective: Jack

Where did he go?

Why does Ralph think that he’s better than me? Why can’t he see that I’m the most powerful boy on the island now? And there’s no one who could stop me. I can’t believe that he would worry for Piggy and Simon. Oh their dead big whoop! He knows that he killed them. He knows that their death is partially his fault. It’s not all my fault why do I have to take the blame? We all know that he helped us kill Simon. We all know that he left Piggy alone blind so that’s why the rock killed him. He should feel sorry for all that he’s done. I love being me it’s so nice and I feel so powerful! Two out of three have been killed. Now there’s only one more left, Ralph.
We hit Sameneric so that they could tell us where Ralph may be hiding. They showed us to every single place possible. Still there was no sign of him. I couldn’t believe him where could he possibly hide on this tiny island? The ululation of the hunters gave us signals of where he wasn’t hiding. Then there was a long grass area. We formed a cordon around it so if he got up we would catch him and do him. We wanted to diddle him into thinking that we were not there and we started rolling boulders down the path so that we would squish him if he was hiding. We couldn’t hind anymore boulders so I decided to set the grass on fire. I decided to give up, maybe he died on his own or committed suicide. I looked at Sameneric to see where we hurt him and they had distended bellies and arms, ouch.
We kept on wondering around and we saw Ralph on the beach, with a grown up! I couldn’t believe that he lived. And why does he have to get his dream come true? Why can’t I? The grown up had a drill and epaulettes on his uniform. I didn’t want to stay here forever so I turned myself in. I never realized how much I missed my home until today. I hope I’ll get back soon…

Lord of the Flies: Journal #11

Journal #11 by Ambar
Chapter 11: Castle Rock
Perspective: Ralph

Goodbye Piggy

I didn’t know what I was going to do, should we go to Jacks side of the island and ask for Piggy specs politely. Or maybe we should attack his tribe and steal the specs back from him like he did to us. Nonsense I thought to myself he has about twenty boys on his tribe and about 4-5 kids on my side, and half of them are littluns! I’m pretty sure that all that they’ll do was laugh at us. I miss that Simon, he was one of my best friends on this island and I couldn’t believe that I was involved with his death. It hurts just to think about it. It’s all Jacks fault! Everything is his fault! The death of the littlun with a scar on his face was his fault, Simon’s death is his entire fault, and I bet World War 2 all started because of him! I hate him why does he have to ruin everyone’s time here on the island? We should be having fun and trying to get rescued, all he ever thinks about is hunting, dancing, and singing that stupid chant. I guess that we’re going to have to just ask him for the specs.
I had to hold Piggy’s hand to lead him the way to Jacks side of the island. I wonder what its like to be blind, but I’m glad I have perfect eyesight so I don’t have to hold someone’s hand. There was a cessation, I stopped because we were at Jacks side. I couldn’t believe what he had done to the place since a couple days ago, there was like a wall of rocks to keep intruders from passing. “Stay here” I told Piggy. Roger was on the top of the wall and told me to stop. I told him that we wanted Piggys specs and we won’t leave until we got them back. Jack came out from the forest and told us that he wasn’t going to give us the specs. I got so mad that I wanted to kill him. What did we ever do to him? I never did anything to him and he has to treat us with disrespect? I noticed that Piggy had token the conch with him and he was using it as some kind of talisman. Jack seemed to get upset and he hit me with his spear. Ow! Truculently we came closer to each other and started to fight. He had the others tie up Sameneric and it looked like he was full with power. That scared me I’ve never seen someone with so much power before. All of the others were cheering and I was able to hear Piggy shouting “Don’t leave me here”. I looked up once again and I saw Roger on top and he was delirious and he pushed the lever with all of his strength. Piggy was right underneath the rock. “Run Piggy run!” I shouted
I seemed that he wasn’t able to hear me. The rock bounced off the wall and crashed onto Piggy’s head. The conch fell and shattered into a million pieces. Piggy fell forty feet and he landed on his back. His head cracked open and his brain was spilling out into the interminable ocean. His brainless body slipped away with the waves. Goodbye Piggy, I’ll miss you…

Lord of the Flies: Journal #10

Journal #10 by Ambar
Chapter 10: The Shell and the Glasses
Perspective: Piggy

I Hate Him!

Have I ever told you about how much I hate Jack? Huh have I? Well anyway I hate him so bloody much. I never did anything to him. Never! All I wanted to do was be everyone’s friend. He had to be mean to me because I’m fat and ugly and have assmar. I bet that he has problems too. But once he gets everyone on his side everyone starts to make fun of me too. Maybe he's just jealous because Ralph likes me best and that I stood by Ralph instead of going to his tribe. But I still don’t understand… why does he have to be mean to me? Can’t he be mean to a littlun or Simon or Ralph instead of me? Is there something about me that he absolutely hates? Theologically I think that Jack didn’t come from god..
I couldn’t believe what happened last night. I couldn’t believe that I let the evil take over me and we killed the poor Simon. I think he was right all along the beastie was among us. Its not real. Ralph and jack were wrong the beastie was not real the beastie was a dead pilot who got killed during the war. I couldn’t believe that Ralph and I let Jack take over us and he got us so caught up in the little song and dance. I can’t believe that we didn’t care about killing Simon until we actually noticed that it was him all along. I feel like I turned into a completely different person. I feel so guilty. Ralph, Sameneric and I couldn’t believe what we have done. It was an accident I believe and it wasn’t on purpose because it was so dark and we couldn’t see a thing. I feel so guilty that I denied that I was even a part of this. I said that I was outside of the circle just watching.
It was night and we were sleeping. I wasn’t able to fall asleep because I felt so guilty. I heard a noise from outside. Ralph kept on making a noise and I told him to stop. I could’ve sworn I was going barmy but I heard it again. But since the beastie was gone I felt purged. The illumination made Ralph confused and he didn’t know what I was talking about. Something came inside the hut. Ahh! I can’t see my glasses were gone I just kept on kicking and hitting and I didn’t care at all about my assmar. I was gone. We all looked outside and it was Jack and his little helpers with my specs.

Lord of the Flies: Journal #9

Journal #9 by Ambar
Chapter 9: A View to a Death
Perspective: Simon

He tried to tell me… but I didn’t listen

I was so tired that I slept. The lord of the flies talked to me earlier, at first I just couldn’t believe that it was talking to me. He said that they don’t really like me and they’d kill me if I tried to tell them again that the beast is within us. I like Ralph and Piggy and ‘em and I wouldn’t want to hurt them in any way. I hope that they feel the same but I couldn’t believe what Jack and the hunters did to that poor little sow. It was just trying to feed its littluns and they just went and killed it! Killing the mother affects the little piggies too because they can’t be fed and they’d die as well.
I couldn’t believe that the boys were afraid of a corpulent dead pilot that was flying on top of the island and crashed. Well, I wouldn’t blame them, it scared the life out of me the first time I saw it but I just didn’t run away screaming like they did. The lord of the flies told me to not tell them any of this because we were “having fun” and if I ruin it I would die. I was talking to a pig’s head! No wonder some people thought that I was crazy. I had to go tell them I just had to. I was covered in dry blood, my blood, because of the mosquitoes biting me. I was running down a hill. I tripped over a creeper and rolled the rest of the way down. My leg was badly wounded so I decided to walk on all fours. I was able to hear the boys and the sound of the pouring rain. It was pitch black and everything was blurry because of the rain splashing into my eyes.
“Hey guys!” I shouted on the top of my lungs. They weren’t able to hear me at all so I walked out of the bushes and so they could see me. They were chanting their little chant that they sing when they kill a pig. “Kill the pig; cut its throat, spill its blood”. They saw me and looked frightened. “The beast is a dead person, it’s not real!” I said. They pushed me onto the floor and started to poke me with their spears, first lightly and then harder. It started to hurt and I didn’t like it. I was able to feel nails scratching my legs, and people biting my skin and tearing it apart. Ow! They stabbed me and acted like animals. Ow! That’s when I new it, they were killing me. I was even able to see the phosphorescence. He tried to tell me… but I didn’t listen.

Lord of the Flies: Journal #8

Journal #8 by Ambar
Chapter 8: Gift for the Darkness
Perspective: Jack

Muhahahaha!

I don’t like Ralph, never did. I hated him right the moment that people voted for him instead of me. I want to start my own group. We go up and kill the beastie ourselves and Ralph and the others would be thanking us and they would let me be the leader once and for all. Ralph is such a prefect, always doing what he's told he would be a great assistant. If I were leader I would have Piggy go run laps all around the island because he's so fat he needs to loose the weight. I see him every day and he seems like he’s the only one that hasn’t changed at all. Or maybe since he’s so fat… the beastie might like to eat him… we could sacrifice him to the beast! Ahh… only if I was the leader…
No one even agreed with me that Ralph is a horrible leader. He doesn’t even want to hunt the beast and kill it once and for all. I absolutely hated it when he said that my hunters are just boys with sticks as weapons, we’re much more than that! I’ll prove it to him and he’ll see and he’ll want to come over to my group instead they’ll all see! I left the meeting and I went into the woods hopefully people would come after me and join my group. I was right some boys came and joined my group, now all we’ve got to do is hunt. I’m now the chief and no one can stop me. I had a flashback and I remembered when we first came to this island and the choir and I were so perfect and we were demure and anything you could ever think of. Then I saw it, I saw a sow and we needed meat so we were surrounding it. It had piglets and I didn’t really know what to feel because I was hungry and I wanted to prove to Ralph that my group is way better than his. I felt so demoniac and cruel but I liked it and apparently so did the rest of the hunters. Ha we killed the biggest pig of all we cut its throat and paunched her belly. We left the head of the pig for the beastie and hopefully it would leave us alone.
All we need is fire to cook the pig. We should go to Ralph’s camp and steal wood from them. We know that they’d be mad but what would they do to us, we’ve got nothing to loose. I know it might be a taboo but oh well we need to cook the meat anyway. I wonder what they’d do…

Lord of the Flies: Journal #7

Journal #7 by Ambar
Chapter #7: Shadows and Tall Trees
Perspective: Ralph

What’s Happening?

I have no idea what’s going on, well most of the time. We are on the hunt for this “Beastie” that suppose ably Sam and Eric saw during the night. I don’t believe that there is a “beastie” and I hate how the littluns are afraid of some kind of bad dream. I just want to get over with this and prove that there is no such thing as a “beastie” and we are the only living thing on this island other than the pigs and creepers and bugs. I can’t wait to show the littluns that there’s nothing to be afraid of and everything is going to be ok and we just need to relax and keep the fire going to have a better chance of being rescued.
I was daydreaming and I remembered the good ol’ days when there were moors around the house. And there was no war going on and there wasn’t even a possibility that I would be trapped on a deserted island. There is too much brine stuck to our bodies from going into the ocean. I remembered that once I got hurt in the rugger once and it hurt a lot. Whoa… I barely noticed that I was not paying attention to the other boys and there was a boar right in front of me. I had a spear in my hand and all I wanted to do was kill it because we were following a pig run so why not? The as I walked slowly, the boar growled and started to run towards me. I ran and I slipped and let the spear stab its snout. It ran away squealing. Hah! I have never been so proud of myself before. No wonder Jack always wanted to hunt instead of help out with the shelters… this is fun! It was bravado of me to have scared the boar away I’m so happy. Now all we’ve got to do is climb up the mountain. Some one should tell Piggy that we’re going to stay overnight. I didn’t really want Simon to go tell him because I’ve noticed that he’s been having “seizures” it scared me every time I saw him having one but someone has to tell Piggy…
I couldn’t believe how high the mountain is, it must take hours to climb it. I think that Jack and I should be the only ones to climb the mountain and the rest should stay behind. It’s a good thing that they didn’t want to go either. I have to admit, I was really scared. It turns out that Roger snuck away and joined us on this trip but at least we have someone to back us up. Sagely I thought that if we were standing up, the beastie would hear our footsteps and see us walking up the mountain. There was something moving underneath some kind of cloth we walked closer. It was the BEASTIE!

Lord of the Flies: Journal #6

Journal #6 by Ambar
Chapter 6: Beast from Air
Perspective: Piggy

Confusion

I was all nice, peaceful and sound asleep. Then suddenly I could here people shouting my name “Piggy!” I was sure it was not a dream and I was able to feel people shaking me. I could hear the guano of the birds flying around. Maybe it was a nightmare I thought to myself. But it wasn’t. I was confused, tired and I wanted to go back to sleep. The twins Sam and Eric kept on talking about something. They were talking about the Beastie they said that they saw it and it was furry and was chasing them and some other things I wasn’t able to understand because they were talking to fast. My heart must have skipped a beat; I was actually kind of scared. I started to have second thoughts that since they are smaller than I it must’ve been a dream. Then I thought again I couldn’t be a dream because they both saw it, unless they had some kind of twin telepathy thing. Wow, now I’m starting to believe that there might be a creature among us. Ralph and Jack are going to go look for it with others I wanted to go along mutinously Ralph and Jack wouldn’t let me. Humph.

Why do they want to leave me behind? I don’t care if I’m slow and have assmar I wanna be part of the action! Now they just leave me behind with the littluns like I’m some kind of grain of rice. We are all embroiled with the beastie troubles, why don’t we all help out? I didn’t really want to argue with Ralph because he looked a bit waxy earlier when he was giving the rules. Diffidently I had to agree to stay with the littluns.
This time it was easier to take care of the littluns. They weren’t running around or anything because they were afraid to. I told them to stay together and keep quiet so the beastie wouldn’t find us. I had time to relax in peace and quiet while the others were out looking for the Beastie. Now I think it would be better to stay behind and take care of the littluns next time because I could actually think and have some “me” time while the littluns do whatever they want to do.

Lord of the Flies: Journal #5

Journal #5 by Ambar
Chapter 5: Beast from Water
Perspective: Simon

Beastie?

Ralph called a meeting today. But it was different this time…it was at night. I was scared at first because I’m not used to be around others during the night I usually go to a place in the forest and rest and have some me time. I think it was ludicrous. He said that he wanted to make rules because he is the leader. It’s about time he started acting like one. At first he just thought that since there were no adults around that it could be all fun and games, but instead it wasn’t that fun. It was all good at first and everyone was nice to each other. But now there’s kids throwing sand at each other and they’re throwing objects and just acting like if they didn't even have decorum. Since they were throwing sand Percival was lamentating. I love the littluns and I want to help them in any way I possibly can but I don’t think that’s working.
Finally Ralph told the others the rules. He said something’s that I didn’t even know that the littluns were doing. I was practically surprised the whole time. At least now we would be working together and we’ll pay more attention to what we are doing to make sure that It doesn’t affect the ones around us. But wait that’s not all…Ralph had one more thing to talk about, the “beastie”. Once he brought that up I was able to see that Jack was acting tempestuously. Kids also started saying their opinions and disobeyed the rules of the conch so all I could here was the decursive chatting of the littluns. I sort of think that this beastie is real because Percival admits that he saw it too. I admitted that I also think it might be real but maybe its not a creature, it might be one of us.
I personally think that this island is driving us all crazy. The long meetings are really long and some people are beginning to space out. And everyone’s being embroiled. I hope the littluns listen to the new rules and obey them, and I think that they should have in mind that if they do something wrong, it might affect everyone around them.

Lord of the Flies: Journal #4

Journal #4 by Ambar
Chapter 4: Painted Faces and Long Hair
Perspective: Jack

Ughh!

I’ve never felt so proud of myself before. I finally killed a pig! Well, we finally killed a pig… We made up a game plan to surround the hideous creature and attack it. Guess what it worked! I couldn’t believe that it actually worked I’m glad that now we don’t have to eat rotten fruits and plants anymore, we could finally eat meat. Ralph and the litluns would be so proud of me and they’ll probably make me the leader because I finally got some real food. I couldn’t wait to tell them.
The hunters and I walked to the beach to find Ralph to show him our achievement. Wow when I looked at the boys I noticed the swarthiness of their skin and it surprised me how dark we were. All of the boys on the beach were blatant and were just running around throwing sand at each others faces. Finally I saw Ralph we showed him the pig that the twins were holding and I waited for his response. Eww, there were black gouts on the sand and rocks underneath them it made me feel woozy. Ralph looked belligerent, I wondered what was wrong. “You let the fire out” he said with hostility. “Shoot” I thought to myself I had forgotten about the bloody fire. “It’s only been out for a few hours.” I said. “There was a ship and you let the fire out!” Oh my goodness a ship was out there and I was looking for food! How stupid was I? Oh well at least I found food and I could start the fire again if I wanted too.
Piggy started to yell at me I lost my temper and hit him so hard that his specs flew off and broke. He turned around at me and looked at me malevolently. Ha that’s what he gets; he shouldn’t talk to me like that, if he ever talks to me like that he’ll be sorry. I was hungry so I got the pig and started to cut it so we could eat. I gave Ralph some so he could eat but I didn’t give piggy some on purpose. But that stupid Simon has to be so nice doesn’t he had to give Piggy his meat so he could eat it. Ughh… what are we going to do about him?

Lord of the Flies: Journal #3

Journal #3 by Ambar
Chapter 3: Huts on the Beach
Perspective- Ralph
Why?
Why did everyone vote for me to be the leader if no one listens to me? Why? I have no idea the littluns just love the fact that they are on an island without grownups. All they want to do is play, swim run or hunt. It annoys me that I try to do everything to make the best life while we’re here and they’re not doing anything to help. Of course the littluns are small and aren’t that educated, but they should at least help…shouldn't they?
I was working on the Huts so we could all have shelter when it rains but Jack was out hunting piggy was playing with water, and the only one helping me was Simon. I’m so thankful that Simon is on this island with us. He’s so nice to the litluns and they all love him. I’m surprised that he’s the only one that helped, but without his help I wouldn’t have even made a hut. That stupid jack is so rapt with hunting a pig he doesn’t care about anything else, to him its all about the pigs! He wasn’t even contrite for not helping out. I feel sorry for him, I could tell that he had a lot of vicissitudes today and he just keeps on thinking about them. He doesn’t even care about being rescued! He wants to kill a pig so badly but I bet he doesn’t even have the guts to do it. If he really wanted to kill a pig he would’ve done it by now. I just wanted to hit him, you know… knock some sense into him. To bad I didn’t I started to hear some susurrations in the background and I didn’t want to set a set a bad example for the litluns.
The past few days have been troubling. There were so many issues. There was the fire, the “beastie”, Jacks obsession to hunt, and the lack of teamwork. Every single time I tried to get the litluns attention they all were inscrutable and just stared at me with blank faces. No one cares about being rescued… what are we going to do?

Lord of the Flies: Journal #2

Journal #2 by Ambar
Chapter 2: Fire on the Mountain
Perspective- Piggy
No YOU shut up
I absolutely hate it here. Everyone is so mean to me just because I’m a "little" heavy. Ralph told everyone that I’m piggy so that made me so mad; I hate it when people call me piggy. When Ralph and that stupid Jack and Simon came back, they confirmed that we are on an island. If people are going to come and rescue us, we need to make a signal that we are here. The poor little kid with a birthmark on his face he was too scared to tell Ralph that he had seen a beastie. I wasn’t even able to induce him to speak aloud. It scares me to think about it. Is there actually a snake “thing” out in the forest that could kill us? It gives me the chills.
But once Ralph gave the idea of making a fire to signal the people who would soon “rescue” us, the boys started capering and rushed to the woods to make the fire. I didn’t think that this was a good idea especially that Ralph wanted to start the fire in the woods! Every single time i wanted to tell the group that it was a bad idea Jack told me to shut up. I just wanted to recriminate and scream at him as loud as I could “No you shut up!” but that would’ve been a good influence on the little ones, and I wouldn’t be able to do it because of my asthma. The little ones were errant when I told them to stop and it’s not a good idea. They all ran into the woods to create the fire and they left me alone. I followed them shortly after Ralph had left.
Everyone was gathering wood so they would be able to light the fire. I couldn’t believe it are the little ones actually following the orders? “Hey piggy do you have matches?” Ralph asked. I shook my head. “Hey use his glasses!” Jack exclaimed. They pinched my specs and a spec of smoke was coming out of the woods. I couldn’t believe my eyes, they started a fire. The fire started spreading around the woods and the little ones cheered. I thought about the little kid with the birthmark on his face, he wasn’t there. I told them that the kid wasn’t there and if he wasn’t there then there must be more out there too. I martyred because of the smoke. Everyone was silent the kid was dead.

Lord of the Flies: Journal #1

Journal #1 by Ambar
Chapter 1: The Sound of the Shell
Perspective- Jack

What Happened?

This day has to be the most absolute worst day of my life. We were on a plane having a nice time and then the plane just had to crash! Thank goodness no one was badly hurt. When we were able to get off of the plane it turns out that we were on some kind of sticky, stinky island! No one even knew were we were. I absolutely hated it. The boys and I were so thirsty that we began climbing up the mountain to see if there was water on the other side. Then we all heard some kind of odd noise, it was like an elephant, but then at the same time it sounded like a horn of a ship! We all heard it. “Was someone coming to rescue us... did someone know that we were here?” I thought to myself. “Boys two single file lines and we’ll all stick together so we could find the ship!” I exclaimed.
All of us trusted our instincts and followed the beloved sound of the horn. “There!” one of the boys shouted pointing at a light through the dark trees. We began to walk more slowly and comfortably so that we would make a good impression on whoever was rescuing us. I walked through the trees and you’ll never believe who was on the other side of the trees. Other boys and one of them was blowing through a stupid shell! “Where is the ship?” I asked. “What ship?” a younger boy asked. Right when he said that I got so angry I got my hopes up for nothing. After that they said that we were all alone with no adults that there should be a leader. Of course I volunteered to become the leader, until Simon said that we should all vote. Guess what, they all voted for the kid with the shell and not me!
We were all hungry so the boy with the conch, Simon and I went out looking for food. It was amazing that the whole island just for me, and the other boys. We found a piglet, it was really adorable and it was caught in some creepers so that was the perfect chance to take action, you know show ‘em whose boss. I took out my pocket knife and I aimed. The poor thing looked terrified that it didn’t feel right to just take away its young life. I did the worst thing of it all, I completely froze. I didn’t know what to do and the piglet ran away. It was so embarrassing! So basically I didn’t even know what had happened.