Them fruit

There are several reasons for us reading Golding's very famous novel, which is, as Wikipedia suggests, read and studied by almost every British high school student, and by enough in the US that it continued to rate highly on the list of books people in the US want banned to the end of last century, as the American Library Association (ALA) records (2009), although I notice that it's been replaced this century by such evil and dangerous books as Harry Potter, which is the current number 1 (ALA, 2010).

First, it's a great novel, and not too long. I'm hoping we see why it's seen this way as we work our way through it.

Second, it provides excellent practice for a range of important reading skills, as we have already seen: using context to guess meaning; understanding how writers create connections that unify a piece of work, within and  between sentences as well as across paragraphs and between chapters or larger sections; understanding organization; understanding a writer's purpose; and so on.

Third, as you will realize even more clearly after reading and answering the questions on "Symbolic Systems and Meanings" (Hartmann & Blass, 2007, p. 12 - 16), it fits very well with the ideas in our readings in cultural anthropology.

Finally, and following all of the above, it's a fruitful source to also practise academic writing on.

Even if you haven't already read up on it, you would already have realised, as Sunny did, that Lord of the Flies is full of symbols and symbolic meanings, containing examples of all three types of symbolism discussed in the reading Hartmann and Blass have adapted from Rosman and Rubel's university textbook on cultural anthropology (2007, p. 12 - 16). "Them fruit" pretty clearly fits into the symbolism of food type of symbol. But before worrying about the symbolic meanings, I suggest you get the concrete, non-symbolic meaning clear first. As Hartmann and Blass's explanation clarifies, symbols only work when the non-symbolic half of the symbolism is understood. So on page 9, the first thing we need to understand is that there is edible fruit on the island, that Piggy has been eating it, that he has a stomach ache and diarrhoea as a result of his indulgence, and has to hurry off to shit, not just once, but twice (Golding & Epstein, p. 9 - 12). Once this is understood, you can worry about what "Them fruit" and this whole passage, to which Golding devotes a lot of detail, might symbolize. And right from start, in "The Sound of the Shell", we can see examples of Golding using space symbolically (what?), as well as symbols of politics and authority (what?).

I hope you are enjoying the novel as you read "Fire on the Mountain" over the weekend. It's probably a good idea to read the whole chapter first, trying to get an idea of what's happening, and then read it again, section by section (not sentence by sentence), with that overall context in mind. Looking at single sentences out of context is unlikely to be a useful reading strategy.

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References

American Library Association (ALA), (2009, July 29). 100 most frequently challenged books: 1990–1999. Retrieved January 20, 2012 from http://www.ala.org/advocacy/banned/frequentlychallenged/challengedbydecade/1990_1999/ 

American Library Association (ALA), (2010. April 6). Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2000-2009. Retrieved January 20, 2012 from http://www.ala.org/advocacy/banned/frequentlychallenged/challengedbydecade/2000_2009

Golding, W., & Epstein, E. (1954). Lord of the Flies. New York: Perigee.
(Note: Why are there two authors listed here?)

Hartmann, P. & Blass, L. (2007). Quest 3 Reading and Writing (2nd. ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill 

Lord of the Flies. (2012, January 19). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 02:18, January 20, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lord_of_the_Flies&oldid=472129273

Note on Wikipedia: whenever you use Wikipedia as a source, always use the "Cite this page" tool in the right-hand column to create the References list entry. Do not write it yourself. We are using the APA style reference citation, so just copy and paste that one (it's first) from the Wikipedia page. And while you're there, you might like to read Wikipedia's "IMPORTANT NOTE" at the top of the page.