In PLP its not the 7 wonders of the world, we don’t learn about the Pyramids or Machu Pichu, in class we learn about the 7 Concepts of great intelligence. I have illustrated a pyramid to show how these seven concepts have meaning along with my explanation below.

These seven concepts all challenge and affirm what it means to be human and partake in society. Every single concept has a positive and negative side and sometimes the lines between are blurred.

The left side of the pyramid represents the negative side of each concept, while the right represents the positive of each concept. Individualism and Inhumanity support the negative side of the pyramid because those are what we feel as individual beings, and they are the main negative traits that dwells within everyone. Violence and Destruction follows because if Individualism and Inhumanity takes over we become violent and destroy. Evil follows next, representing what you become when fully taken by the negative side of society and human nature. Power tops the negative side because when the evil and violence are not enough for ones self they spread there ways through being powerful and having power over others.

Humanity supports the positive side of the pyramid because as humans we treat each other well and humanity represents that. Community represents what happens when humans following the order of humanity and come together. Innocence represents the good within everyone, pure and sweet the innocence is what humanity and community protects. Authority is atop the positive side because it represents what is granted and deserved when positive traits are exhibited without fault.

Savagery and Civilization are below there corresponding sides because they are what the positive and negatives sides of society fall into in the end. Human Nature supports everything because without human nature there wouldn’t be any of these traits or concepts. Human Nature is what these concepts challenge and affirm about humans and their behaviour. Is it human nature to be Evil or Innocent? Is it human nature for the Violent to fall savage and for Community to build into Civilization?

These are the 7 concepts in list form.

Power and Authority ✔
Humanity and Inhumanity
Violence and Destruction ✔
Human nature ✔
Civilization and Savagery
Innocence and Evil
Individualism and Community✔

These 7 concepts were brought to us when we started our Lord of The Flies unit, throughout the course of our journey I developed these concepts from thoughts into flushed out topics. These seven concepts were then used for paragraph assignments and debate topics.On May 15th my teachers assigned me to write my very first “Concept Paragraph” on Survival, this task followed the theme of the day that tackled survival in the book ‘Lord of The Flies’ by William Golding. This task seemed simple but not easy, I wrote a paragraph on the final day of WWII and how power and authority created death. I following this criteria.

The topic and concept I wrote was actually very interesting to expand upon and I would be doing this post about it if I didn’t like my third one a little bit more. Within this first paragraph assignment I learned about a WWII story I’d only heard about and wrote about how it connected to the concept of Power and authority. You can read it here. Paragraph 0

Below this is Paragraph 3 (basically now an essay), I have developed a paragraph about Violence and Destruction from a small starter paragraph (what I handed in) to this. I have made connections to Macbeth, William Golding’s Lord of The Flies, Joseph Stalin and Xavier from Joseph Boyden’s Three Day Road.

Pictured for Elijah is Francis Pegahmagabow, one of the two solider’s Elijah and Xavier’s characters are based off.

After the dissolving of Ralph’s tribe, how long would Jack’s violent tribe have lasted if the Navy hadn’t rescued the boys? With the powerful, violent and destructive out numbering Ralph, the chaos creating boys would roam free and have full power over the island. Under the leadership of Jack and Roger survival does not seem likely to me.

To answer this I need to understand what has happened in the pas when the violent and destructive have gained power. I will be showcasing Joseph Stalin to convey this. in 1912 Joseph Stalin was a appointed member of Bolshevik Party’s Central Committee, this Bolshevik Party was a political party ran by Vladimir Lenin. After taking power over Russia the Bolshevik Party created the Soviet Union with Lenin as the leader. After Lenin’s death in 1924 Joseph Stalin seized power over the Soviet Union and within years turned the political situation into a dictatorship. In the early 1930’s under Stalin’s rule, Russia became one of the worlds largest industrial economy’s with set rules about the economy and strict punishment like death if the rules were disobeyed. His laws and forced industrial ways lead to the deaths of over three million Pollacks and up to seven million Kulaks who were sent to the Gulags and forced into collectivisation . Stalin’s rules and ways also lead to an epidemic in the shape of famine that the world hadn’t seen, resulting in millions of deaths. Stalin executed over a million politicians and militants who he thought might oppose him as well. During World War II Stalin is responsible for an estimated 10 million deaths as well. This massacre of human life caused by a violent and destructive leader is predictable for the future of the island lead by Jack, we can see evidence of this in his actions after taking the island from Ralph.

I see Jack’s first action after taking all power over the island as murdering Simon. Although he didn’t murder him alone, his tribe and their brainwashed ideals did. The second major action was another murder, Roger, Jacks right hand man brutally kills Piggy the smartest child. And the third action being the burning of the entire island in order to murder, once again. Jack and his tribe would of used their “stick sharpened on both ends” (chapter 12) to sacrifice Ralph’s severed head to the beast. Looking at the trend of these actions I believe that the tribe would of dissolved into worse violence, death and destruction than already apparent. Jack’s manipulative mind and skill at brainwashing along side Rogers desire for chaos would result in the boys not standing a chance of salvation, survival or rescue. This descent into deeper and darker violence and destruction is not only physical but mental as well.

Within the Book Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden Elijah (a main protagonist) descends into madness and insanity because of his self inflicted exposure to violence and destruction. Elijah who starts his deployment as an ambitious and aggressive sniper soon is mentally taken by blood lust and madness. Elijah’s actions escalate from normal rounds of the trenches with his squad, to hunting the Germans alone all night and day. Elijah would kill tens upon tens of Germans daily and scalp there scalps to prove his kill numbers true. Elijah’s madness and blood lust is exposed in the contrast between him and his childhood friend Xavier. Xavier begins to distance him self from Elijah because he cant bear “to think of the tearing of scalp from skull” (chapter: “Feeding”) By the end of the book Xavier can’t handle the madness caused by violence that has take over his best friend Elijah and “finds [himself] hoping that Elijah will go too far [and] will be killed in action” (chapter: “Hero”) This madness can be seen through his actions towards Xavier. At the end of their time at war, they find them selves pinned under gunfire in a shell hole out in no mans land, in this pit Elijah tries to kill his best and only friend Xavier as he finally realizes “I have gone too far, haven’t I?” (Chapter: “Dying”) This madness from exposure to violence and destruction would be seen on the island if the ship had missed the the boys, but instead of war being the source of madness the violent boys would take its place.

For the theoretical future of this island I foresee Roger being a main source of evil. Roger’s impatience and short temper would lead to the murder of smaller children who annoy him, “Roger who carrie[s] death in his hands” (chapter 11) physically represents violence and this characteristic trait would only come out in greater strength the longer we is left with power. I see Jack as the mental representation of chaos who partners with Roger as the physical representation of violence. Jack manipulates the mind of his fellow boys to turn fear into power, Jack is not smarter than Ralph or Piggy but uses chaos and fear to awaken the savagery within boys. Jack betrays his fellow English boys to gain power, the ones who come close to rivaling his power intentionally or not are eliminated like Piggy and Simon. Under jacks rule the boys would of turned full savage and dissolved until Roger and the island had weaned out the weak and only the strong were left. These strong few left over would be savage and live lives without thought of fire and survival. These strong few do not play by the rules, there manipulation of each other and seeming constant betrayal are resultants of the violent and destructive being left with too much power.

Macbeth, the fiction character created by William Shakespeare is an example of power being manipulated and the betrayal of others for personal gain. Macbeth is manipulated by his wife and his ambitions are taken advantage of.  Macbeth is not innocent and goes on to order murder upon others in the future, but in the beginning of the book his wife manipulates him and takes all innocence he once had. Lady Macbeth wants to further herself and her husband, these goals go along with Macbeth’s goals but her execution of these plans is violent. Lady Macbeth convinces Macbeth that when King Duncan is staying in there castle he must be murdered. Macbeth disagrees at first but his dreams of being king are manipulated into destruction. Macbeth goes through with Lady Macbeth’s plan and murders Duncan in his sleep. After the murder Macbeth regrets his actions. Evidence can be seen of the manipulation of Macbeth by Lady Macbeth in Macbeth’s eulogy to Duncan when Banquo comforts Macbeth, “The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees Is left this vault to brag of.” Macbeth is reminiscing on life and how all that was good has been drained out and all that is left is the dregs. This manipulation is an action of destruction and violence, the boys who are left on the island would exhibit this manipulation and cause chaos on the island.

To conclude my essay and close my thoughts. Asnwering my question of ‘how long would Jack’s violent tribe have lasted if the Navy hadn’t rescued the boys?’ Is an impossible task because the book is fiction and we will never really know what would of happened. Considering this, above in my paragraphs I have supported my thoughts and reasoning of why I believe that Jack and Rogers island would not have lasted long.

I made this four part Venn diagram to illustrate the shared characteristics and traits of each literary and historical example I used in my essay. Within each overlapping venn diagram you can see what each violent and destructive leader has in common and what sets them apart. This visual is here to support your understanding of the paragraph as well.

To conclude this post. I kinda liked this assignment I kinda didn’t. I think that my essay could be better if Willemse read it over and gave me some critique (and linked like every word because Willemse likes that). The part I enjoyed was writing about Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden and Lord of The Flies by William Golding, the reason why I enjoyed writing about these pieces of literature was because I really enjoyed the books. I also enjoyed making the pyramid graphic because it was new and making a Venn diagram because I hadn’t done that in a while. I didn’t like writing about Macbeth because I dint like the play. That’s pretty much it. (1951 words)

Links and Such

http://www.history.com/topics/joseph-stalin

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Day_Road

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Pegahmagabow

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Shiwak

www.creately.com