by Elise Fuhrmann

Abrianna Gillmore Bella Barahona Christian Spears

Mira McElhinney Henry Gibbins Rae Morehead

“Come on grab your reading glasses!”

  

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Cases of Irony in Lord of the Flies by Elise Fuhrmann 2 Football by Christian Spears 4 Maybe There is a Beast by Mira McElhinney 6 Steven Universe by Henry Gibbins 8 The Wonders of My Little Pony by Bella Barahona 9 Comicon by Abrianna Gillmore 10 Post Traumatic Stress Disorder by Rae Morehead 11

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Cases of Irony in Lord of the Flies by Elise Fuhrmann

“Every war is ironic because every war is worse

than expected. Every war constitutes an irony of

situation because its means are so

melodramatically disproportionate to its presumed

ends.”

― Paul Fussell, The Great War and Modern

Memory

The Lord of the Flies is a book swarming with very purposeful irony. Throughout the book, William Golding often uses irony to cause readers to think about the hidden meanings that he is

trying to express, and what they mean for the real world. Irony starts in the very first few chapters of the book, in one of the boys first meetings. In this scene, Jack stated: "We've got to have rules and obey them. After all, we're not savages." This is a major case of irony because later Jack leads the boys into savagery and opposes the rules that Ralph tries to put into place, and it shows Jacks manipulative nature.

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It’s clear that in the beginning of the book all the boys agree that there should be rules. At the same time though, when the boys originally arrived on the island, they were happy about the lack of grownups, nobody telling them what to do or preventing them from playing all day. However, as things began to break apart, the boys began to wish for grownups, for somebody to tell them what to do. As Ralph said “If only they could get a message to us. If only they could send us something grownup...a sign or something.” In the very next chapter, the dead parachutist, a grownup, falls from the sky. They wished for a grownup and got one, however it ultimately became recognized as the ‘beast’ and was a source of terror on the island. As the story progresses, we can see Jack abandoning his original statement on rules, as a constant struggle in power emerges between Jack and Ralph. Throughout the book it is clear that Ralph thinks the most important thing is to keep the signal fire going, so that they can get rescued. Jack wants to focus his time on hunting and this is a main source of argument between Jack and Ralph. Near the end, Jack breaks off into his own tribe, in which they no longer worry about keeping up a signal fire, while Ralph struggles to keep up the signal fire with just the help of the twins. However, at the end, it ends up being Jacks savage fire that ultimately rescues the boys, and not Ralph’s signal fire he worked so hard to keep.

It is also important to note who exactly Jack’s savage fire attracted, and exactly who the boys were rescued by, because this shows one of the major cases of irony in the book. When the boys crashed into the island, they were originally on a plane evacuating children from Britain because of a war. Before they were rescued, the state on the island was like the boys had created their own war, with Jack and Ralph battling back and forth over power. When they were rescued, they were rescued by a naval officer, who was part of this war on the outside world. This means the boys were ultimately rescued from their own war on the island, just to be taken back to a war they were originally fleeing. In a way, they were simply leaving one corrupt society and returning to another.

             

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Football by Christian Spears

I used to think that football was confusing, and kind of boring, but then I started to understand all of the rules and objectives of the game. My first football game I can remember going to was an OU homecoming game. I can't remember much about it, but I do remember that at the beginning of the game I wasn't very excited. After a little while, I began to understand a lot of the rules and how the game worked. I became excited and started to enjoy it a lot, and now I love football. The point of football is to get the ball in to the end zone to get points. A good comparison is war, the players are the soldiers, trying to overtake the enemy territory, and prevent them from gaining any. There are 4 downs and a first down line. Every time you snap the ball, you have to try and get it to the first down line to reset the downs. If you don't get to or past the line in four tries, you turn the ball over to the other team. The first down line is ten yards away from the ball's starting point. Each time you get a first down, the line is put ten yard away from where you first get tackled. Each time you get a touchdown, for 6 points you can either go for a field goal, where you try to kick the ball between the goal post for 1 point, or try to run or pass the ball into the end-zone again for two points. Afterward you have to kick the ball to the other team, and wherever they run to before you tackle them is where they have to start. Each time you start a play you have to line up at the line of scrimmage. The line of scrimmage is where the ball currently sits. The ball is given to the quarterback each play. The quarterback is the person the throws the ball to the receivers, who catch the pass and try to get it as far down the field as they can or in to the end-zone before they are tackled. Football is broken down into four quarters. Each quarter is 25% of the game, and there is a timer counting down until the next quarter. Each quarter is fifteen minutes long. After

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the fourth quarter the game ends, but if the teams have the same number of points at the end of the game they go into overtime which is another fifteen minutes. If the two teams still tie at the end of over time the game officially ends in a tie, but ties are rare in football. After the second quarter they have half time. Half time is an intermission in the game to give the players a break and switch sides of the field. The teams switch sides of the field to take away any advantage they may be getting because of a wind or a slope to the field. Each football team is from a different city and they have their stadium in or near that city. My favorite team is the Dallas cowboys, and their stadium is in Arlington, Texas, which is near Dallas. There are two leagues in which teams are divided. There is the American league and a National league, and each league has 16 teams in them. Each team has their own stadium there a home games (playing at your own stadium) and away games (playing at a different stadium). During a game, the team is either on offense or defense. The defense tries to stop the offense from reaching the end-zone. In football there are rules and if you break the rules you get a penalty. For example if you are on defense and you’re are across the line of scrimmage when the ball is snapped, you get an offside penalty. If you're on defense the offense moves closer to the end zone, and if you’re on offense since you are required to come to a set position (all the players must be in there position) before the ball is snapped. If you step across the line you also get an offside penalty. This results in a 5 yard gain or loss depending on if you're on offense or defense. If you grab onto the face mask, or grab a player of the opposite team who is not in possession of the ball, you get a holding penalty and a 10 yard penalty. A fumble is when the quarterback or receiver drops the ball after he has caught it. When they drop it, it is now a live ball, and whatever team picks it up is now the offense. A sack is when the defensive player tackles the quarterback before he is able to pass the ball. My favorite team is the Cowboys, and I wish they were better. Tony Romo could complete a pass once in a while, but they're my home team, so I still like them. Football is a little hard to understand at first, but once you understand the rules, it gets fun and exciting.

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Maybe There is a Beast by Mira McElhinney

“Maybe there is a beast… maybe it’s only us.” In The Lord of the Flies, William Golding uses the loss of innocence in a civilization of children to illustrate the innate savagery of humans. William Golding’s personal experiences with war greatly shaped his views on human behavior as seen throughout the Lord of the Flies. Ralph represents civilization, and Jack represents savagery and war. At the end of the book Jack wins indicating Golding’s belief that human savagery is greater than human civility. From the beginning of Lord of the Flies, Ralph and Jack clearly have a complex relationship. Their views are very contradictory, because Ralph’s ways of control is very different from Jack’s. While Ralph uses logic and reasoning to address the problems on the island, Jack quickly realizes the way he could control the boys is through fear. For example, in the very beginning of the book, one of the little ones thinks he has seen a ‘beastie’, a ‘snake from the water’. Ralph tries to reason with the boys to say that there is no such thing as monsters, while Jack tries to use this fear to control them. Jack begins to try to control the group however he can, no matter if it’s in the right way or not. Jack wants to use whatever it takes to gain power, and he quickly sees that the best way to do this is through savagery and fear. As the book continues, Jack’s fear mongering methods start to win over the boys minds and create many problems on the island. He manipulates the boys to make it feel like savagery is freedom. Ultimately the majority of the boys join Jack’s savage tribe, by Jack using fear to win them over, and by enticing them with promises of hunting and food, freedom and play. Only a few boys remain on Ralph’s side: Piggy, Sam, Eric and Simon. In this group, Simon represents the voice of reason throughout Lord of the Flies. When the other boys were simply playing around, Simon would continue building huts. Simon represents the basic morality in human nature, and this pattern continues until Simon dies. He is never convinced into savagery. Near the end of the book, Simon has an epileptic fit, and discovers that the beastie is the dead parachutist. Simon comes into Jacks savage tribe as the voice of reason to tell them there is no beast and is murdered by all of the boys, including Ralph and Piggy. This represents what Golding thinks of savagery, that it overthrows the voice of reason, and overpowers civilization. This scene represents what happens if you kill the voice of reason, and listen to the fear mongering. After the voice of reason is gone, the island ultimately falls into chaos. There is stealing, Piggy’s death, and Ralph is slowly hunted down as the island is lit on fire. Fear mongering in The Lord of the Flies is a symbol, and relates to real life fear mongering that is happening today. Fear mongering is scaring people to personal advantage, using fear to control people so you are benefitted in some way. Fear motivation is using fear to benefit someone else. A well known example of fear mongering is the Daisy Girl Ad during the 1964 presidential election. A young girl is shown in a field picking petals off a daisy and counting from one to ten. When she reaches nine, it zooms into her eye and a massive nuclear explosion is shown. This ad was run by Lyndon B Johnson against candidate Barry Goldwater, who was in favor of nuclear testing. An example of fear motivation is some of the advertisements against drunk driving and texting while

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driving. In an ad against texting and driving, a girl and her friends are driving and having fun, when a girl gets a text from somebody and misses a stop sign and is suddenly hit and killed by a massive truck. Some advertisements like this do use fear, but in a different way than fear mongering, since it is reasonable for people to be scared of texting and driving, drunk driving, and other examples like this. From the time the boys land on the island to the time they escape, they have to figure out how to manage their fear. Naturally the boys are very scared, like any normal children would be, and it’s that same fear that drives the island to the ground. They were scared of not being rescued, so they made a signal fire, which brought a lot of controversy. They were scared of the beast and became violent and isolated. Eventually, after losing what little civilization was left in them, they feared each other. By the end, these kids are not the same tame-minded, innocent children they were when they first arrived on the island. In the end they don’t even know each other and we fear what we don’t know. Even though many of the characters agreed with Ralphs values, they sided with Jack. Their decisions were based on short term effects, things that would happen immediately, rather then what was better for the society in the long run. This happens often in real world politics. For example, when the city of Denton recently voted on banning fracking, many people looked at the potential short term effects on the local economy caused by loss of drilling rather than long term effects on water quality, air quality, and property values. In Denton those who focused on the long term prevailed, while in The Lord of the Flies the opposite was true. As a result, their civilization failed.  

 

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Steven Universe by Henry Gibbins

Steven Universe is a children’s show about a young boy named Steven and his adventures with the super-hero-like group called the “Crystal Gems”. The Crystal Gems are named Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl, and all have gems attached to differing parts of their bodies that both contain a special weapon and grant them powers such as immortality and shape-shifting. Steven is the son of the ex-leader of The Crystal Gems, Rose, who gave up her physical form to give birth to Steven. Steven also has a gem, attached to where his belly-button would be. A majority of the show is focused on the fact that Steven has not yet learned how to control his powers. The show has used peril as a large part of his powers coming into light. For example, in the episode “Monster Buddies”, the unstable Gem Lapis Lazuli has been released from a mirror prison, and quickly goes on a rampage, taking all of the ocean to build herself a temple to get closer to the stars. Steven has befriended Lapis Lazuli before this all happened, and manages to get up the tower to speak to Lapis. Steven discovers that the gem fixed on her back is cracked, and in a blind attempt licks his palm and places it onto her gem, and the gem heals, sprouting beautiful water-like wings for Lapis to return home with. His powers are relatively finicky, but has never operated against Steven. The show also has very important lessons and messages, and sometimes features main characters near defeat or sometimes even death to get messages across. A good example of this is when Sugilite, a gem fusion (two Crystal Gems performing a certain dance to fuse together into one larger, more powerful gem), gets out of control, and Pearl is forced to fight her. Sugilite ends up being too strong and Pearl, on the brink of defeat, tells Steven that Sugilite was right and puts herself down in various ways. Steven steps in and reminds Pearl how far she’s come, and that she is strong and can defeat Sugilite. Pearl gets herself off the ground and is quickly motivated again into outsmarting the power-hungry, destructive Sugulite. I believe that is a very great message, and was powerfully presented. Not giving up in the face of a difficult challenge is important, both physically and mentally. Another recurring theme is the death of Steven’s mother, and its effect on both his family and the Gems. Rose Quartz was an all-loving, caring woman, and often was the savior of missions proven to be too difficult. Steven never knew Rose, which might be a big part of why he seems to have taken her death very well. Rose has left the Gems with lots of large, powerful weapons, a room for Steven, and a large temple. Rose had healing powers, and passed those powers onto Steven, and he is slowly growing to take her place. Steven’s father, Greg, and the Gems often reminisce about all the good times the group had, from simple things like gardening to bigger things like conquering gigantic monsters. This is a very important series, with significant lessons that everyone has to learn at some point all throughout the show. The characters are excellently developed, making the lessons they tell all that much more powerful. This is personally my favorite show because the characters are so interesting and well-designed, the scenery is so beautiful, and the episodes are well-written.

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The Wonders of My Little Pony by Bella Barahona

I love My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (MLP)! Why? Because the show is so wonderful! And with colorful characters like Scootaloo, Octavia, Coco Pommel, and Lyra Heartstrings, what’s not to like about ponies? Also, these great characters represent what true friendship should be. Like Rarity and Applejack, who are great examples of friends even though they like different things, because Applejack is a honest pony who can give you wisdom when you need it. And Rarity is so generous that she makes time for her friends. They also show morals in creative stories which I think is really good. For example, in episode 50, Pinkie Pie learns that you should never jump to conclusions, or else you might hurt someone’s feelings. So you should always get all the facts before jumping to a final conclusion. I think more people should watch this show because people should have more friendship in their lives.

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Comicon by Abrianna Gillmore

Comicon is a convention where people from different fandoms can go and meet other people who like the same things that they do. A lot of people wonder why Comicon is so popular, and why people pay to go and spend so much time working on costumes. Well, Comicon is a fun experience for everyone. It's awesome to see the costumes that people come in with, and you'll probably see someone dressed as a character from your favorite TV show or movie. So, if you want to, you can ask to take a picture of, or with them, and if you’re in a costume, people might ask to take a picture with you. Some people take their costumes a step further and actually act like the character they're dressed as, and it's really awesome when that happens. Occasionally someone will reenact a scene with someone who's in a costume from the same TV show/movie as them. For example, when I went with my friend, we were both dressed as 'The Doctor' from Doctor who. She was the Tenth Doctor and I was the Eleventh. We were walking around and someone dressed as the War Doctor walked up to us and said: “Hello! I'm looking for the Doctor.” and we reenacted a scene from the 50th anniversary (The Day of the Doctor) of Doctor who. Another thing Comicon is really popular for is the panels, which are things where celebrity's from movies or TV shows, like Doctor Who, Harry Potter, or Star Wars, come and talk and answer questions for an hour or so. The questions can be really funny. The answers, even more so. So why is Comicon so popular? Because it's fun. It's a great place and everyone is so friendly. There is really cool stuff and really cool costumes. So I think the real question is...why isn't Comicon more popular?

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Post Traumatic Stress Disorder by Rae Morehead

Post traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, can happen to almost anyone who has had something really horrible happen to them. It usually occurs from something traumatic in your childhood. It could also happen to veterans or even people in car wrecks. If you have PTSD you might have a panic attack from an image or video that reminds you of the traumatic experience. PTSD can work in many different ways from bigger reactions to smaller ones. Most people with PTSD will either go to a mental institute or go through physical therapy. I have a family member with PTSD and they go to physical therapy, it is very hard for them and usually they come home exhausted. When I want to watch a show with them I always ask if they are ok with it and check to make sure nothing will cause them to have a panic attack.

If a friend or family member of yours has PTSD you should really think before you act so you don’t cause them added stress. PTSD is serious, and should not be treated as a small thing. If you know someone with this disorder, think of how they feel and treat them with as much respect that you would give anyone else.

One of the most common things that triggers people is rape. If someone around you seems uncomfortable with the topic or they tell you to stop, you need to stop. They can also be very sensitive to violence and/or gore.

If someone tells you that they have PTSD the best way you could respond is to be very supportive and make sure they are dealing with is well. If you know someone has PTSD then the best way to help them is to keep them away from the things that trigger them and check on them as much as they’re comfortable with.

When people have really bad PTSD they may, for example, walk into a cafeteria and have vivid images or even hallucinations of what happened to them in that certain room. In some cases it can be very hard to treat. To be clear it is horrible to put people through this. If you know that something in particular will trigger someone you should try and keep that from them as much as possible. Treat them like everyone else and do not, unless you have specific permission from them, tell anyone about their disability. Most people are very self conscious about it and will become highly upset and/or embarrassed if other people find out.