JLC: The Twenty-six Malignant Games

Rules of the Game:

A girl named Waverly receives lifesaver for a Christmas present and her brother receives a chess set that has two pieces missing. Waverly convinces her brother to let her play by offering her lifesavers to fill in for the missing pieces and the winner gets to eat them. However her brothers get tired of playing with her because she would always win, so she starts to play with a man named Lau Po, who teaches her all the tricks and eventually turns her into a chess prodigy. Her mother even recognizes her advanced skills, and enters her into competitions where she eventually becomes a national champion.

The Voice from the Wall

A girl named Lena St.Clair lives with her family in an apartment. Her English husband has very limited Chinese, and her mother who is from China has very limited English. The St.Clair's move to San Fransisco, and her mother has a miscarriage. Lena finds joy in her neighbors being more miserable then she is because of their constant fighting.

Half and Half

A character named Rose Hsu is worried about telling her mother about her and her husband's divorce. Rose has a flashback to a scaring childhood memory where her brother was swept out to sea, never to be seen again, when her family went on a trip to the beach and she was in charge of watching him. Her mother makes the point that fate is "shaped half by expectation, half by inattention."

Two Kinds

Jing-Mei reflects back to her childhood when her mother expected her to be a child prodigy, especially at piano.  However Jing-Mei did not share this same want, which was made evident when she messed up at a piano recital and greatly disappointed her mother. Her mother forces her to keep taking piano lessons, but Jing-Mei does so only out of obedience, that is until her mother dies and she begins to play piano just for herself. 

1. The arid heat wave was starting to concern local farmers.
2. The asian student was obviously assiduous.
3. My parents are both crazy; they belong in an asylum.
4. His benevolent and caring behavior was appreciated by everyone.
5. Their camaraderie, teamwork, and talent helped them win the game.
6. The newspapers were unanimous in their censure of the tax proposal.
7. The circuitous argument wasn't getting them any closer to a solution.
8. The fake fortune teller claimed to be clairvoyant.
9. The architects collaborated their efforts and talents to make a beautiful house.
10. Her compassion to save the trees is moving; it almost made me care too.

Passage:
Jarvis sat, deeply moved. Whether because this was his son, whether because this was almost the last act of his son, he could not say. Whether because there was some quality in the words, that too he could not say, for he had given little time in his life to the savouring and judging of words. Whether because there was some quality in the ideas, that too he could not say, for he had given little time to study of these particular matters. He rose and went up the stairs to his room, and was glad to find his wife not there, for here was a sequence not to be interrupted. He picked up the Abraham Lincoln and went down to the study again, and there opened the book at the Second Inaugural Address of the great president. He read it through, and felt with a sudden lifting of the spirit that here was a secret unfolding, a track picked up again. There was increasing knowledge of a stranger. He began to understand why the picture of this man was in the house of his son, and the multitude of books.
 KEY:
Repetition
Characterizaition
Imagery
Alliteration
Allusion

In the book "Cry, Our Beloved Country" the author, Alan Paton, makes several comments than are surprisingly sexist. They are subtle, however, because of the typical sexist attitude that binds modern thinking. By simply saying, "Then she sat down at his table, and put her head on it, and was silent, with the patient suffering of black women (also racist comment), with the suffering of oxen, with the suffering of any that are mute." (p40), Paton illustrates how the women had no say in the business of the men, and that their role was to keep silent about important affairs. Alan also demonstrates men's superiority over women in the dialogue on page 40 saying, "I have been saving that for your new stove.." "I had meant it for your new black clothes, and new black hat, and new white collars." The differences in what the money would buy for the man and women show their different roles in society, as well as the differing amounts of respect that accompanies those roles.

Similar power structures can be seen in both The Lord of the Flies and The Power of One. In Lord of the Flies, Jack is in control with a few followers, of which he persuaded to join him through promises of food and instilling fear. These actions are mirrored The Power of One, where the boys in the school have one main older leader who uses fear to maintain control. In both scenarios, the opposing forces of oppressive power are viewed as 'bad guys' or evil; Jack represents the savage state the boys in the story are presented with, and the leader of the school boys in the movie represents the brutal Nazi force. They also both exhibit violence, even as young school boys. Jack and his followers take Piggy's glasses, kill him, and threaten to kill Ralph, and the boys in The Power of One abuse PK and kill his chicken. However, differences are also presented between the power structures.  The system of power in Lord of the Flies is brought to an end by the rescuing of the boys on an adult, whereas in The Power of One it is temporarily ended by an interruption of an adult.  

In the third passage, Golding uses symbolism when he writes about Henry's footprints.  In the statement, "His footprints became bays in which they were trapped and gave him the illusion of mastery," the "they" referred to is the creatures in the sand, and when Henry stepped on them it gave him a strong sense of power.  This feeling of power was really important to Henry because it was something that he lacked within the community of boys on the island, so having control over the little powerless insects was more monumental in this story than if would have ordinarily been. By Henry experiencing this small amount of temporary control or "mastery", he is able to continue on and be somewhat content, even though he lacks control among others on the island.

Key Passage #1

Golding uses a strong sense of imagery in this passage of LOFT.  "Thick forest", "weary feet", and "...all the madness of extreme terror" are adjective phrases to give the reader an understanding of the setting that the boys were in.  By the use of strong terminology and adjective choice, the reader is brought deeper into the story line with a sense of anticipation as to what will happen next.  This builds until the climatic event of the passage where Jack is given the opportunity to kill the trapped pig, but in the end can not bring himself to do so.  Furthermore the lack of use of imagery about their setting and less anticipative word choices after this event leave the reader feeling somewhat disappointed and angered, similar to what the boys in the story were feeling.  This emotional connection formed helps tie the reader into the story, as well as helps maintain interest and concern as to what will happen next in the passage.