Jack's English Journal

Ralph seemingly has a strong personality and this is shown in the way he is described as having wide and heavy shoulders. This causes me to imagine him with a strong posture making him look fairly influential. Also, his actions are described in a manner that causes him to appear rather extemporaneous. The way that he spins on his head, he jumps and scoops up sand causes him to seem very in the moment. It is also clear that Ralph is excitable, imaginative and vivid from his ‘bright and excited eyes’ despite the severity of the situation. This also shows us that he is definitely young, he is rather blissfully unaware of the awful predicament that he is in. His youth also causes him to be fairly naive; his first thoughts aren’t of survival and safety but are of excitement.

Golding’s use of punctuation emphasizes Ralph’s youth, using clauses to show his pride in exact age, ‘twelve years and a few months’, and his imagination, ‘forced at last to believe in the reality’. The complexity of the sentences, created by the semi colons and subordinate clauses used, greatly accentuates the vividness of Ralph’s personality and his impromptu character.

Piggy is described as a far more timid character than Ralph, he backs out of the undergrowth and searches out safe lodgements for his feet. His ‘greasy windbreaker’ makes him sound more simple but possibly more calculated. The latter is definitely more accurate based upon the fact that he ‘removes the thorns (from his legs) carefully ‘ and from evidence revealed later in the book. The less action more thought attitude that seems to be displayed throughout the extract is affirmed in the way that he ‘looks up through thick spectacles’. He isn’t jumping about, excited, he is far more cautious.

The use of punctuation to describe Piggy is far more simple; mainly simple sentences are used. This shows us a more calculated, clear thought process in the manner of his description. It makes it clear he is less naive and highlights a wisdom about his character. He is also definitely not the vivid, all action, main character that Ralph is.