Lord of the Flies Media Analysis Assignment

For this assignment, you will be analyzing various forms of media: film, newspaper, magazine, television and satirical sit com. Your job is to create a newspaper article and analyze two types of media. You will be evaluated on content, style, depth of thought, analysis, exploration and creativity. Each assignment must be a minimum of 500 words.

MUST DO:

Examine past issues of the Lion’s Roar(the school newspaper). Choose a style of article that you like (news article, movie review, music review, interview etc.) and write an article for the upcoming issue of the Lion’s Roar. If your article is chosen to be published by the editorial staff of the Lion’s Roar, you will earn bonus marks.

Due: by May 25^th

Choose Two of the Following

1. The movie Mean Girls deals with the social interactions of teenage girls. The movie explores issues of popularity, leadership, power, control, cliques, victims and bullies. The novel Lord of the Flies examines similar issues but instead of focusing on girls, the novel is about the socialization of boys. Write an analysis that compares the social relationships and power struggles between males and females. Do you think the movie and novel present a realistic portrayal of what really happens? How are boys different from girls in social situations? Are girls meaner than boys? Are boys more violent than girls? If the movie, Mean Girls is an accurate portrayal of girls, what do you think would have happened if a plane load of teenage girls crashed on the island?

                                                     OR

2. Look at how the high school becomes “the island” in a move like Heathers–where isolation from the tribe becomes the accepted norm and the outsiders seek revenge. Does the satire turn on itself and make the victims of the school better than the boys on Lord of the Flies or just as evil? A chance to explore a satire run amuck.

*Mirabella Magazine March 1990 also has an article on gender called Reconciable Differences which could be compared to the novel.

3. Pretend you are William Golding and you have the opportunity to watch one of the movies Lord of the Flies based on your best- selling novel. After you have viewed the movie, write a letter to the Director of the movie expressing your feelings and opinion about the movie. What did you approve of? What were you disappointed in? Did the movie change the original intent of your novel? What parts of the movie should have been cut out? What parts of the novel should have been included in the movie? What was your overall opinion of the movie?

4. Watch an episode of Lost and explore whether or not it achieves the same sort of insights into humanity’s descent into hell as the novel Lord of the Flies.

5. Parody is one of the toughest forms of humour. Satirizing a recognized work offers the creative mind tremendous opportunity. Consider writing a critique of either “Das Bus” or “Kamp Krusty” from The Simpsons on how the show has satirized the novel Lord of the Flies.

                              OR

6. Based on your expertise from The Simpsons, create an episode that turns Springfield into the setting for the “horrors” of power and anarchy that parallel the novel.

 7. Look at one of the essays published in Time Magazine, either Evil, June 10, 1991or the questionable innocence of children in Tragedy as Child’s Play, April 6, 1998.. Explore whether or not Golding captures the essence of this side of the human condition in his novel.

                                                                          Or

8. Imagine you are one of the boys from the novel and have read one of these essays after your rescue. You decide to write a letter to the magazine outlining your experiences on the Island and insights you discovered.

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