21st Century Lord of the Flies Project
Due Monday, April 25
Lord of the Flies was written over 60 years ago, and while the themes of the novel are still relevant, the book itself seems a bit dated. With the advent of GPS, cell phones, and black boxes in planes, the story of a group of young boys whose plane crashes on a deserted island and must learn to survive can be hard for modern audiences to relate to.
Your challenge is to find a way to update the novel to appeal to a 21st century audience, changing any or all aspects of the story while still maintaining the vital structure and deeper meanings of Golding’s story. Your updating can take numerous forms – a short story-like summary of the new novel, a comic book or storyboard format, short audiobook, even a short film if you’re so inclined (but you are certainly not limited to this list, although please clear other ideas with me first).
What elements must be included? To start with:
- A group of people isolated from the rest of society
- Main characters corresponding to the archetypes represented by Ralph, Jack, Piggy, and Simon
- A struggle between the inherent good and evil in human nature
- The conflict between creating civilization and descending into savagery/violence/chaos
- An element that creates fear in some or all of the group and how that plays out in the above struggle/conflict
The project will be worth 30 points distributed as follows:
- 10 points for content: a project getting a 10 in this category will cover the above elements in depth and show a good amount of creativity and original thought; a 6 in this category demonstrates the above elements in depth or shows creativity and original thought but not both; a 3 in this category exhibits limited understanding of above elements and little creativity/original thought.
- 10 points for effort: a project getting a 10 in this category will exhibit substantial time and effort put into the project and a neatness to the final product; a 6 in this category will show a good amount of time and effort spent and/or is slightly lacking in neatness; a 3 in this category shows a minimal amount of time spent and is lacking neatness.
- 10 points for appearance/mechanics:a project earning a 10 in this category will exhibit exemplary spelling/grammar/mechanics if written or excellent use of color/graphics/effects if visual; a 6 in this category will have few errors in spelling/grammar/mechanics if written and good use of color/graphics/effects if visual; a 3 in this category will have multiple spelling/grammar/mechanic errors in writing or minimal color/graphics/effects if visual.