Second Interior Monologue Assignment

Interior Monologue:
Open Up That Brain and Let Us See Inside

Why do people do what they do and why do they think what they think?

Pick one of the characters we’ve discussed (Ralph, Piggy, Jack, Roger, Simon, Samneric, Littluns) or suggest another you’d like to use.  Look through your notes and the book to review your character and write down about 200 words of interior monologue in first person (I feel such-and-such and I think blahdeeblah).  “Interior Monologue” is just a formal way of saying that you write out what you imagine are the thoughts of a character in history, literature, or life at a specific point in time.  So basically - take what you know about the story and expand on it. If you use the "head" to get ideas (drawing pictures, writing down ideas), it will be worth one extra point if your grade is less than perfect. 

Two things that are different from the last interior monologue:
#1 Your character’s thoughts should revolve around or focus on one of the themes we have listed for this story. 
#2 You should be demonstrating your ability to relate to the character, which is the third of the dimensions of reader response that we have been looking at. 


But Miss Adsit why are we doing this?

    Writing interior monologues is a brain workout that takes your thinking about the book to a higher level.  By empathizing with people, no matter how different from you or despicable they seem, you are exploring the causes of human behavior.  If you can imagine why people do what they do, you can understand the world - not just this book- at a deeper level. The very act of considering, "How might this person experience this situation?" develops an important "habit of the mind” that gives you power and draws us closer together.  That’s why!

Themes To Keep In Mind:

Savagery vs. Civilization
Individualism vs. Community
Nature of Evil (and the fear of it)
Man vs. Nature
Loss of Innocence
Dehumanizing Relationships
Rules and Order
Power
Identity

Stuck?

Knowing what you do about your character, you may want to imagine what your character would say to the following questions.  You don’t need to include these specific answers in the monologue, but these questions are there to help you think about what your character is concerned with - you can choose one that sparks an idea and run with it:

How does he feel about the issue of the beast (the symbol of evil)?  What does he think the beast is?  How does he think the beast should be handled? 

How does he feel about hunting, if he has participated?  Does he get a sadistic pleasure out of it?  How does it make him feel? 

Is he thinking more like a human or like an animal?  Is he experiencing a change in identity?  Was he one way once he landed on the island and feels another way now?

Does he support or reject the rules and order and civilization? If so, why does he cling to them?  If not, why does he prefer savagery and lawlessness?

Does he crave power?  Does he feel powerless?

Is he only looking out for himself?  Or does he have the well-being of the group in mind?

Has he come to a new understanding of how the world is that has caused him to lose his innocence?

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