Fire's Out, Hope's Gone.

     Well, who knew: thanks to Jack we’ll be stuck in this island longer than we can imagine. He had the “brilliant” idea of showing the rest of the boys a new technique to hunt, which consisted in painting each other’s faces for what he calls to serve as a camouflage. For me, this is a way of putting in a mask. All of us use masks from time to time, but I think Jack’s mask makes him do more evil than good. From the minute he finished painting his face all his civility, shame, and self-consciousness was gone. He was a new person––if you can even call that a person. What happened next was unbelievable, he pursued the rest of the boys to paint their faces too and go hunting. I was shocked to see that most of the boys were nowhere to be seen and even more shocked when I realized he had driven the boys that were on shift to keep the fire going.

     My mind can’t seem to assimilate why the rest of the tribe doesn’t recognize the importance of the fire: if there’s not fire, there’s no rescue. It would make so much sense if they were focused on the fire and having hope––believing. Also, since they’ve been talking about some “beast” that is on the island it would make sense if they wanted to get rescued, but they keep insisting on hunting and they are clearly losing all their civility at an alarming pace, especially Jack.

     What happened next? There was a ship. A ship was passing and he didn’t see us. Why? Because everyone was out hunting with masks and spears; nobody was keeping the fire going. It hurts when you know that you’re making an effort but some people in the tribe suddenly decide to throw away everything they’ve been taught growing up.

     Discouraged, that’s how I felt on top of the mountain. Watching then, a mob of kids, nothing like the first time I saw them. Painted faces, ripped, dragged clothes, and the remains of caps.

I made the rash decision of standing up to Jack; I shouldn’t have done it. He immediately became angry, uncontrollable and attacked me. He broke my specs! I thought he might’ve been mad but I never thought he’d be this mad. His shame is gone, and even though in split moments he appears to realize what he’s done I’m afraid one day it’ll never come back.