Blog Quest 1 - Interview w/ Ralph

In the book, you seem to have trouble maintaining order. Besides Jack, what were the factors of this struggle?
Well, of course, there were a lot five year olds running around. They all wanting to play with each toher, not work. That really was hard for me, because I didn't want to order the littluns around, because they're just kids. At first, I just let them run around because I had other priorities. But, if our society was going to fall apart, it was going to be because we couldn't keep order. So I really cracked down on the order, and it improved. Also, my desire for being rescued distracted me from setting up permanent shelters, water sources, stuff like that. I really did want to be rescued. I started to realize that we really needed to make things a little easier for us (the littluns espescially), so we could really focus on getting rescued without things being in the way.

Did you ever have an urge to go hunting and forget about authority?
Not really. I understood that hunting was Jack's "territory", metaphorically speaking. I needed to focus on my responsibilities. The littluns needed order, and if I left to go hunting; where would the order go? Completely out the window.

What was your relationship with Jack?
We tolerated each other, barely. We had a couple misunderstandings over the signal fire and being rescued, it didn't have any personal problems with him. He did scare me though. The glimmer in his eyes when he described how he killed the pig worried me. He was veryexcited about killing an animal, and I wondered if he would be that excited about murdering people. So I simply kept an eye on him. Made sure his attitude didn't change to the worst.

Who were your enemies?
I don't believe I had any enemies. We all had different perspectives and opinions; and those defintely clashed. But I really didn't have any enemies.

Did you really think you were going to be rescued, or were you just trying to be optimistic for the littluns?
I was optimistic for myself, not the littluns. I knew that if I thought logically, I would realize that we were on a random island in the middle of the ocean. Why would anyone find us?? If I thought negatively, I knew I would give up on everything, sulk, and let Jack take power. And God knows that would be a good idea.