It is with a heavy heart that I stand before you today to commemorate two great friends, or brothers, I must say. My fellow colleagues and I would like to extend our deepest condolences to Simon Lavery’s parents and Piggy Sliwinski’s aunt. I stand before you humbled and ashamed with a burdened conscience, knowing that this tragedy could have been avoided if only I had known then what I know today. The words do not come easy and it took me a long time to line up my thoughts and feelings and write them down in this letter which I would like to read to you.
“Dear Mr. and Mrs. Lavery and Sliwinski,
No words or thoughts could ever undo this great tragedy that we were meant to witness, maybe it was God’s will that we endured those unfortunate circumstances that led some of us to do deeds that we are certainly not proud of. My deep grief and sorrow is surely nothing compared to yours, but I feel compelled to …show more content…
We figured out that the only way to survive is by living in a familiar community, one that has rules and order. That was when I was elected as the “leader,” the protector of the group. We built a fire as a signal, we started building huts for shelter, and then I made my first mistake when I assigned Jack to be our hunter. I never thought of the consequences of this action as at that time I was focused on keeping the boys alive, and to do so I needed food. Weeks passed and I failed to see Jack’s rebellion. I failed to see the effect of our hunting games on the boys, and only then, only after Simon passed did I notice the deep illusion the boys were in during those games. Stranded on this island, they started to lose courtesy and respect for each other; they started to lose their consciousness and awareness of reality. Piggy and I tried to save them, get them back to sanity. He even went as far as to sacrificing his life to save