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How is theme developed in lord of the flies
Literary Devices Quiz
Literary devices and their use
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Select one chapter from Lord of the Flies and assess its importance to the novel as a whole.
‘Lord of the Flies’ is about what happens to a group of schoolboys when they are abandoned on an island following a plane crash. Chapter eight ‘Gift for the Darkness’ has much significance in the novel, as it is here that Simon converses with ‘The Lord of the Flies’. Jack separates himself from Ralph’s group, showing that Jack has now been consumed by evil. The signal fire is moved and now there are two marked rival groups on the island, one belonging to Jack and the other Ralph.
Chapter eight, ‘Gift for the Darkness’, has many themes, one of the most prominent being the Beast, which is the boys’ greatest fear. In chapter seven they had come across a dead parachutist and had believed it to be a beast. The beast represents the evil residing within everyone. The Beast is used as a scapegoat by the boys to avoid self-knowledge. Golding uses the boys’ daydreams to show their fears and desires. The Beast gives the boys’ fear something to focus on. Golding expresses various types of fears in the book and many are apparent in chapter eight.
There is fear that all is not known concerning the Beast. “The beast had teeth… and big black eyes.” The boys did not actually see the Beast and are making this up. This only causes their fear to escalate except for Piggy’s. He is by far the most intellectual and skeptical of the boys. He knows that the adult world and books would not abide by the legend of the ‘beastie’.
Just after the only kill in chapter eight, the boys’ gradual degeneration into savages is obvious by their actions:
“Then Jack found the throat and the hot blood spouted over his hands…then Jack grabbed Maurice and rubbed the stuff over his cheeks.”
This is almost a tribal ritual making a mask. The boys use masks to cover their identity and this allows them to kill.
“He was safe from the shame or self-consciousness behind the mask…”
This illustrates that the mask somehow gives the boys a sense of security.
“Demoniac figures with faces of white and red and green rushed out howling…”
From this quote it can be seen that the boys have totally lost their individuality and become like animals, almost indistinguishable from the other.
Lord Of The Flies is possibly one of the most complex novels of the twentieth century. This complexity and depth is evident when the characters are compared to the psychological teachings of Freud. The book shows examples of this psyche in the characters Jack, Piggy and Ralph and how they change during their time on the island.
The novel Lord of the Flies was full of challenges that the boys overcame in order to survive. Conflicts within themselves, with nature and with each other constantly test the children’s ability to endure. Struggles against the natural elements of the island, rival groups or fear of the unknown continually appear throughout the story. Some of the boys on the island did not survive the quarrels that they faced. They perished because they were lacking something that the surviving boys did not. The survivors had a natural primal instinct or a physical or mental advantage over the boys who did not make it. ‘Only the strong survive’ is an important element that runs through the novel Lord of the Flies because in order to survive the boys must turn to their primitive instincts of physical strength and savagery.
Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, is a story about a band of British boys that crash land on a deserted island, with no adults anywhere to be found. They are left to fend for themselves as order comes to an end and the island swallows them whole. Two key and complex symbols in this story are a conch shell and fire. The conch is a tool Ralph and Piggy, two boys on the island, find in the beginning of the story while searching for other boys that may have survived the crash. The fire is a way for the boys to stay “warm and safe” while they are on the island. As the young British boys become more aware of the dangers on the island, the conch and fire’s physical and symbolic manifestations change as life on the island begins to fall apart.
Another of the symbols that was used to present the theme of the novel is the beast. The boys believed that the beast is an external source of evil. Though, in reality, it represents the evil present within them, which is causing life on the island to worsen. Simon begins to realize this even befor...
Golding uses many symbols in the novel, Lord of the Flies, to represent good and evil in society. He uses Simon to represent the peacefulness of life and the kindness of a good heart, while Piggy represents the civilization on the island and the adult viewpoint of the children. The conch symbolizes order and also adult behavior. It is a symbol of strength and knowledge as well, as the evil of the beast represents the fear in the boys. All of these symbols change as the story goes on, some changes are less obvious and are the result of the readers new perspective while others undergo dramatic, and quite obvious, change.
Lord of the Flies is about a group of English schoolboys who are from 6 to 12 years old. They have been set on a fate island somewhere in the south Pacific after a plane crash. This could have been a dreamsituation for the boys; no teachers, no parents and no rules that tell them what to do or not do, but the dreamsituation develops in to a hard society where rules are set up and everyone has its own task. They set up a fire so that they could be found if someone flies over or went by boat near the island. They started to hunt and live a life like if they never would be rescued. After a while this big group became divided into two smaller groups with Jack and Ralph as leaders. This "competition" developed a bloody fight on life and death.
As Simon was trying to tell the boys that the beast did not exist, his death symbolises that mankind can’t face the truth about their inner desires. Part of Golding’s intent was to demonstrate that the evil is not recognised in specific populations or situations. On the island, the beast is manifest in the deadly tribal dances, war paint and manhunt; in the outside world, the same lust for power and control plays out as a nuclear war. Throughout ‘The Lord of the Flies’ Golding has managed to show that evil is present in everyone.
The boy’s turn into savages because of the way they think when they first arrive on the island. One may choose to follow what the mind says instead of actually putting things into prospective and thinking about the consequences. The mind has a good side and a bad side, the decision made have to be thought through to find which one to follow. The opinion of a good and a bad decision is based on the personal knowledge of right and wrong. “Ralph stirred uneasily. Simon, sitting between the twins and Piggy, wiped his mouth and shoved his piece of meat. “Kill the pig! Cut her throat! Kill the pig! Bash her in!” (Golding, pg.75) This quote Jack came up with shows...
Drunk driving is an issue that effects many people across our nation. People do not realize the affects alcohol can have on the body and mind that slow decision making while driving. This issue begins in the home. Children see their parents, or other adults figures, have a beer or a cocktail and get in the car. Thus, making it seem like it is acceptable to drink and drive. “One in three people will be involved in an alcohol-related crash in their lifetime” (MADD).
No one should feel like they are in danger while on the road because of intoxicated drivers. If someone incorporates alcohol with the instrumentality of an automobile it can be very hazardous. As a matter of fact, driving while under the influence is reprehensible by people that have been physically or mentally injured by drivers that are intoxicated. In other words, intoxicated drivers have killed copious amounts of people and ruined the lives of many others. One knows the consequences of driving intoxicated but they do not have self control to stop themselves picking up a drink where that alcohol is present. They realize what they did was wrong after the problem has taken place. When people become aware of the effects of driving while intoxicated they should prevent these troubling incidents by obeying state laws, planning ahead, and being accountable.
... instances where the boys can no longer suppress their darkest urges, they lose all former ties with a civilized lifestyle. Once these ties are sufficiently severed there is nowhere for the boys to turn, other than towards the darkness and savagery within each and every one of them. This darkness can seem thick and impenetrable, however, just a glimpse of civilization and order can lighten the darkness within anyone. William Golding, while realizing this fact, chose to share it with the world by writing this tale. He showed that even the most proper British boys can become savage beasts within a few days, and then return to their old civilized lives once reintroduced by a familiar figure. No one is so far gone that they cannot be saved, and no one is immune to the savagery within.
Lord of the Flies, a novel by William Golding, took place on an isolated tropical island. There were many symbolic items within the story, and their meanings changed as the story developed. The fire was the symbol of hope and civilization at the beginning of the novel, but at the end it had become a fire of destruction. Ralph, in the beginning of the book, stood for leadership and almost perfection, however as the story progresses, he was nothing more than a normal human. The beast, upon its first appearance, symbolized fear, but soon, it represented the savagery within them. The different symbolic figures within the book, such as the fire, Ralph, and the beast, shifted in meaning as the story develops.
Companies like Google, Tesla and Nissan, among others, have announced over the past few years that their companies are trying to develop self-driving or autonomous cars [Ref. 1 and 2]. Self-driving cars can provide many benefits to the average consumer. Studies have shown that because computers can react and process information many times faster than a human being, crashes on streets and roads can be decreased with quick and consistent evasion maneuvers by the autonomous car. They can also help maximize fuel economy by calculating the most direct and fastest routes. When the driving of an autonomous car demonstrates that the computer can safely and reliably transport the passengers to their destination, this frees up the passengers to do other things that they would not normally be able to do if they were driving the car manually. For this reason, self-driving cars can help maximize productivity of their passengers.
Driving while intoxicated or drunk is very dangerous resulting in injuries and even death. This is a huge national problem that can be prevented from happening. “Statistics reveal that most related accidents are the leading cause of death for the ages between 16-24.” (Hanson) Many teens and early adults are peer pressured to drink and end up driving intoxicated or drunk. When driving intoxicated, your short term memory and at often times your reflex is also impaired so you don’t have that quick response to go from pressing the gas pedal to your brakes or from swerving. Therefore, drinking and driving is a cycle that will never end. However, we can address this by stopping drunk drivers by making cabs mandatory at any location when needed, sobriety check points, and alcohol education classes.
The self-driving car would cause many people to lose their jobs. The careers that would no longer be needed due to the self-driving car include but are not limited to those who drill oil, taxi drivers, and personal injury lawyers. If self-driving cars were electric, oil drillers would be needed less and a majority could lose their jobs. If there’s self-driving cars, there could easily be a self-driving taxi service. If self-driving cars reduce accidents a majority of personal injury lawyers’ business would disappear. Also the gasoline industry would suffer, affecting stockholders, and there would be no need for drivers’ education