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Lord of the Flies Critical Analysis
Critical analysis of the novel Lord of the Flies
Critical analysis of the novel Lord of the Flies
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Analytical Essay
William Golding’s article, “Why Boys Become Vicious” is a descriptive account of the negative behavior some boys posses. It describes several instances where boy’s behavior can be extremely violent and cruel. In his article Golding also gives reasons for some of these actions and attempts to determine whether deep seeded cruelty is something people are born with, or if it is something people collect throughout their lives. He supports these two possibilities with conditions that could cause issues to arise in boys.
The question that is most important to me is whether people are born with evil inside of them and are waiting for something to expose it. If every person has this cruelty concealed inside of them and certain conditions could reveal it then it would be much more concerning than a person being treated poorly and acquiring viciousness because of it. If everybody could be treated in average to good conditions it would be much less of an issue compared to people born with cruelty inside of them.
William Golding implies that peoples reasons for evil, regardless of whether they were born with cruelty or their situation brought it out is greatly affected by the way they are treated by parents, social situation, fear, and chaos. Fear can be brought out by not having parents, or having parents treat them badly. The issue at stake is children and their upbringing or current situation, effecting and more so flawing their behavior.
People often act in strange ways to certain things. Fear and Chaos can lead to cruelty and violence referring to ones instincts. Children who are confused, scared or have a sudden loss of civility are often led to violence. Boys that are treated poorly by parents may at times channel this fear or anger into other people. Without civility in every day life people will no matter the circumstances go wrong, children in the same case are more easily misled and can be turned away from everything that they good in their lives and turn this fear into aggression. When fear in several children is multiplied by the number of children together, such as the situation that was present in the novel Lord of the Flies the acts that they commit can be much more violent and cruel.
Children can be led to cruelty and violence because of fear, chaos and many other instances.
The next big show that everyone seems to be talking about nowadays is “Orange is the new black.” A show that is centered on what citizens think a day in the life in a women’s prison is. But in all reality a women’s prison isn’t something to joke around about. Prison is defined as a correctional facility designed for confinement that is primarily ran by the state. Women serve their sentences in women’s prisons where men serve theirs in men’s prisons. According to Ashley Dugger an online introduction to criminal justice professor there is about 4,500 prisons in the United States alone. Of those 4,500 only 170 of them are solely women’s prisons.
In Lord of the Flies, Golding proves that fear draws out man’s inner evil and barbarism. Within the novel, Golding uses characterization of the boys and symbolism of the beast to show the gradual change from their initial civility to savagery and inhumanity. Learned civility, order and humanity become ultimately futile in the face of fear. The author teaches that without logic, fear consumes endlessly. He shows that fear clouds the mind, thus making it absolutely imperative to maintain reason and logic throughout life. Fear will always end in a fate worse than death for those who survive it.
Statistically, the male population in jail/prisons are much higher than the female population. This is not necessarily because females are less inclined to criminal tendencies than males, but more because society views them more as victims and/or innocent. (Men Sentenced To Long…2012 p.2) From the time women are small until they grow up, they are told that they are fragile, kind, they should not curse, or fight, etc. There are countless sexist roles and behaviors that are pushed on women, and so society views women along side the typical view. In a statistical graph by the of Bureau of Justice Statistics states that the number of people incarcerated per 100,000 people of that sex is as follows: 126 women and 1,352 males. (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2010. p.1) That is an incredible difference in the number of incarcerated individuals per jail/prison. Societal view with women is becoming more level headed today, and sentencing disparity on the gender platform is coming to a more equal level; however, it is still a long way away from being equal. According to an article in the Huffington
The state of women in the United States criminal justice system, an apparently fair organization of integrity and justice, is a perfect example of a seemingly equal situation, which turns out to be anything but. While the policies imposed in the criminal justice system have an effect on all Americans, they affect men and women in extremely dissimilar manners. By looking at the United States' history of females in the criminal justice system, the social manipulation of these females and the everlasting affects that incarceration have on all women, both in and out of prison, this essay will explore the use of the criminal justice system as simply another form of control from which there is no hope of escape. This system of control then leads to the examination of the everlasting, yet never successful, female struggle to balance the private sphere of domesticity with the public sphere of society and the criminal justice system's attempt to keep women within the boundaries of the private.
1984, by George Orwell, depicts the psychological progression of Winston Smith, a rebellious citizen among an oppressive government. In such a government, each ministry deals with the polar opposite of its namesake, stupidity is as necessary as intellect, and Big Brother is always watching. Conformity is not the ultimate goal of the Party. It is a side effect of Two Minutes Hate, relentless torture, and a lack of meaningful relationships aside from the love of Big Brother. Orwell so vividly illustrates the crushing brutality of the Party in order to warn the reader that an absolute government with the power to drive a citizen to his or her breaking point will inevitably destroy the core of human drive and independence. Those with the power to exploit personal fears and control levels of commitment through torture can crush anyone, for “in the face of pain, there are no heroes” (Orwell 213).
In the Lord of the Flies the boys began to act in a savage type of way. They began to compete for power and where more than willing to act in a violent manner to get it. When Jack and Ralph split up into different groups, Jacks group was stealing, torturing and killing people in Ralph’s group. These actions were due to the situation and environment these kids were put in. They originally came from a civilized nation and then suddenly they found themselves in an environment where there were no laws or morals that kept them from doing bad. They could now act like savages and there was no punishment for doing so. Not to mention the fear put into everybody about “the beastie” makes people act differently. Fear makes people do irrational things,
When the criminal justice system was established, the main objective was to create neutrality and fairness between the sexes. Even though people might believe that there is no such thing as ‘stereotyping’ in the criminal justice system, it is quite obvious that women are constantly being look down upon because of their sex. In general, women tend to be treated like fragile objects that could break at any moment; the truth is that women can be strong and courageous just like men. Society stereotypes women and the criminal justice system is no different.
According to statistics from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, of the 455 criminals on death row in the state only 7 of them are women . This should tip us off to the manner in which we treat female criminals, even in the most pro-death penalty state in the country. Overall, women account for one in eight of people arrested for murder in America, but this ratio sinks to only one in seventy people currently on death row . This discrepancy must be a direct result of something, and is most probably attributed to society’s perception of women that place these female criminals as women first, killers second. “It’s a reflection of society’s view that women are less prone to evil than men are”, claims Jenni Gainsborough of the ACLU National Prison Project. We also seem to feel sorrier for women than we do men, and assume that if a woman has committed a crime it is because she has faced abuse in the past (usually inflicted by a man). This is true to some extent as it is claimed that 95% of women in prison were victims of abuse , but the point is that we generally stress the importance of female abuse while oftentimes neglecting abuse endured by their male counterparts.
Women in Prison. Washington, D.C.: Bureau of Justice Statistics Varnam, Steve. Our prisons are a crime (reforming the prison system). Editorial. Christianity Today 21 June 1993
What is the purpose of prison for females? The purpose of prison for females is to punish the offender and act as a deterrent to those who commit crime. The criminal justice system has no problem when it comes to dealing with female inmates. The jails and prison all over the country have been constructed to house male inmates. The female population is a small minority of the prison population. When it comes down to accommodating females in prison facilities, they have been neglected in terms of facility services they have access to. These issues have brought equality issues and the need to address them. All females’ inmates should have equal treatment and comparable resources as the male inmates.
In Plato’s The Republic, he unravels the definition of justice. Plato believed that a ruler could not be wholly just unless one was in a society that was also just. Plato did not believe in democracy, because it was democracy that killed Socrates, his beloved teacher who was a just man and a philosopher. He believed in Guardians, or philosophers/rulers that ruled the state. One must examine what it means for a state to be just and what it means for a person to be just to truly understand the meaning of justice. According to Socrates, “…if we first tried to observe justice in some larger thing that possessed it, this would make it easier to observe in a single individual. We agreed that this larger thing is a city…(Plato 96).” It is evident, therefore, that the state and the ruler described in The Republic by Plato are clearly parallel to one another.
Longitudinal research has been conducted comparing the rate of violence in male and female prisons. It is important to do research on this topic because it does not only lead to the conclusion of where is violence prevalent, but focuses on other aspects as well. It focuses on the psychological, social, and sexual side of the inmate. This topic does not only focus on who has the highest rates of violence, but why does that sex have a higher rate. This topic looks deeper at the differences between male and female inmates and what causes them to have high rates of violence. Most people would say that male prisons have a higher rate of violence due to biological reasons. People tend to think that males are more aggressive therefore violence is prevalent in male prisons, yet there is a lot more to this idea.
Children are usually known for their innocence and happiness but this is not always the case for every child. The environment a child grows up in affects them for the rest of their life. Growing up in a bad household can set a child up to live an unusual life. Children that are abused by their parents are more likely to form psychiatric issues. Dr. Ken Magid, a clinical psychologist who specializes in the treatment of severely abused children, says in Child of Rage, “These children have been so traumatized in the first years of life that they cannot form a bond with other people. These children do not have a conscience and they can hurt or even kill without any feelings of remorse.” Children must be able to form normal, healthy relationships at home in order to develop a normal conscience. The child interviewed displayed so much hate and resent towards males all because her birth father would rape her when she was thirteen months old. She talked about trying to kill her own brother and did not even seem disturbed from her intentions. Everything that happens to a young child will affect them for the rest of their life...
Many experts do not accept that biology alone creates children who kill. They believe that violence is a learned behavior. Being abused or witnessing domestic violence is an environmental factor in ju...
In the book Lord of the Flies by William Golding, a group of young boys from England are evacuated out of their country due to a war. The plane is then shot down and results into a plane crash on a deserted island. The boys are left all alone with no adults, no supplies, and no one to come and rescue them. They are all on their own and have to establish a new “society”. The boys have to choose someone to govern them and that person ends up being Ralph, who had an internal struggle between what is right and wrong closer to the end of the novel. The boys turn into savages, killing each other, and showing their evil inside each of them. According to, William Golding man is inherently evil, evil is in all of us, but it is oppressed by society, and comes out when there is not anything to hold us back, civilization is what holds back evil from coming out, or it is what triggers evil inside of man.