12 Years Of Age In Lord Of The Flies Quote Analysis

Imagine you’re riding in a plane. You're just sitting in your seat and then everything goes black. You wake up all alone in the middle of nowhere. That nowhere is an island and it’s full of people, but they are all under the age of 14. There are no adults in sight. What would be going through your head? Disbelief, shock or maybe a bit of excitement since there is no adults and just a bunch of kids? In the book, Lord of the Flies written by William Golding, there is a groups of boys aged 6 through 13. The ones aged around 6 years of age are called, Littluns. The ones aged around 12 years of age are known as the bigguns. Each one of the groups experience different things on an island. They go through extreme conditions and even battle against

a “beast.” The littluns look up to the bigguns throughout the entire book. They represent civilization and the common people. Whenever they made a decision they all voted together and they did everything as one. The bigguns were the government on the island and were in control of everything that happened. They each made their own decisions. The “beast” was something that almost everyone was scared of. Especially the littluns. They lived each day in fear about the “beast”. The bigguns offered no compassion towards the littluns which caused many conflicts during the boys time on the island.
“.... fear can't hurt you anymore than a dream. There aren't any beasts to be afraid of on this island... Serve you right if something did get you, you useless lot of cry-babies!” (Golding 83) That quote, said by Jack, was told to the littluns. Jack is one of the main characters in the book and also the antagonist. He remained uncivil from the start and always caused trouble within the groups of boys. He believed that the littluns were a burden on the group. The reason he said that quote to the littluns is because they had been afraid of the “beast.” They had been having dreams about them and couldn't sleep at night. Even during they day most of them were afraid of it. The bigguns didn't want to believe that there was a “beast” on the island. Only a few of them thought about it actually being there. Little did they know was that the “beast” in the story was actually themselves. The bigguns never listened to what the Littluns had to say and if they had listened to littluns more I bet things in the book would've been a lot different. The littluns felt and heard things the bigguns were way too distracted to notice.
“Then, amid the roar of bees in the afternoon sunlight, Simon found for [the littluns] the fruit they could not reach, pulled off the choicest from up in the foliage, passed them back down to the endless, outstretched hands.” (Golding 56 )That quote was about the littluns being cared for by Simon, one of the older kids on the island.

Simon was known for doing things by himself. He went against the rules of the “tribe” that the boys had made. The littluns had no one else to help them out during their time on the island. They depended on each other for the things they needed. All of the bigguns were busy talking about who should run the tribes and who needed to be doing what. The littluns tried the best they could to stay strong while the bigguns went off and did their own thing on the island. The littluns were the only boys to stay civil in the book. When Jack decided to make his own group that included his group of choir boys and a few other older boys they left the Littluns behind with a few bigguns to fend for themselves. Ralph, another main character in the book also the protagonist, was left to watch over the littluns while Jack’s group made their own tribe and were only worried about hunting and not getting rescued. Like I said above, the littluns all remained close to each other while the bigguns went their separate ways and always fought over who was

better.
“The tears began to flow and sobs shook him.

He gave himself up to them now for the first time on the island; great, shuddering spasms of grief that seemed to wrench his whole body. His voice rose under the black smoke before the burning wreckage of the island; and infected by that emotion, the other little boys began to shake and sob too. And in the middle of them, with filthy body, matted hair, and unwiped nose, Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy.” (Golding 202) That quote was about Ralph shows how most of the boys felt at the end of their time on the island. During the boys last days on the island things got considerably worse. Almost all of the bigguns didn’t get along. The littluns stayed together though through the whole thing even without the help of the bigguns. The bigguns became so uncivil that some killing started happening between them. None of the littluns ever died or killed each other. It was only the bigguns that had started killing each other. One of the times someone was killed was an accident, but the second death in the story that was caused by the bigguns, was not an accident. It was done on purpose because of the bigguns fighting with each other over little things that could’ve been resolved if they would’ve talked and agreed with one another like the littluns always did. The only time all of the boys came together and became civil again like the littluns.

The only time when all the boys became civil again is when they were being rescued by the Naval officer. “Nobody killed, I hope? Any dead bodies?” “Only two. And they’ve gone.” The officer leaned down a looked closely at Ralph. “Two? Killed?” Ralph nodded again. (Golding 201) Once they saw the Naval officer they all went silent and none of them knew what to do. They dropped everything they were doing and just stared. It’s like their minds went back to a time when they were all little boys again. One of the littluns didn't even remember his name when he went up to the officer to introduce himself. The officer asked what had been going on and if they were just playing around, but as soon as the bigguns told him that they had killed some of the boys he was completely shocked and nothing came out of his mouth. He had no idea that a group of boys could have done that to each other.
Those are some things that compare and contrast both the littluns and bigguns. The bigguns were always all over the place and never agreed on anything while the littluns listened to each other and worked with one another to help them stay alive on the island. Both the littluns and bigguns were very brave. To the long stay on the island to the “beast” that always gave the littluns nightmares and the fighting and killing they stayed strong through it all. There are many difference and similarities between the littluns and the bigguns. The biggest and most important similarity they had was their fight to stay alive on the island.