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The lord of the flies literary analysis
The lord of the flies literary analysis
The lord of the flies literary analysis
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A very famous Russian-American novelist named Ayn Rand once said “Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage’s whole existence is public, ruled by laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.” This quote explains the story Lord of the Flies by William Golding in many ways. The book starts off with a plane full of boys escaping from the war happening in England, but unfortunately got shot down on an island. The plane contains adults and children coming back from school. Sadly when the plane crashes all the adults die, and there are no adults on the island. When all the children finally meet up they choose their leader, Ralph, to maintain order and civilization, but that doesn’t last …show more content…
for long. Due to isolation and the fight for power the boys in this story change. Many great themes in this story is power that comes with great responsibility, and fear can overtake all. The turning point in the story is when the boys come together to kill one of their own, Piggy, because he is different and stands out from the most of them. This statement resembles our society and shows that if you are different, you will have a lot of trouble trying to fit into society. Ralph, who is the protagonist of this story, is one of the oldest boys on the island, and quickly becomes the group’s leader.
A quote that supports my initial impression on Ralph is; “Ralph sat on a fallen trunk, his left side to the sun. On his right were most of the choir; on his left the larger boys who had not known each other before...before him small children squatted in the grass”(Golding 30) Golding describes Ralph as tall for his age and handsome, and he presides over the other boys with a natural sense of authority.
Over time, Ralph starts to lose his power of organized thought, such as when he struggles to develop an agenda for the meeting but finds himself lost with his own vague thoughts. Ralph’s mental workings are the same decay as his clothing, both are frayed by the rigors of the primitive
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life. In the middle of savagery, Ralph holds on to the hope of rescue.
This quote explains hwo Ralph loses his train of thought and forgets his priorities,”Ralph -- remember what we came for. The fire. My specs.”(Golding 161) The only occasion where Ralph lapses into savagery is when he joins the ritual dance at the feast, the same feast where his friend Simon was killed. The guilt that Ralph experiences as an outcome of his being part of Simon’s death is unbearable. This forces him to fully accept the fallen nature of mankind. Just like Simon before him, Ralph becomes armed with the truth, and he becomes the hunted animal, full of desperation and despair. The naval officer can only save Ralph from the savagery that surround him.
Lord of the Flies refers to the devil, as the novel progresses the children lose their sense of civility. They become dirty both on the outside and inside. While Jack’s followers revert to savagery, they look for symbols and praise the “Lord of the Flies” as a god. The pig’s head, which is used as an offering and impaled on a steak, is eventually devoured by flies and becomes a symbol. At the end Ralph picks up the steak and uses it as a spear and knocks the pig’s head down to the ground. Its a fight revolving around good versus
evil. One of the author’s messages to the reader is that in times of stress and survival you must rely on each other for your own common senses and civilities. There are many themes throughout this story but I personally think the main theme would be civilization versus savagery. Another main theme in the story is the loss of innocence within in the boys. The target for this story would be teenagers going through tough times, because in the book they had a rough time but ended up being saved.
Ralph and simon that the rest of the kids horesplay was a bad idea. In the novel Golding writes, “Shouting that he is the beast, the boys descend upon Simon and start to tear him apart with their bare hands and teeth. Simon tries desperately to explain what has happened and to remind them of who he is, but he trips and plunges over the rocks onto the beach. The boys fall on him and violently kill him” ( ). This just goes to show us that the other boys’ horseplay and beliefs lead to bad things. Ralph did not take part in this act because he knew what was wrong.
-Ralph thinks about his childhood, showing that he is still innocent and wants to go home, showing contrast between him and the hunters, who are more focused on killing pigs.
When the boys first arrived on the island, their behaviour was civilized and they attempted to convince themselves that they would soon be rescued by their parents. As the days passed, the boys began to open their eyes and realized that sitting around was not going to benefit them in any way, and most importantly it would not help them survive. Because of their new unrestricted life on the island, the boys become ruthless and replaced their previous identity.
Civilization vs savagery is an internal conflict the group of boys faces in Lord of the Flies. Ralph, Jack, and Simon are on their way back to the meeting spot after they have ruled that they are on an island. As they make their way through the jungle back to the meeting spot, they find a piglet caught in a tangle of vines. Jack draws his knife in an attempt to kill the piglet for meat. He is unsuccessful and cannot bring himself to do it. Ralph and Simon question him on why he hesitates to kill the pig. “They knew very well why he hadn't: because of the enormity of the knife descending and cutting into living flesh; because of the unbearable blood” (Golding #29). This quotation incorporates blood and savage-like imagery. The quotation also
Ralph, in some ways, parallels a school teacher. He always tries to do what is in the best interest of the community, but sometimes is over powered by the majority and gives in. In over words, he does his best to keep order and peace, but of course can’t all the time because of disagreements, stubbornness and rebellion.
Numerous times in the book, this was acquainted with the characteristic of savagery. After failing to kill his first pig, and soon experiencing the rush of trying to catch another, the thirst for it began to become exposed. " Rescue? Yes, of course! All the same, I'd like to catch a pig first-" He snatched up his spear and dashed it into the ground. The opaque, mad look came into his eyes again” (Golding 53). Highlighting the mad look in his from this quote, really draws the attention towards the evolving butal nature inside of him. Almost paying no mind to this at the time, Ralph and the other boys let is roll of their shoulders. “‘You wouldn't care to help with the shelters, I suppose?’ ‘We want meat - ’ ‘And we don't get it.’ Now the antagonism was audible. ‘But I shall! Next time! I've got to get a barb on this spear! We wounded a pig and the spear fell out.’” (51) Each time he goes out, the frustration of his neglect rises from others especially Ralph, and his inhumanity
He blows the conch and summons the deserted children together” (Li & Wu 1). While all the boys are interested mainly in playing and setting out to satisfy their own needs, Ralph is focused on building shelter and keeping a fire going to facilitate their rescue. As one can see, Ralph is “the representative of civilization and democracy, lives by rules, acts peacefully, and follows moral commands and values the good of the group, who dramatically reveals the condition of civilization and democracy in Golding’s time” (Li & Wu
Ralph was introduced as a fair and likeable boy. His interaction with Piggy demonstrated his kind nature as he did not call him names with hateful intentions as Jack had. His good looks allowed him to be well accepted among his peers, and this gave him enough confidence. His handsome features and the conch as a symbol of power and order made him stand out from the crowd of boys and led to his being proclaimed Chief: "There was a stillness about Ralph as he sat that marked him out: there was his size, and attractive appearance; and most obscurely, yet most powerful, there was the conch" (p. 24). From the quick decisions he made as Chief near the beginning of the novel, it could be seen that Ralph was well-organized. Gradually, Ralph became confused and began to lose realness in his thoughts and speeches: "Ralph was puzzled by the shutter that flickered in his brain. There was something he wanted to say; then the shutter had come down." (p. 156) He started to feel lost as the boys, with the exception of Piggy, began to change and adapt to their freedom.. He was more influenced by Piggy than by Jack.
This is the turning point for Ralph, not only as a person, but as a character in the book. Ralph goes from a somewhat flat character, to a round character, and with this transformation, he completes his dream, a dream which he had with him the whole time. Not only has he come to peace with himself and his accomplishments, he has come to peace with those around him, “Ralph watched the water fight with sadness in his heart, never guessing the scene would one day hearten him, as it did now.” (p296). Some may say that Ralph never achieved his dream. I say that he achieved his dream about half way through the book, he just didn’t realize all he had, and all he could lose until it was almost gone.
The title, Lord of the Flies, refers to the pig’s head that was placed on a spear and worshiped by the young boys on the island. In other words, the boys have chosen to believe in a fake deity, much like the people of Israel, who built golden calves to worship. And along with these fake gods comes along sacrifices, such as the head was for the beast as Jack stated, “This head is for the beast. It’s a gift” (137). Additionally, the lord of the flies is also known as Beelzebub, an Egyptian god that was linked with the 4th plague, as one of the ten plagues God sent over Egypt through Moses. To further suggest a biblical allusion, Beelzebub is deemed a demon within The Bible and is one of the many vividly described embodiments of evil within the book: “At least Simon gave up and looked back; saw the white teeth and dim eyes, the blood – and his gaze was held by that ancient, inescapable recognition” (138). Golding effectively uses the lord of the flies as a biblical allusion because he is able to exploit the underlying tone of subtle evil that begins to surface within the boys, through their worship of a disgusting thing. However, the allusion loses its power if the readers were unacquainted with The...
Accepting responsibility that an individual has, is a key factor that plays an important role in the maturing of a person. This key factor has the potential to make horrors which have been experienced, to be When the boys who are stranded on the island in William Golding’s allegorical novel, Lord of the Flies, are aware of the situation that they are in, they emulate society from back home by electing a leader: Ralph. Civilization can be defined as the state of human social development and organization that is considered most progressed. Civilization is the human knowledge and reason, over the animalistic savage instincts. The key parts of this definition are what Ralph displays: human and progress. Ralph accepts responsibility and does not
Ralph’s power at the beginning is secure but as the group succumbs to their savage instincts, Ralph’s influence declines as Jack’s rises. This is due mainly to the cruelty and violence that goes on in the story. This cruelty reveals that Ralph’s commitment to civilization and being rescued is so strong that he will not allow himself to change his morals and become cruel like the others. The cruelty in this novel also shows that Ralph is a very intelligent character. His intelligence can be proven because there was a point in the novel when he hunts a boar for the first time and he experiences the thrill of bloodlust. He also attends one of Jack’s feast where he is swept away by the frenzy and participates in the killing of Simon. This is a very tragic moment for Ralph because this is when he realizes the evil that lives within himself and every human being. It is the cruel acts that happen in this novel that reveals Ralph’s character of being intelligent and being able to think deeply about human experiences. He even weeps when getting saved because of his knowledge about the human capacity for
However, at the end of the book, he simply stood for a common human being. In the beginning of the story, before a formal introduction, Ralph was described simply as “a fair boy.” This already sets him out in a favorable light. Then it further describes how he is apparently good-looking and has the natural air of leadership. Of course, the conch played a big role when the kids voted him for leader, but his appearance played a large role as well. For the good first part of the book, Ralph has always symbolized leadership. As the story progresses and the kids became more and more distant from the idea of civilization, Ralph became more like a representation of common sense. Golding wrote, “‘I was chief, and you were going to do what I said. You talk. But you can’t even build huts-then you go off hunting and let the fire-’ He turned away, silent for a moment. Then his voice came again on a peak of feeling. ‘There was a ship-’” At this part, Ralph criticized Jack for not doing the necessary civilized things in favor of quenching his thirst for a hunt. As more and more of the kids become more and more uncivilized, Ralph became one of the last voices of common sense. When Simon and Piggy died, Ralph was the last one who retained that common sense and yearned for civilization. He had no leadership powers left anymore, and he stood for nothing more than a
One of the most important and most obvious symbols in Lord of the Flies is the object that gives the novel its name, the pig's head. Golding's description of the slaughtered animal's head on a spear is very graphic and even frightening. The pig's head is depicted as "dim-eyed, grinning faintly, blood blackening between the teeth," and the "obscene thing" is covered with a "black blob of flies" that "tickled under his nostrils" (William Golding, Lord of the Flies, New York, Putnam Publishing Group, 1954, p. 137, 138). As a result of this detailed, striking image, the reader becomes aware of the great evil and darkness represented by the Lord of the Flies, and when Simon begins to converse with the seemingly inanimate, devil-like object, the source of that wickedness is revealed. Even though the conversation may be entirely a hallucination, Simon learns that the beast, which has long since frightened the other boys on the island, is not an external force. In fact, the head of the slain pig tells him, "Fancy thinking the beast was something you could hunt and kill! Ö You knew, didn't you? I'm part of you?" (p. 143). That is to say, the evil, epitomized by the pig's head, that is causing the boys' island society to decline is that which is inherently present within man. At the end of this scene, the immense evil represented by this powerful symbol can once again be seen as Simon faints after looking into the wide mouth of the pig and seeing "blackness within, a blackness that spread" (p. 144).
The first indication of his surrender is seen within a statement condemning the boys’ work ethic. “They’re hopeless…the[y] work for five minutes, then wander off or go hunting” (X). Ralph states that “they”, his followers, are “hopeless”, or beyond reach, and thus are not worth the effort it would take to convince them. His commentary, however, fails to view their potential—quickly deeming them unfixable or “hopeless” despite their successes in both hunting and building (X,X). The boys are, in that moment, given up on and abandoned by the one person who should have stayed with them the longest. It is due to this neglect and disbelief that Ralph’s tribe leaves for the “meat” and “fun” of Jack’s. Throughout the process, Ralph’s desertion is once again shown through his absolute acceptance of the boys’ departure—only “watch[ing]”, rather than intervening, as they left (X). This shows that in giving up on his tribe, Ralph leads them to feeling neglectful and, eventually, to a new