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Lord of the flies character theory essay
Compare and contrast lord of the flies
Use of symbolism in lord of the flies
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Composers use language to get responders emotionally involved. To make the characters be more than a “name on a page”. William Golding uses language effectively to capture the emotional, physical, and spiritual connection between the antagonist Jack and the responder in the narrative Lord Of The Flies. Throughout the novel the audience watches Jack’s personality and mindset change from private English schoolboy to savage like. This can be seen when Jack and the boys… “ The three boys rushed forward and Jack drew his knife again with a flourish. He raised his arm in the air. There came a pause, a hiatus, the pig continued to scream and the creepers to jerk and the blade to continue to flash at the end of a bony arm. The pause was only long enough for them to understand what an enormity the downward stroke would be.” Golding uses imagery to show the emotional innocence still left in Jack at the start of the narrative. This displays the private school boy mentality. Jack hesitates about the downward stroke as he has civility within him …show more content…
“Jack held up the head and jammed the soft throat down on the pointed end of the stick which pierced through into the mouth. He stood back and the head had a bit of blood dribbling down the stick” (…) “ Jack spoke loudly “ this head is for the beast, it’s a gift”. Golding uses symbolism to establish the allegory like spiritual theme in the novel towards Jack. Golding has purposefully directed Jack to put the pig’s heads on the stick and offer it to the beast as Jack represents evil. The pig’s head has its own biblical background, which is that the head represents Beelzebub, who is the devil. Golding has effectively manipulated this to create a scene where Jack who represents evil creates the devil, hell and evil on the island. Golding conveys the bond between the responder and Jack through the evil within
The chapter reveals that Golding feels that humans enjoy, or are at least fascinated with controlling things. This is first shown when Henry was sitting at the beach and "tried to control the motions of the scavengers", with a stick. "He became absorbed beyond mere happiness as he felt himself exercising control over living things," here, instead of looking after nature and taking responsibility for things as you would do in a society, all he is doing is trying to control them. This is shown again when Jack brings back a pig, "Look! We've killed a pig, we stole up on them, we got in a circle," they enjoyed frightening the pig and controlling its movements by limiting it in a circle. When angered by Piggy and his own hunters, Jack is driven to violence, "He took a step, and able at last to hit someone, stuck his fist into Piggy's stomach. Jack smacked Piggy's head. Piggy's ...
In the novel The Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the author, by way of vivid imagery and a tense mood, places the timing of the death of one significant character, Simon, at a pivotal point in the novel in order to display his opinion on the natural state of man. Closer to the end of the novel, Golding creates a dramatic atmosphere through the use of weather, just before Simon passes. Using vivid imagery, the sky is described as having “great bulging towers [of clouds] that sprouted away over the island . . . The clouds were sitting on the land; they squeezed [out] tormenting heat” (151). At this point,
When viewing the atrocities of today's world on television, the starving children, the wars, the injustices, one cannot help but think that evil is rampant in this day and age. However, people in society must be aware that evil is not an external force embodied in a society but resides within each person. Man has both good qualities and faults. He must come to control these faults in order to be a good person. In the novel Lord of the Flies, William Golding deals with this same evil which exists in all of his characters. With his mastery of such literary tools as structure, syntax, diction and imagery, The author creates a cheerless, sardonic tone to convey his own views of the nature of man and man’s role within society.
This is symbolised through the fire that the boys light as the fire represents the boys’ connection to civilisation seeing as the fire gets dimmer their will to get back to civilisation decreases and their true instincts come out the more they are exposed to nature. "Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!" The repetition of this quote many times demonstrates the primal and evil diction that Golding utilizes through each character's speech. aggressive verbal expression conveys the harshness of their wicked and blood thirsty intent. Additionally, the diction of the boys is immature and unsophisticated which aids in portraying and reinforcing the youthfulness of the characters. The pig's head on a stick is also symbolism for the metaphorical Lord of the Flies, which is ultimately the demon found to be within each of the boy's hearts and minds. This can be interpreted as the inner voice of evil. "You knew, didn't you? I'm part of you? Close, close, close! I'm the reason why it's no go? Why things are what they are?" This certifies that the beast is indeed within Simon as well as all of the boys. In truth, when the Lord of the Flies is talking to Simon, it is really Simon hallucinating as he hears the voices of the boys as a whole in his own
Golding shows the drastic change in the boys’ behavior using symbolic dialogue and characters’ actions. At
William Golding’s novel ‘The Lord of The Flies’ tells the story of a group of English boys isolated on a desert island, left to attempt to retain civilisation. In the novel, Golding shows one of the boys, Jack, to change significantly. At the beginning of the book, Jack’s character desires power and although he does not immediately get it, he retains the values of civilized behaviour. However, as the story proceeds, his character becomes more savage, leaving behind the values of society. Jack uses fear of the beast to control the other boys and he changes to become the book’s representation of savagery, violence and domination. He is first taken over with an obsession to hunt, which leads to a change in his physical appearance This change of character is significant as he leads the other boys into savagery, representing Golding’s views of there being a bad and unforgiving nature to every human.
On the other hand, Golding tries to show the evil within man through Jack. Jack is a character in which he almost symbolizes cruel political leaders, such as Castro, Hussein, Hitler, etc. He is the leader of the hunters, the first time they find a pig, Jack stops, and couldn't kill the pig. That revealed how Jack was civilized, yet later on he would kill the pig without hesitation. "'We've got to have rules and obey them. After all, we're not savages. We're English, and the English are best at everything.
Incredibly, throughout the entirety of the book, Golding uses irony to compare the boy’s on the island to the adults at war in the outside world. Jack arrived on the island with a sense of superiority saying that “after all, we're not savages. We're English; and the English are best at everything. So we've got to do the right things (The lord of the Flies pg. 42).” Then Jack turns right around and his first step toward a savage lifestyle was painting up his face with mud and dirt to put on a mask before he goes hunting. At the end of the book Jack is so far gone that he hunts another boy. He plans on placing Ralph’s head on a stick in order to get a message across- you’re either with me or against me. Jack is the same one who goes to steal
The portrayal of the pig demonstrates his rationality of being a chaotic savage. He tends to cover up his actions with reasoning that only deems to be true through the eyes of insanity. “He rubbed the charcoal stick between the patches of red and white on his face [...] A rounded patch of sunlight fell on his face and a brightness appeared in the depths of the water. He looked in astonishment, no longer at himself but at an awesome stranger. He split the water and leapt to his feet, laughing excitedly.”(Golding 63). There is no room for civilization on the island, and Jack takes advantage of this opportunity. Jack, compels himself to distance himself from social normalities through the exterior of the world. The paint on Jack’s face represents his cover up to society and to make himself believe that he is doing the right thing. Consequently speaking, Jack desperately desires confirmation of his actions from one of his peers. However, none of his peers condone of these certain actions, so, he relies on the tangible aspects of life to give him a sense of comfortability. “All that makes sense to him is his own need to control others and impose himself, and hunting, because it is a kind of power assertion” (Lord of the Flies, Bloom’s Modern Critical Interpretations). On the island, Jack’s role is the leader of the hunting party. Although, this seems
All once they were running away, as fast as they could, through the forest toward the open beach”(137). In this scene, Golding uses symbolism which is the pig’s head on a stick representing their acceptance of evil. As the scene goes on, it describes the hunters giving themselves over to cruelty, savagery and the power of the id. A lot of people have given into the power of the id, just like Jack and the other hunters did in these two scenes. Golding, here, is trying to describe how the id
Golding was such an excellent writer because even though his plot was incredibly simple it makes us think about the true meaning behind his words. Golding is able to convey vast information in simple ways through characterization such as when we see Jack manipulating the boys through pathos, Ralph establishing himself and relying on his ethos, and Piggy ineffectively attempting to use logos. The devote use of symbolism throughout the novel creates a unique writing style and conveys an elegant tone. When the novel is examined for rhetoric, knowledge of ethos, logos, and pathos is gained because of Golding’s ability to deliver a message through visual imagery, vivid character descriptions and the underlying messages in his
The rumors of its existence scare the smaller children, but also become the catalyst for Jack and his group to indulge their savageness, due to their desire to hunt it down and kill it. The boys are driven to madness because of it. This “beastie” is the titular Lord of the Flies, or Beelzebub, who in the New Testament is identified as the Devil – a symbol of evil. When one of the characters, Simon, stumbles across the beastie it is revealed that it is a pig’s head on a stick. The pig was brutally stabbed by Jack and his hunters in a frenzy, as the pig squealed in pain. This act of savagery solidifies the loss of innocence and the embracement of evil. Simon hallucinates the head talking to him. “You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you? Close, close, close! I’m the reason why it’s no go? Why things are what they are?” (Golding 158) The Lord of the Flies suggests that his presence is the reason for the boys’ descent into savagery and madness, beginning with the children’s fear of the beast’s existence, followed by Jack’s brutality when killing the pig as well as his transformation into a savage, finally culminating in the frenzied murder of Simon at the hands of the children who mistake him for the beast. While they are beating Simon to death they are also chanting "Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!" (Golding 168) and dancing around him, similarly to a tribe of savages. The killing of a fellow human being is the biggest sign that evil has enveloped the hearts of the
In the beginning pigs were hunted to provide meat and substance, but there would be a shift where the boys would kill pigs not out of necessity but out of pleasure.The deaths of pigs by the hunters showed a sadistic side to the boys who realized how much power they had in the ability to take the life away from a creature. They also put a lot of trust into Jack, who acted as a provider and an authority figure who would keep them safe from the supposed “beast”. William Golding was very particular with the names of the boys because Jack's name in Hebrew means both supplanter and provider, someone who overthrows power and provides. This was very fitting because Jack takes the position of head hunter and provides meat for the boys but he also overthrows Ralph and creates his own tribe. One particular scene where “Apart from the rest, sunk in a deep maternal bliss, lay the largest sow of the lot. She was black and pink; and the great bladder of her belly was fringed with rows of piglets... The boys shouted and rushed forward; the piglets scattered and the sow burst through into the forest.” (134) Later in that same scene the boys would murder the sow and sodomize her which not only represents a sadistic side but show the cruelty the boys had towards a mother figure because now the piglets are alone on the island having to fend for themselves just as the boys on the island are with no authority figure to look over them. This is a big shift from the start of the novel where Jack wasnt able to kill a baby pig and to justify not doing it he claimed “ I was choosing a place. Next time-!. He snatched the knife out of the sheath and slammed it into a tree trunk. Next time there would be no mercy” (31) Howvere, once Jack finally was able to kill a pig the idea of being able to take the life of a living organism and impose your autrohity over it would drive him and the others to
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).
Jack begins the novel partially innocent, cruel enough to yell at the boys yet pure enough to hesitate when faced with the task of killing the pig. Jack obtains the tools necessary to kill the pig, yet claims to need help cornering the animal. Jack, not truly needing help to kill the pig but rather needing the support provided by the mob mentality, acquires the support of his choir and together the boys hunt and kill the pig, all the while chanting, “Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Spill her blood”...