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English 9 literary analysis essay lord of the flies
English 9 literary analysis essay lord of the flies
What is nature vs nurture
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Imagine being a child stranded on an island. There are no adults around to give rules or tell you what to do. You could play all day, sleep all night and do whatever you want. In the novel.“Lord of the Flies”, by William Golding, a group of young boys become stranded on an island after a plane crash. They must face problems that exist in the wilderness. The boys must find water, food, and shelter to survive. They also face different weather conditions. With no adults to help, the boys will have to gather their own food. The boys must adapt since the boys are used to being served their food. Jack and his choir have chosen to be the hunters. According to page 19 of Lord of the Flies “Jack’s in charge of the choir. They can be - what do you want the to be?”, “Hunters”. The wild pigs become an element of conflict as the boys initially try to kill them for food. Later on in the book, Jack shows the most desire for hunting and he drives the other children to go to a primitive savageness. On page 91, Jack says, “Bollocks to the rules! Were strong-we hunt! If there’s a beast we’ll hunt it down! We’ll close in and beat and beat!” The pigs become the main focus for Jack and the hunter’s descent into savagery with the head of one pig becoming the symbolic representation Beelzebub and …show more content…
the evil that is inherent in the heart of man. Simon finds beauty and peace in the natural environment as exemplified by his initial retreat to the isolated forest glade.
Nature is not man's enemy but is part of the human experience for Simon. At the beginning apart of the choir that is lead by jack and soon breaks off as he does not agree with jack being being the leader on the new leader of the boys, they suspect they would fear for the worst if he was to lead. Simon ends up in a favor of Ralph being the leader of the boys. Additionally, on page 51,Simon refuses to hunt with Jack and his hunters. He says to Ralph, “You're chief. You tell ‘em off.” This example shows Simon’s departure from Jack’s side and the transfer to Ralph’s
side. On the other hand, Ralph doesn’t find beauty and peace in the natural world like Simon does. While Jack responds to this perceived conflict by acting destructively towards animals and plant life, Ralph responds by retreating from the natural world. He does not participate in hunting like Jack or in Simon’s exursions to the deep wilderness of the forest. However, he sits on the beach. Jack’s Huunting shows violent nature to the other boys and to the reader, Ralph's desire to stay separate from the natural world emphasizes both his reluctance to tempt danger and his affinity for civilization.
The boys on the island in Lord of The Flies lost all hope,
Each faction of children in the book; “Lord of the flies” held a significant meaning. Jack and his hunters represented the Nazi’s or a more current group, Donald Trump supporters because they are people who unfortunately fail to think before
Golding's Lord of the Flies is highly demonstrative of Golding's opinion that society is a thin and fragile veil that when removed shows man for what he truly is, a savage animal. Perhaps the best demonstration of this given by Golding is Jack's progression to the killing of the sow. Upon first landing on the island Jack, Ralph, and Simon go to survey their new home. Along the way the boys have their first encounter with the island's pigs. They see a piglet caught in some of the plants. Quickly Jack draws his knife so as to kill the piglet. Instead of completing the act, however, Jack hesitates. Golding states that, "The pause was only long enough for them to realize the enormity of what the downward stroke would be." Golding is suggesting that the societal taboos placed on killing are still ingrained within Jack. The next significant encounter in Jack's progression is his first killing of a pig. There is a description of a great celebration. The boys chant "Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Spill her blood." It is clear from Golding's description of the revelry that followed the killing that the act of the hunt provided the boys with more than food. The action of killing another living thing gives them pleasure. The last stage in Jack's metamorphosis is demonstrated by the murder of the sow. Golding describes the killing almost as a rape. He says, "Jack was on...
The early pig hunt “has been relatively innocent,” (Johnston 12-13) yet to reveal the deeper meanings. Johnston suggests that the existence of pigs leads the boys into hunting in order to satisfy hunger. On the other hand, it highlights and reveals the true danger that lies inside each individual, and to Jack, this loss of innocence only pulls him into evilness more profoundly. Soon after his second attempt in hunting, which turns out to be a success, chantings of "Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Spill her blood." (Golding 96) become popular among the boys. Since the idea of hunting pigs and eating meat appear attractive to the boys, they begin to admire Jack's new skill as suppose to judging for his aggressive behaviors. Merridew, however, fails to recognize that his actions come at the cost of an emerging savagery-like affiliation. At the same time, his original identity as a choirboy with “voices [like]... the song of angels” (Golding 191) slowly subsides from his character. Compared to hunting, the angelic voice does not increase the chances of survival, thus its significance becomes subordinate to that of hunting. From the first encounter with the pig to the complete loss of innocence, adult figures are also responsible for his unsubtle
While they agree that the beast is not a traditional monster, it is Simon’s philosophical understanding that allows him to fully realize the meaning of the beast. At the assembly, Ralph plans to discuss the beast, hoping to bring the fear to an end. Simon suggests that the boys themselves are the beast. Later, when Simon encounters the “Lord of the Flies” in a hallucination, the reader learns the extent of his understanding. The Lord of the Flies mocks Simon by saying, “Fancy you thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill...You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you?”(128). Simon realizes that there is something within humans that can cause them to act savagely. However, at the assembly, in an effort to understand what Simon meant about the beast, the boys suggest that the beast could be a ghost. Piggy firmly rejects this idea because he approaches the beast in the same way he handles most situations: logically and scientifically. As Piggy states, “Life… is scientific, that’s what it is…. I know there isn’t no beast- not with claws and all that, I mean- but I know there isn’t no fear either… unless we get afraid of people” (72). Piggy understands fear can have detrimental effects, but he does not yet understand that fear is within every person, and this is the “beast” that can cause people to act without
Jack is a boy who was one of the biguns found in lord of the flies. He stays in competition with ralph for leadership over the boys. In the beginning, Jack is shot down as leader when Ralph is voted upon by a group vote consisting of all the boys. His main job was a hunter that was assigned by ralph. When jack goes hunting he spot’s a pig. He catches up to it and almost kills i...
Golding teaches the reader that when dictatorial authority is created, the fear of going against it is much stronger than the need to speak one’s mind. The children, being starving, begin to kill pigs as a group; the hunting scenes in the novel are quite brutal and create fear for the reader and hunters alike. During a moment where a group of children are searching for a wild pig in the forest, the hunters begin gathering around character Roger. A few begin to poke fun at him, and the rest follow their lead; they drive their spears at his direction and chant “Kill the pig! Cut his throat!” (Golding 114), which of course scares many of the hunters and Roger. They are no longer consciously making decisions; their personalities have been altered by their fear and impulse to follow the leader. What must be months into their life on the island, they have learned to make fires and where to camp; tensions have risen between two sides of the surviving boys, and their fears of dying become all too intense. When a storm is upon the group and they are all uneasy, Jack instructs the boys to “Do our dance! Come on! Dance!” (Golding 151), and because they fear the consequences, they did as he commanded. In simple words, The Lord of the Flies is teaching us that when there is a leader and a mob to follow,
Lord of the Flies by William Golding is about a group of British boys who get plane-wrecked on a deserted island. The boys cooperate, gather fruit, make shelters, and maintain a signal fire. When they get there they are civil schoolboys but soon show that being away from society and the real world it brings out their true nature and they break apart and turn into savages.
Throughout the story, the fear the boys have of the beast becomes incredibly strong. This ends up driving the boys apart, as seen when Jack organizes a feast for the boys to try to get people to join his tribe, separate from Ralph: “‘I gave you food,’ said Jack, ‘and my hunters will protect you from the beast. Who will join my tribe?’”(172). Everyone is afraid of the beast at this point, and Jack uses this fear to urge people to join his group of hunters. The fear of the beast in turn because a driving factor of the group tearing apart, leaving Ralph against angry savages by the end of the book. The beast therefore is a cause of the boy’s opening up to their inner savagery. The reason for this is explained when Jack gives the beast a physical being when he puts the head of one of the pigs he killed, and Simon, in an hallucination, hears it speak: “Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill!...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?”(164). The pig’s head, or the Lord of the Flies, is a physical manifestation of the beast in Simon’s hallucination, and it explicitly states it is part of Simon. In other words, the beast is representative of the savagery and evil within humans, not a monster roaming the island. The only fear the boys have had is fear of what is within: their inherent evil. This idea is perpetuated when all the boys go to Jack’s tribe’s feast, and end up doing a pig dance, when an unsuspecting Simon comes stumbling into the area the boys are doing their dance in: “‘Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood! Do him in!’...The beast was on its knees in the center, its arms folded over its face… At once the crowd surged after it, poured down
In the novel The Lord of the flies, William Golding illustrates the decline from innocence to savagery through a group of young boys. In the early chapters of The Lord of the Flies, the boys strive to maintain order. Throughout the book however, the organized civilization Ralph, Piggy, and Simon work diligently towards rapidly crumbles into pure, unadulterated, savagery. The book emphasized the idea that all humans have the potential for savagery, even the seemingly pure children of the book. The decline of all civilized behavior in these boys represents how easily all order can dissolve into chaos. The book’s antagonist, Jack, is the epitome of the evil present in us all. Conversely, the book’s protagonist, Ralph, and his only true ally, Piggy, both struggle to stifle their inner
. Everything is done one purpose. Lord of the Flies is set during the time of the second world war where one in ten people that were killed was a child. Over 2 million children were taken away from their homes and were sent to live with strangers, surviving on rations and being taught how to use gas mask. Safety procedures to prepare for the worst. Because British land was being attacked by German bombs children were being rushed out and sent off to without a clue where they were going or whether or not they were going to be separated from their siblings. Some children weren 't even able to evacuate because of the financial issues of their parents. “The prosperity of the one is the prosperity of the other. It is all a lie, man serves the instinct of no creature except himself”(Orwell 57). “I noticed a woman looking at the evacuees ' hair and opening their mouths, but one of the helpers said, “They might come from the east End, but they 're children not animals” (R Baker, evacuee from
the story of a group of boys stranded on a deserted island to examine a multitude of
Inside all of man is inherited evil that is concealed by our surroundings, and the society around us. Lord of the Flies reveals that without a structure, man is an evil savage beast. The young group of boys show that humankind is inherently evil through aggressive control and power. When the boys are put to do their duties, Jack starts become more demanding and belligerent towards his group of choirboys. When Jack tells Ralph, “I’ll split up the choir-my hunters that it, “ (Golding 42). Jack tries to show his suppirouness over the choirboys and how they are becoming more and more like savages. Jack then begins show his need for control and power by breaking the rules and doing his own thing, for example he says, “ Bollocks to the rules! Were strong- we hunt! If there’s a beast , we’ll hunt it down! We’ll close in and beat and beat and b...
When the children become stranded on the island, the rules of society no longer apply to them. Without the supervision of their parents or of the law, the primitive nature of the boys surfaces, and their lives begin to fall apart. The downfall starts with their refusal to gather things for survival. The initial reaction of the boys is to swim, run, jump, and play. They do not wish to build shelters, gather food, or keep a signal fire going. Consequently, the boys live without luxury that could have been obtained had they maintained a society on the island. Instead, these young boys take advantage of their freedom and life as they knew it deteriorates.
For the first few chapters of Lord of the Flies, Jack is attracted to hunting on the island for the benefit of all the boys,”’All the same you need an army for hunting pigs-’”(32). Jack tells the reader through this line that hunting can bring one of the necessities needed for all the boys to survive, which would be food. During this early meeting discussing how the boys will survive, Jack wants to help showing early on how he is an ally to the whole group of boys and is one of the most productive out of the group by his hunting ideals. This helpful hunting doesn’t last for long though, as Jack starts to change his intention for his hunting. Later on in the book Jack shows his intention for hunting to be more savage and for the thrill of the hunt rather than survival,”She [the pig] blundered into a tree, forcing a spear still deeper; and after that, any of the hunters could follow her easily by the drops of vivid blood” (135). This vivid image shows Jack’s idea of survival to be brutal and savage rather than humane like the other leader of the island, Ralph. Soon enough this thrill of the hunt becomes addicting and his idea is to eliminate everyone who is not on his side, like Ralph; this becomes a game as Jack and his wild group try to kill Ralph and chase him towards the end of the island. This hunting game Jack created shows his ideas on survival and how the more savage you are the better you are off; this savage idea is the complete opposite of Ralph's, which focuses on being humane and trying to create a civilized