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Themes in Lord of the Flies free essay
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The story, “The Lord of the Flies”, by William Golding, takes place on a deserted island where a group of boys is stranded. The book is an allegory that shows the precarious relationship that humans experience between their civilised and savage selves. The boys start out wanting to be civilized and make rules and even elect a chief of their group. They create a symbol from a conch shell that represents freedom of speech and the ability to be heard by everyone without interruption. Ralph found the shell in a lagoon under the water, the fact that he found it and retrieved it as well along with his good looks and physical strength, help him get elected as leader. For the first couple days on the island, the boys listen to the rules and the conch, …show more content…
His rebellious actions rub off on many of the other boys and cause them to stop listening to the rules. When it comes to the point where Jack completely leaves the group, he already has the favour of his band of hunters as well as some of the other boys. The savagery of Jack gets worse and worse. He even goes as far as to kill a boy. Forsaken by all the boys, Ralph was forced to live alone with Piggy and the twins because he does not want to be a part of the band of savages. There came a time where Jack and his savages need fire from Ralph and the only way to make fire on the island was to use Piggy's glasses. Clearly, the savage side of Jack and the other boys has overtaken the civilized side. The boys start out as civilized people and, after a time on the island, most of them turn savage and did some very horrible things that they will most likely regret later on in life. According to the author, the human instinct to become savage is overpowering and the civilized nature of most humans is no match for the wilderness of a deserted island without the confines of rules and authority. After the first chapter I thought I would enjoy the entire book as I enjoyed the introduction to island life. After a few more chapters I started to not enjoy it as much as the savagery started to unfold. I found it interesting how Golding presents his ideas and the unraveling of civilization that
him constantly and the other boys make fun of him. Jack and his followers spend
Lord of the Flies is an intriguing novel about a group of English boys who are stranded on a remote island during World War II after their plane was shot down. The schoolboys quickly use the resources they find and create a temporary form of order. As they continue to stay on the island, their proper English ways quickly turn into savage like instincts. In William Golding’s, Lord of the Flies, Golding uses the conch, the Beast, leadership, murder, and fire to show that without rules there is chaos.
Once this happened Piggy started to care less and less about the boys and more about his own safety and getting himself off the island with or without the boys. Jack had taken Piggy’s glasses to start his own fire and Piggy was very upset and he took Ralph and the twins over to Jack’s tribe and demanded his glasses back, but Ralph got a little sidetracked so Piggy brought him back. “‘Ralph remember what we came for. The fire. My specs’”(177)
When Ralph sees the naval officer that appears on the island to save them, he realizes that he will return to civilization. The shock causes him to reflect on what has happened. The rescue does not produce joy; instead he feels despair at what he has been through. He is awakened to the reality that he will never be the same. He has lost his innocence and learned about the evil that lurks within himself and all men through his experiences on the island. Ralph’s revelation to his loss of innocence and societal order among the boys is exemplified through the collapse of the attempted Democratic government, the killing of the pig, and the death of Piggy and Simon.
Jack, on the other hand, is doing nothing but causing chaos. Jack fails to realize that the boys need security, stability, and order on the island. Jack was a leader of the choir before the boys landed on the island. These boys, who were in the choir, still want to follow Jack; however, they have no discipline at all. The only thing that is on Jack’s mind is hunting.
For all their differences the Lord of the Flies and Simon have one singular trait in common; they both know what the pig’s head really means for the boys on the island. At first glance, the Lord of the Flies is just a pig’s head on a stick, however it is so much more than that. The moment Jack and his hunter’s kill that pig, a part of them is lost forever and this lost part is their moral sense of right and wrong (149).
Have you ever thought about six to thirteen year olds ever acting like savages and turning into a serial killer? After reading Lord of the Flies, this is exactly what happened. Ralph, Piggy, Jack and other kids cash land on a gorgeous island with leaving no trace for the world to find them. Ralph tries to be organized and logical, but in the other hand, Jack is only interested in satisfying his pleasures. Just like in the short story, The Tortoise And The Hare, Lord of the Flies, stands for something. This novel is a psychological allegory, the island, as the mind, Ralph, the leader, as the ego, Jack, the hunter, as the id, and Piggy, an annoying little boy, as the super ego. As we read Lord Of
It could be said that tragedies serve as Humanity’s catalysts of thought. When we line up literary eras with wars, the shifts in eras are always marked by some war- especially in America. The Romantic period was broken by the dawn of the civil war, and took a little magic from the world of writing. Writing shifted to realism, which was the polar opposite of romantic thought. When the First World War broke out, the modernist movement overshadowed realism. Similarly, the Second World War produced postmodernism. Should there be another horrible tragedy, the view will shift similarly. Whatever the implications may be, tragedies seem to change how us humans think and act. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, he tells the story of a group of schoolboys
Lord of the Flies, written by William Golding, is a novel about British schoolboys, who survived on an island after the plane crash. This novel is an allegory: It is a literary work in which each character, event, or object is symbolic outside of the novel. It is allegorical in the level of society in terms of three major symbols. The conch symbolizes civilization, and helps to possess an organized law and order. Next, Jack, as the main antagonist in the novel, represents a savage in the society. Furthermore, the fire signifies the return of civilization and conflicts within the society. Thus, Lord of the Flies is an allegory for society since it represents good governance, humanity’s innate cruelty, and struggles to the return of its civilization.
In the novel, Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, a group of British schoolboys are stranded on an island, and soon find that fending for themselves and staying civilized is not as easy as they thought it would be. Although they start off with an organized society, through interactions with each other and objects around them, they become completely savage over time. Golding employs the symbolism of Jack, the conch shell, and the beast to serve the purpose of the allegory of the inherent evil of the human race.
Imagine a group of young boys who have just crash-landed on a deserted tropical island with no adults or supervision. William Golding showed in his ground breaking novel Lord of the Flies, what may happen in just those circumstances. In his very complicated and diverse novel Golding brings out many ideas and uses many literary devices. Above all others though comes symbolism of three main important objects being the conch, fire, and "Piggy's" eyeglasses. Through each of these three symbols Golding shows how the boys adapt and change throughout the novel. These symbols also help to show each of the boy's ideals on a variety of elements from human nature to society and its controls. All three of these symbols also change and are one of the most important elements of the story.
One of the most important themes running through the whole story in Lord of the Flies by William Golding is the power of different symbols. Golding frequently uses symbolism, which is the practice of using symbols especially by investing things with a symbolic meaning. The main point of each symbol is its use and its effect on each of the characters. They help shape who the characters are and what they will be. The symbols weave their way throughout the story and are more powerful than they first seem. Two boys from similar upbringings can both be so drastically different when put in difficult situations and given things to make them wield power among others. Spitz says, “But his desire for many controls did not, of course, extend to controls
In his novel, The Lord of the Flies, William Golding uses symbolism to illustrate the theme that darkness of the heart is a trait within all of us- some people fight against it while others allow it to take over.
Symbolism is defined as the representation; treatment or interpretation of things as symbolic. In society and in particular, literature, symbolism is a prominent component that helps to illustrate a deeper meaning then perceived by the reader. Symbolism can be anything, a person, place or thing, used to portray something beyond itself. It is used to represent or foreshadow the conclusion of the story. In William Golding’s, Lord of the Flies symbolism of the main characters Ralph, Jack and Simon plays a very important role in helping to show how our society functions and the different types of personalities that exist. An examination of Simon as a symbol of good, Ralph as a symbol of the common man, and Jack as a symbol of evil, clearly illustrates that William Golding uses characters as a symbol of what is really happening in the outside world throughout the novel.
In the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, symbolism and allegories were used to show how the children who are stranded on an island have a huge struggle with civilization and savagery. Ralph, Piggy, Jack, and Simon are the ones in the novel that struggle with this the most.