Lord of the Flies Essay As humans, we are susceptible to being controlled and manipulated by others. Especially if you're a child in a desperate situation, like the boys on the island in the book, “Lord of the Flies” where a plane crashes, stranding several young boys on an island. This book explores how people can control others for their own personal gain, and how an urgent situation can show your true colors. But what caused the island to go into chaos? Fear and humanity caused the downfall of the island. Now, some might say that the true reason for the downfall of the island was simply because of Jack. Many think this because he was always the one causing problems, for example when he argued with Ralph and Piggy, “Bollocks to the rules! …show more content…
How could we-kill-it?” This shows that Jack is aware of what he is doing, and to prevent any future questioning of his leadership he immortalizes the fear, by suggesting that the beast is essentially unkillable. The boy’s of the Jack tribe even fear the monster enough to take time out of their day to fortify “the castle.” This is detrimental to them as they could be using this very valuable time to make shelter, organize and make the fire bigger. The boys also fear starvation, which is why they spend so much time hunting. They spend far too much time hunting, just like they spend too much time protecting themselves from the “beast.” If not for their excessive hunting, I'm sure that they would have no trouble making a solid signal fire and getting off the island without much problem. Humanity is one’s true nature, its biggest flaws and insecurities, and it’s because of this that it contributed to the downfall of the island. Humanity reminds us that we are human, it’s essential to keeping us all down to earth. Some characters show their true selves in this peculiar situation. For example, Piggy reveals that he is insecure about his weight a multitude of
The Lord of the Flies is a gruesome story about young boys stranded on an island, who underwent a transformation from polite British choir boys to savage hooligans. One of the main difficulties the boys face during their adventures upon the island, is their method of government, they either follow the path of Ralph, the democratic leader whose main focus is to escape the despairing island; or Jack a power-hungry monarchical leader who won't ever take no for an answer. The two boys are constantly bickering and arguing over who deserves the leader-position. We all understand Ralph wants to be leader so that he can ensure that the boys will return back home, but in Jack's case, it is a constant mystery to us about why he wants power over the other children. But we do get much small hints from the author, William Golding, that Jack's biggest fear among the other children on the island is public humiliation. This becomes more and more evident the farther on into the book, and his fear seems to be what persuades him to reach for a powerful position.
Writer Steven James said, “The true nature of man left to himself without restraint is not nobility but savagery.” This quote can be used to accurately describe Jack Merridew, one of the young boys who becomes stranded on an unknown island in the Pacific. Lord of the Flies was written by William Golding; the novel explores the dark side of humanity and the underlying savagery in even the most civilized person. The novel opens on a group of British boys between ages six and twelve stranded on a tropical island without adult supervision. The boys elect a leader in an attempt to form a civilized society; however, their peaceful island descends into chaos as Ralph and Jack continuously argue over who should be the leader of the island. From the beginning of the novel, Jack is seen as power hungry, envious, and manipulative to further his own agenda, the anti-thesis to Ralph’s concern with social order and their future.
After being marooned on an unknown, uninhabited island and desperate to survive, the characters in William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies are pushed to the limits of their humanity, and no one is safe from the atrocities from within, not even the seemingly innocent littluns. In an environment where civilization does not exist, the boys of the story attempt to form a society among themselves. Among the group of boys is a young boy who stands out from the rest. Jack Merridew, the leader of the choir boys, strives to take the role of leader of the boys, and he appears to be completely competent. In the beginning, Jack seems to be innocent and civilized. Jack is the cultured leader of the boys’ choir. Although the reader’s first impression of Jack Merridew may be one of an innocent leader eager to be rescued, his true, truculent nature manifests with the development of the novel, and the reader is gripped by Jack’s true schismatic, belligerent, and iconoclastic nature.
The book Lord of the Flies by William Golding is an exhilarating novel that is full of courage, bravery, and manhood. It is a book that constantly displays the clash between two platoons of savage juveniles mostly between Jack and Ralph who are the main characters of the book. The Kids become stranded on an island with no adults for miles. The youngsters bring their past knowledge from the civilized world to the Island and create a set of rules along with assigned jobs like building shelters or gathering more wood for the fire. As time went on and days past some of the kids including Jack started to veer off the rules path and begin doing there own thing. The transformation of Jack from temperately rebellious to exceptionally
Ralph, the first character introduced to the audience, is probably the most likable character in the entire story. Although he does not ponder such deeply like Piggy, is not as spiritual like Simon, or as energetic as Jack, there is something in him that attracts the audience. Ralph serves as the protagonist of the story. He is described as being a playful, innocent child in the beginning, but towards the end he matures significantly. In the first chapter where he takes his clothes off and goes swimming like any child would do, he seems to be Adam in the Garden of Eden, a child left to play with the nature.
In the allegoric novel, Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, Jack Merridew is a member of a group of young boys who crash on an island and form a micro-society who elect a boy, Ralph, as their leader. Jack Merridew develops an aversion towards Ralph due to his jealousy and thirst for power over those weaker than him, and encourages the rest of the boys on the island to break away from their once-functioning society. Jack craves the power to control and do as he pleases, and he fractures the flimsily structured society the boys create and rebuilds it as a corrupt shell of what it had been. Golding wields Jack's descent into a power-hungry revolt against Ralph to present the idea that mankind's thirst for power and bloodlust will break loose
Williams Golding’s novel, The Lord of the Flies, tells the story of a group of young boys who crash on an island. Imagine paradise, a beautiful beach, a lush jungle, no adults, no rules, and no responsibilities. After crashing, one of the boys, Piggy, meets Ralph, the story’s protagonist. The two decide to call a meeting of the boys on the island, where they all discuss who will be the “chief” of the group. The candidates are Ralph, charismatic, organized, and confident, and Jack, who is popular due to his prior relationships with other boys on the island.
Imagine a group of students who are stranded on an island by the Pacific because their plane crashed when they were coming back from a trip ,without rules or any adults, and how they lose their innocence and be taken over by darkness. The book, “Lord of the Flies,” by William Golding is about a group of British school boys surviving on an island without rules. The boys will try to survive by being rescued or simply by just becoming savages. One of the main characters, Jack went through many changes, starting from the beginning of the book to the ending. Jack, the most obvious leader since he was natural at being chief, starting off as a British choir boy to a savage hunter.
In William Golding’s allegorical novel, Lord of the Flies, characters Ralph, Piggy, Jack, Simon, and a group of young British schoolboys crash land on an uninhabited island where there “aren’t any grownups anywhere” (7) or real form of authority. Some innocent children are oblivious to the direness of their situation and see the tropical island as a fun adventure where they can build sand castles and throw rocks without caring otherwise. Ralph is voted chief and Jack is appointed as leader of the hunters and as one of the carefree boys, he focuses more on hunting and less on the stability of sanity amongst the boys. Jack attempts to hunt a piglet, however a moment of hesitation and the fear of the sight of “unbearable blood” (36) proves Jack
Manipulation. A word so twisted and corrupt that its powers reach far beyond the owner’s hand, and spread through the tendrils that are its captives. This is the idea that William Golding has decided to show in his text “The Lord of the Flies”. The story of “The Lord of the Flies” revolves around a group of schoolboys who recently survived a plane crash. The majority of the boys are aged between six and twelve, who become stranded on a deserted island, without any adults to reign over them. The text follows the subsequent events of how the boys deal with being away from a formed society. With this, it is clear through Golding’s use of symbolism, that manipulation quickly spread from individual to individual. By using the symbols
The novel, The Lord of the flies, by William Golding depicts a large group of english boys who were stranded on a remote tropical island filled with flora and fauna during the beginning of word war 2. All the boys had been scattered throughout the island but were drawn to Ralph when he blew the conch, he was eventually picked leader of every one shortly after everyone was at the meeting spot. Toward the middle of the story it mainly focus on Ralphs desire to keep the fire alive and taking care of the younger kids of the tribe which combated the objective of Jack who focused mainly on catching and killing pigs with the kids who were placed under his command the hunters. As the story continues the objectives of Ralph and Jack continue to
Destruction of the Old Life Who knew a regular day of school would lead to crashing down on an unknown island with no supervision? Lord of the Flies stars a group of boys thrown into an uncharted, uncivilized, island where they have to do anything to survive. Anything. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, Golding uses the fire, Jack, and the conch to represent hope, change and savagery, and order and civilization.
The sum total of all these man made evils, instinct of savagery, and the animalistic human tendances is collectively symbolized into one being: the beast. Though it originally is dismissed as nightmare and irrational concern, as the group of children strayed further from the logistics and intellect of civilization the more concrete and legitimate the beast becomes. Simon, the only character able to reasonably engage in nature, comes to the conclusion that the beast, the Lord of the Flies, is within each human and will always reside within man after hearing the beast itself speak in an apparition stating, “Fancy thinking the beast is something you could hunt and kill!... You knew it didn't you? I’m part of you?”
The novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding is about the survival of a group of boys stranded on an island and the inherent evil inside of them. A group of young, British boys crash onto an island and have to learn how to survive without grownups to look after them. Ralph is chosen as the leader of the boys, but he is constantly challenged by Jack. Jack soon turns all the boys against Ralph, mostly using fear, leaving Ralph, Piggy, and Simon. They are the only boys left that have goodness inside them after Jack takes the other boys on the island and makes them part of his tribe.
After reading Lord of the Flies by William Golding, one would typically consider Jack as the main villain of the story, having set the entire island on fire and turning nearly all of the boys into savages. However, Golding might be truly saying that there’s a greater force at work than “kids being kids.” In this dystopian historical fiction novel, a group of British boys crash landed on a deserted island, trying to survive together and find help for rescue. Eventually, the rest of the boys find themselves having killed two of their own and formed a lawless, savage tribe, now trying to hunt down their original leader Ralph, seemingly for sport. The true culprit for such destruction and chaos leading to the island’s downfall is not entirely the boys, but the darkness inside of them, along with the “beastie” they feared the entire time.