What Are The Similarities Between The Alchemist And Lord Of The Flies

1251 Words3 Pages

I Hope To Survive “I am prepared for the worst, but hope for the best” as Benjamin Disraeli says. In the novel Lord of The Flies by William Golding, A group of boys get trapped on an island during WWII and they have to figure out a way to survive on their own, inevitably they end up killing two of the audience’s favorite characters, and become savage until they get rescued. The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho, is about a boy who never loses hope and goes on his personal journey to find treasure in the Egyptian Pyramids. In both books, there is a visible recurring theme of survival and hope, though they may be used in different ways. Both of the books explore how the characters survive. The boys on the island in Lord of The Flies lost all hope, …show more content…

The first instinct of Ralph, Piggy, and SamnEric was to pretend nothing happened. They tried to believe that Simon was somehow alive, or that they had not taken any part of his death, but deep down they knew what they had done. They had killed the one thing that could help them survive. Near the end of the book we saw the true extent in which hope was needed. SamnEric turned against Ralph, and joined sides with Jack and his tribe. It is understandable that they joined as they might of been killed had they not, but when Ralph says “Won’t you come with me? Three of us- We’d stand a chance”(Golding, 189), But they only gave him excuses, and would not leave because why both gave up hope, which was a missing necessity to their lives. We do not understand the importance of hope in our day to day lives. Hope keeps us moving, breathing, and having the will to …show more content…

He remains hopeful, and he makes sure to stay true to himself and follow his inner omens. Back at the merchant’s shop, Santiago is willing to help him live his dream out. The merchant’s dream is to travel to Mecca one day, but when Santiago tries to help him achieve this goal, he will not budge. His only hope in life is to go to Mecca, so feels that is he goes there, he would simply lose the will to live as he has no more hope. We do however, see the survival instincts kick in of the young boy who steals Santiago’s money. With a greedy heart he runs away with all the coins in order to protect himself, and hopefully his family. Here the boys survival methods almost vanquished the hope in Santiago’s heart, but in the end he was able to pull through. The merchant is similar to Lord of the Flies as it is hope(and dreams) that keep these characters moving in life. However some characters may be similar, there is a clear and defined line between Santiago and the boys on the island. It is easy to tell that the light and hope has disappeared from the boys’ hearts after the murder of Simon, but Santiago is able to get back up and keep going on his

Open Document