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Lord of the flies character theory essay
Literary analysis lord of the flies
Literary analysis lord of the flies
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In Lord of the Flies and “I Only Came to Use the Phone”, the setting and actions of the characters work together. Both are used to show the many cases of irony in the stories. The irony in both stories reveals the true and basic nature in all humans.
First, the authors show readers irony through the customs that the isolated characters bring with them from their previous homes. Ideally, the setting that Maria and all the boys come from represents civilization and order. It is seen that in the beginning, the character’s actions still reflect their old home. This is ironic because in a few cases, these actions are far from civilized, they actually represent they inherent wrongness in all humans. In Lord of the Flies, the boys immediately create a hierarchy. The older boys are right away more important than the younger boys. They bully Piggy and look down on him because of his size. Prejudice occurs right away, not because that is what the island made them do, but because that is what goes on in society. Maria also brings her customs and ways of living with her to the asylum in “I Only Came to Use the Phone”. Maria’s life style is very inconsistent. She makes love to many different men and then leaves them like they are nothing. In a civilized and ideal world, women her age should have a husband and a nice respectful family. However we see in the story that “She had deserted three men… in the last five years.” (Marquez 78). Maria makes love with her doctor the first time she sees him even though she has a husband and a clear objective to get into contact with him. Evidently, in both situations this irony is used to show the wrong nature of humans in any setting, whether it is an isolated or regular society.
Also, the true and ba...
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... matron’s obscene offers. Maria realizes though that she must go with the matron because it is the only way she can talk to her husband. The story says “Maria realized there was nothing in the world she would not do to escape that hell.” (Marquez 86). She has to reduce her self to the least to gain anything. These ironic situations are both clearly used to show the basic nature of humans to do anything to survive, even if it means destroying themselves.
In conclusion, the irony in both Lord of the Flies and “I Only came to Use the Phone” is used to show readers that basic and true nature of all humans. The irony proves that the basic instincts and actions of humans can be present in any setting or environment.
Works Cited
Golding, William. Lord of the flies. New York: Coward-McCann, 1962. Print.
Strange pilgrims: twelve stories. New York: Knopf, 1993. Print.
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.
The most influential saying in the lord of the flies is the fact that the symbolism represents the many statistics in the communal world which is relatively amazing for a book to possibly recreate. The way that William Golding showed his audience in this book how the negativity of the world and the wickedness in a man’s heart is beyond belief. This can be shown through the development of the children who progressively become more and more malevolence as the days pass. It can be made known through the items that represent the civilized world or ‘the adult’ society. It’s reasonably scary when we are exposed to the evilness sinfulness people have, even those that we perceive as innocent can be deceiving.
In conclusion, many examples are given throughout the novel that exemplifies all three types of irony: situational, verbal, and dramatic. There are many more examples, like Bernard wanting attention and John’s suicide. His suicide can be an example of irony, with the reader hoping that John (the revolutionist) might succeed, but John taking his own life. Irony plays a huge role in the book, pointing out that no society can be perfect and that some laws are broken by the creators themselves.
Much of history’s most renown literature have real-world connections hidden in them, although they may be taxing uncover. William Golding’s classic, Lord of the Flies, is no exception. In this work of art, Golding uses the three main characters, Piggy, Jack, and Ralph, to symbolize various aspects of human nature through their behaviors, actions, and responses.
Civilization struggling for power against savagery was shown throughout Lord of the Flies. These opposite mindsets are shown battling while determining who had the right to speak during assemblies, when the group hunted pigs, throughout the struggle over Piggy’s glasses, and finally with Simon’s death. These polar opposites are shown throughout these examples and reveal the desperation of clinging to civilization while savagery took over the actions of the some of the boys in Lord of the Flies.
William Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies, is the perfect allegory to man’s inherent evilness. A group of boys, British students, comprised of children who are approximately in their middle childhood gets marooned on a desert island somewhere in a remote area of the Pacific Ocean after their plane crashed. The boys are the only survivors. Except for a musical choir, led by a certain Jack Merridew, the boys have never met each other and have no established leadership. “The book portrays their descent into savagery; left to themselves in a paradisiacal country, far from modern civilization, the well-educated children regress to a primitive state” (Lord of the Flies).
The novel “Lord of the Flies” was written by William Golding to demonstrate the problems of society and the sinful nature of man.
...l” (Marquez ). Normally when someone is angry, they hold a grudge for a while but not for the rest of their life. Maria’s grudge against her husband lingers from day to day and she is never able to forgive him. Humans forgive and forget, they move on from the things of the past. Maria’s grudge is another example of her insanity and her inability to move on.
In the novel, "Lord of the Flies," a group of British boys are left on a deserted island in the middle of nowhere. Throughout the novel, they have conflicts between civilization and savagery, good vs. evil, order vs. chaos, and reason vs. impulse. What would it be like if the boys were replaced by a group of girls? Would they behave the same way they did in the novel? I believe that the girls would act in the same behavior as the boys in all ways because, everyone is installed with evil inside them which is their natural instinct, also because in life there is always a power struggle in all manners, and the outcome with the girls would be similar-since both sexes would plan on getting rescued.
Often, too much power can go to that particular person’s head, and he/she can become corrupt. As readers have seen in literature, abuses of power are often harmful to the abuser and their subjects. Corrupted authority and abuses of power eventually lead to the collapse of society. This concept is shown many times throughout the novel Lord Of the Flies and the short story “I Only Came to Use the Phone”. Displayed through characters and actions, abusive power has dominated what should be morally correct in literature.
The novel Lord of the Flies was full of challenges that the boys overcame in order to survive. Conflicts within themselves, with nature and with each other constantly test the children’s ability to endure. Struggles against the natural elements of the island, rival groups or fear of the unknown continually appear throughout the story. Some of the boys on the island did not survive the quarrels that they faced. They perished because they were lacking something that the surviving boys did not. The survivors had a natural primal instinct or a physical or mental advantage over the boys who did not make it. ‘Only the strong survive’ is an important element that runs through the novel Lord of the Flies because in order to survive the boys must turn to their primitive instincts of physical strength and savagery.
William Golding’s Lord of the Flies exemplifies man’s capacity to unveil his innate primal nature when there is a breakdown of social order and a thirst for power. The characters of his novel portray the monstrosity of evil which dwells within human beings. For instance, Kunwar’s analytical essay about Golding’s novel states, “Though the young kids are in a place which is far from corruption, a place with no outside infl...
Sigmund Freud’s theory on the components of the human mind has been around for over a century, and although not used much anymore, Psychoanalysis is a useful tool for decoding many pieces of literature. In this case, Freud’s theory is especially useful in finding an allegory for William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. For the most part, the Psychoanalysis theory is used in terms of the three components of the mind; the Id, the Ego and the Superego. However, Lord of the Flies is an allegorical interpretation for Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalysis theory in regards to the plot events as oppose to the characters. This is proven by specific plot events such as the crash on to the island, the murder of both Piggy and Simon, and the rescue from the island.
In the beginning of “I Only Came to Use the Phone,” Maria sets herself up to be trapped after her car breaks down, and she gets on the bus. “Maria looked over her shoulder and saw that the bus was full of women of uncertain ages and varying conditions who were sleeping in blankets just like hers.” (72) this should foreshadow that something is not right to Maria, but she just goes with it. Maria is the only women that talks on the bus, she is not acting like the other women at all. “She was less certain when she saw several women in uniform who received them at the door of the bus, pulled the blankets over their heads to keep them dry, and lined them up single file, directing them not by speaking but with rhythmic, peremptory clapping.” (73) Maria realizes once again that she is out of place and that she should get out of here as soon as possible. The first line of the poem Exile, “The night we fled the country,” (1) this family is taking a risk as they are leaving their country illegally. The family is setting themselves up to be trapped if they get i...
A book about a plane crash with schoolboys on an isolated island has a deeper meaning. Within the story is a fight for power and the struggle of being isolated ,the story also shows how human nature is at its most primal state.William Golding’s Lord of the flies illustrates the fragility of civilization and is a warning about human nature to the readers.