Lord of the Flies Documented Paper Lord of the Flies by William Golding is a tale of a group of British school boys who find themselves marooned on a barren island, with no one to help them but their own selves. Golding utilizes this unique situation to his advantage, demonstrating that evil acts can be performed by anyone; regardless of age. It is through these violent and heinous acts that Golding metaphorically connects historical events in World War II, such as the Battle of Britain and Pearl Harbor, to the novel by using relating the goals of the boys to the goals of the leaders who led those battles. Golding takes his use of metaphors a step further, by using the characters of Jack and Piggy to represent powerful sociopolitical individuals …show more content…
at the time such as Winston Churchill and Adolf Hitler. The metaphorical connections within Lord of the Flies can be understood if one is able to see it as more than a story of young boys struggling to survive, but rather understand that the events that unfold throughout the course of the story are comments on the sociopolitical atmosphere of the time. Foremost, Jack’s tribe trying to to catch Ralph by smoking and burning him out of hiding is symbolic of the Battle of Britain.
At the end of the novel, Ralph is being hunted by Jack’s tribesmen and has resulted to hiding to protect himself from the overwhelming swarm of Jack’s boys. Before the Battle of Britain, most of Europe had been conquered by the Nazis and Adolf Hitler expected Britain to realize, “her militarily hopeless situation” and surrender to the encroaching Axis menace (Britannica). Seeing as England was not willing to surrender to the Germans, Hitler planned Adlerangriff (“Eagle Attack”) to wear down Britain's power and weaken her so that Germany could invade (Britannica). It is through these similarities that Golding is able to connect the Ralph’s desperate struggle to escape Jack to Britain's resolve to repel the Nazi threat and live to fight another day. Because as much like Churchill, Ralph wants to look back and say, “‘This was [my] finest …show more content…
hour’”(Churchill). As aforementioned, the Battle of Britain has a strong historical connection to the events that play out in Lord of the Flies. As Golding brilliantly uses the final chase scene in the book to show the resolve of the Londoners who endured the German’s bombing campaign through Ralph’s struggle to escape Jack’s boys. One such scene that shows Ralph’s ability to defend himself against unthinkable odds is when he is trapped in the thicket close to Jack’s camp. When his boys try to get Ralph out by attacking him in the thicket Ralph, “thrust(s) his own stick through the crack and [struck] with all his might” (Golding, 151). Despite bringing mostly defenseless against the savages that are Jack’s boys; Ralph fights back rather than surrendering, much like the citizens of London did when they were being bombed and decimated by the Nazis. The entire city of London banded together to assist each other and fight the Nazi threat by giving everything they had protect Britain and their fellow Londoners, much like Ralph gave his all to survive against Jack’s advances on his life. The other connection Golding makes to the Battle of Britain, is by using the fire that Jack’s boys set to get Ralph to flee the thicket as a metaphor for the Nazi’s operation Adlerangriff. While Ralph is hiding in the bushes he describes the approaching fire by telling of how, “[The] smoke was seeping through the branches in white and yellow wisps, the patch of blue sky overhead turned to the color of a storm cloud, and then the smoke billowed round him” (152). The reference to the sky overhead turning the color of a storm cloud is a reference to the bombers that swarmed overhead of London’s skys and brought the billowing smoke of death and destruction with them. Much like the Nazis, the fire that Jack’s boys set isn’t meant to kill Ralph, its goal is to force his hand and bring him into the open so that Jack’s forces can “invade” and get rid of the one thing that's preventing them from having total dominance over the island. While the Battle of Britain was won by Royal Air Force and the civilians of London, Ralph represents the conglomerate of people who came together to fight tyranny and spit in the face of evil. Aside from relating events to Lord of The Flies, Golding excels at giving his characters traits that mimic prominent individuals from World War II. Two examples of this are Piggy and Ralph, with Piggy representing Winston Churchill: a man that fought for his beliefs and never gave up even when the situation turned grim, and Ralph who represents Hitler: the despot who invaded Europe with little regard for human life. During the Second World War, the Nazis had pushed the British Expeditionary Forces out of France and most of mainland Europe had fallen to Hitler’s forces. Many within Britain's government sought to broker a treaty with the German’s to protect Britain, but failed to see the seriousness in having the Nazi banner fly across Europe. Yet it was Churchill who declared, “We shall go on to the end,” as he saw the true danger in having an authoritarian government squandering the freedoms of the individual (Gopnik). Churchill’s ability to remain dedicated to the Allies’ cause and stand against the encroaching Axis powers is very much in the vein of Piggy, who until his death, always kept his mind on his goal of getting rescued and fought for his beliefs. Then there was Adolf Hitler who spread the tendrils of the Nazi plague over Europe. It was Hitler who said, “The very first essential for success is a perpetually constant and regular employment of violence” (“Adolf Hitler”). Hitler employed the murder of others to enforce his will and ideas upon the masses and ruled in a totalitarian fashion, crushing anyone who dissented against him; much like the ruling style of Jack. It is through these character traits and actions that Golding is able to connect these two figures to characters within his novel. In Lord of the Flies, Piggy is very reminiscent of Winston Churchill with his thought process and overall ability to stay head strong when things got tough. A prime example of this is after Jack and his hunters let the fire go out because they were hunting rather than doing their job. This causes Piggy to yell at them, screaming, "You and your blood, Jack Merridew! You and your hunting! We might have gone home--" (54). Unlike Jack, Piggy understands the necessity of keeping the fire going above hunting, as there are other sources of food then meat. Much in the vein of Churchill, who realized that brutal fighting would definitely not be pleasant for Britain, but was necessary to maintain world order. In Piggy’s case, eating berries and and plants may not be the tastiest or nutritious thing on the island, but if it means keeping the rescue fire going, then it is necessary. Furthermore, Jack’s character is very reminiscent of Adolf Hitler and with the way he rules over his tribe. When Piggy and Ralph go to Jack’s tribe to see what they are up to, and upon arriving, describe the scene before them, “Jack, painted and garlanded, sat there like an idol. There were piles of meat on green leaves near him, and fruit, and coconut shells full of drink” (115). The throne in which Jack’s boys have constructed for him is reminiscent to the imaginary throne that Hitler believed himself to be sitting upon. Hoisted high above the rest of Europe, Hitler saw himself as the only point of authority in the world, and that anyone who disagreed with him was an enemy that had to be euthanized. This is much in the style of Jack who saw Ralph’s tribe as the only thing stopping him from having complete control over the island. It was because of this that Jack believed that he must hunt and kill Ralph, for as long as he lived, Jack sovereignty was at stake. It is through these two characters that Golding is able to show the likes of Hitler and Churchill and the ideals and beliefs of both, as they struggled between control of the world and control of civility. Golding’s Lord of the Flies is a piece that takes the aspects from the events and people of World War II to show that social and political aspects of life, such as tyranny and conflict, have not age limit.
That evil and power can corrupt seemingly innocent young boys. By examining Lord of the Flies as a comment on the political and social facets of World War II, we can discover that regardless of age or status, power can corrupt. Works Cited “Adolf Hitler Quotes (Author of Mein Kampf).” Goodreads, Goodreads, www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/30691.Adolf_Hitler. Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Battle of Britain.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 8 Nov. 2017, www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Britain-European-history-1940. Gopnik, Adam. “Finest Hours.” The New Yorker, The New Yorker, 19 June 2017, www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/08/30/finest-hours. History.com Staff. “Winston Churchill.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 2009, www.history.com/topics/british-history/winston-churchill. “Their Finest Hour.” The International Churchill Society, 14 Jan. 2018,
winstonchurchill.org/resources/speeches/1940-the-finest-hour/their-finest-hour/.
Lord of the Flies was written by a British author in 1954. The book is about a group of British school boys that crash on an island and have to survive. During their time on the island they turn their backs on being civil and become savages. Ralph is the elected leader and always thinks civil. Jack leaves the group and starts a tribe with the boys and is a savage. Piggy is a boy who is knowable. Simon is compared to Jesus through the book and is the only naturally “good” character. The littleuns are the littler kids on the island. Roger is a cruel older boy who is Jack’s lieutenant. Samneric are twins who are close to Ralph but, are manipulated by Jack later on. In the book Lord of the Flies by William Golding some of the characters represent id, ego, and superego. Id, ego, and super ego are the three parts of the psychic apparatus expressed by Sigmund Freud’s structural model of the psyche. Golding expresses his message of evil and how it is natural in every person, and how we must recognize and control it through id, ego, and superego.
William Golding’s Lord of the Flies portrays the lives of young British boys whose plane crashed on a deserted island and their struggle for survival. The task of survival was challenging for such young boys, while maintaining the civilized orders and humanity they were so accustomed too. These extremely difficult circumstances and the need for survival turned these innocent boys into the most primitive and savaged mankind could imagine. William Golding illustrates man’s capacity for evil, which is revealed in man’s inherent nature. Golding uses characterization, symbolism and style of writing to show man’s inhumanity and evil towards one another.
The book Lord of the Flies was William Golding’s first novel he had published, and also his one that is the most well known. It follows the story of a group of British schoolboys whose plane, supposedly carrying them somewhere safe to live during the vaguely mentioned war going on, crashes on the shore of a deserted island. They try to attempt to cope with their situation and govern themselves while they wait to be rescued, but they instead regress to primal instincts and the manner and mentality of humanity’s earliest societies.
Lord of the Flies, a book written by William Golding, published by Faber and Faber and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature is a story that talks about a group of school age boys who have landed on an unknown / uninhabited island during the second world war. Throughout their stay on the island they find ways to survive, such as finding and hunting for food as well as building basic needs like shelters and a fire. At a certain moment in the book two of the main characters, Ralph and Jack declare a war between each other because Jack refuses to have Ralph as the group’s leader for another second. This then leads to the division of the group as well as many scenes in which one sabotages the other. An example of this is when Jack’s tribe steals
The novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding is about a group of boys that were on a plane crash in the 1940’s in a nuclear War. The plane is shot down and lands on a tropical island. Some boys try to function as a whole group but see obstacles as time goes on. The novel is about civilization and social order. There are three older boys, Ralph, Jack, and Piggy, that have an effect on the group of younger boys. The Main character Ralph, changes throughout the novel because of his role of leadership and responsibility, which shapes him into a more strict but caring character as the group becomes more uncivilized and savage
Golding has made the two boys’ act similar at the beginning of the novel to show us how ‘normal’ they are. This demonstrates Golding’s view that absolutely anyone can be over ruled by power and become savage (like Jack) when civilisation collapses. After this incident, we can see a continual conflict between Ralph and Jack. We can see this when Jack proclaims that Ralph, “Isn’t a proper chief.” Golding is trying to show us that this conflict is very similar to the conflict between human inner barbarism and the living influence of reason.
...ing him advice. However, they are tortured into revealing Ralph’s escape plan. Things like this show that Jack’s tribe have little respect for others. They do things that they wouldn’t do alone, because the rest of the group takes the blame. By this William Golding demonstrates what happens to society if order is not imposed by a government.
The Lord of the Flies by William Golding is tale of a group of young boys who become stranded on a deserted island after their plane crashes. Intertwined in this classic novel are many themes, most that relate to the inherent evil that exists in all human beings and the malicious nature of mankind. In The Lord of the Flies, Golding shows the boys' gradual transformation from being civilized, well-mannered people to savage, ritualistic beasts.
Lord of the Flies is a novel written by William Golding in 1954 about a group of young British boys who have been stranded alone together on an island with no adults. During the novel the diverse group of boys struggle to create structure within a society that they constructed by themselves. Golding uses many unique literary devices including characterization, imagery, symbolism and many more. The three main characters, Ralph, Piggy, and Jack are each representative of the three main literary devices, ethos, logos, and pathos. Beyond the characterization the novel stands out because of Golding’s dramatic use of objective symbolism, throughout the novel he uses symbols like the conch, fire, and Piggy’s glasses to represent how power has evolved and to show how civilized or uncivilized the boys are acting. It is almost inarguable that the entire novel is one big allegory in itself, the way that Golding portrays the development of savagery among the boys is a clear representation of how society was changing during the time the novel was published. Golding is writing during
...religious allegory. He depicts a story in which the boys are stranded on an island and need to fend for themselves. However, instead of focusing on rescue and building a fire, the boys ultimately shift their priorities to hunting and killing. They turn a once beautiful and majestic island into a place of terror and evil. Additionally, they maul and kill their only hope of ever changing, Simon. Lord of the Flies is reminiscent of the television series “Lost.” Just like in Golding’s world, “Lost” is staged on a remote far away island after a plane crash. However, these people are not children. They are adults, which makes the story even more chilling. These adults eventually succumb to murderous acts and violence, further proving the point Golding sets out to make. Humans are inherently evil, and without any system to keep them in line, they will destroy the world.
How would you deal with being stuck on a island as a kid and have to fight for survival each and everyday? In the book lord of the flies a group of british boys get into a plane crash and have to learn a new way of life. The book shows how they adapt to their surrounding and deal with complications thought there days of survival. The boys struggle and change in many different ways some good and some bad. Lord of the Flies portrays the idea that losing morals can develop into a savage lifestyle with the use of literary devices, such as similes, imagery, and foreshadowing.
In the novel Lord of the Flies, William Golding utilizes figurative language to portray that the conflict within humanity, between savagery and the rules of civilization, causes people to succumb to their natural impulses when the rules vanish. Golding uses metaphors to illustrate how the lack of rules causes Jack, and the other boys, to be overcome with their inner savagery. In chapter three, when Jack and Ralph butt heads over leadership and can no longer collaborate for the better of the tribe, Golding writes, “They walked along, two continents of experience and feelings, unable to communicate” (Golding 55). Growing up, parents teach their to have manners and to be kind to others. While growing up, children are taught that there are certain
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.
The Lord of the Flies by William Golding is a novel which explores the dark side of humanity. Golding explores this concept through the tragic tale of British boys shot down from a plane and stranded on an uninhabited island, unsupervised, and isolated from a war-torn world where they are left to fend for and govern themselves. On the island, we see a conflict between two main characters, Jack and Ralph, who present different leadership styles. This influences the rest of the boys throughout the novel revealing the evil nature that all humans possess. The story begins by introducing two boys Ralph and Piggy.
The Lord of the Flies is an ultimately pessimistic novel. In the midst of the cold war and communism scares, this disquieting aura acts as a backdrop to the island. The Lord of the Flies addresses questions like how do dictators come to power, do democracies always work, and what is the natural state and fate of humanity and society, getting at the heart of human nature in a very male-dominated, conflict-driven way. The war, the plane shot down, and the boys' concern that the "Reds" will find them before the British, shows Golding's intention of treating the boys' isolated existence as a microcosm of the adult military world.