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How does william golding use characterisation in lord of the flies
How does william golding use characterisation in lord of the flies
How does william golding use characterisation in lord of the flies
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Moral Ambiguity in Lord of the Flies In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, the character Ralph serves as the protagonist, but he is far from morally just. Ralph’s initial innocence, role as leader of the boys, and selfless actions seem to present him as a good person at heart. His participation in the savage murder of Simon and his loss of sanity, though, show a much darker side that leads the reader to be skeptical about his true nature. This moral ambiguity further perpetuates Golding’s lesson regarding the dark nature of man. At the beginning of the novel, Ralph, along with the other boys in the group, was described as young and innocent. His first reaction upon arriving on the island was one of joy and excitement at the idea of being …show more content…
away from the influence of adults. At this point, he enjoy the idea of freedom and has a very positive outlook on the world around him. Even the way the way the island was described, “This was filled with a blue flower, a rock plant of some sort, and the overflow hung down the vent and spilled lavishly among the canopy of the forest.
The air was thick with butterflies, lifting, fluttering, and settling.” (Golding 37) alludes to the sense of amazement and child-like wonder held within Ralph’s mind. It is in this section where the reader sees Ralph as a twelve year old child who doesn’t fully understand the world around him, but it is presented as a sort of blissful ignorance. Once Ralph becomes leader of the group, his character changes in a subtle but noticeable way as he begins to see the need for organization and rules in order to ensure their survival. This change in his role in the group leads to the need to make decisions that Ralph would rather not take, but this new responsibility is …show more content…
not what makes him a morally ambiguous character. His role as leader actually reinforced his positive nature and leads to him taking selfless actions. As a leader, Ralph represents just and fair rule and the actions he takes reinforce that. He acts selflessly and think about the the needs of the group over his own desires, working to finish the badly needed shelters long after the others had abandoned them. “‘Been working for days now. And look!’ Two shelters were in position, but shaky. This one was a ruin. ‘And they keep running off. You remember the meeting? How everyone was going to work hard until the shelters were finished?’’ (Golding 69). These selfless actions reinforce Ralph’s character as a morally righteous one and show that Ralph tries to do what he thinks is best in any situation. Ralph’s position as leader is not absolute, though, as he begins his transition into moral ambiguity and reveals a more savage aspect of his personality as he, along with the other boys, partake in violent and destructive “games” that reenact their hunts. “‘Kill the pig! Cut his throat! Kill the pig! Bash him in!’ Ralph too was fighting to get near, to get a handful of that brown, vulnerable flesh. The desire to squeeze and hurt was over-mastering.” (Golding 164). At this point Ralph begins to reveal a more violent part of himself and begins to lose hold of his leadership position. The boys began to lose their civility and replace it with more primitive or “savage” mannerisms. These savage actions and games, which would not have been permitted in civilized society, thrive in this island environment and is even allowed to go one step further. “ 'That was Simon. [...] That was murder. [...] I wasn’t scared,' said Ralph slowly, 'I was—I don’t know what I was.' [...] ‘You were outside. Outside the circle. You never really came in. Didn’t you see what we—what they did?” (Golding 224-225). This quote regarding the murder of Simon marks the moment when Ralph can no longer be considered morally righteous or innocent again. Though he might be able to act as he did before he arrived on the island, his actions revealed to him that he had not only the audacity to commit murder, but also made it clear to him the grim reality of what people are at their core. The transition from innocent boy to violent savage highlights Golding’s moral lesson regarding the dark nature of man.
Through the extreme contrast between Ralph at the beginning of the novel, who is civil and whole, and Ralph at the end, who is mentally fractured and violent, Golding creates a morally ambiguous character to reinforce his belief that any man can become a beast. By making Ralph a likeable protagonist, Golding makes it that much more prominent when Ralph, who is seen as a rational and fair leader, turns into a savage driven by fear and anger rather than hope for survival. In this change, Golding conveys his main moral lesson, which is that even those who are considered pure of heart or morally just can be corrupted and turned into something
terrible. In conclusion, Ralph, who starts off as an innocent young boy and later becomes a violent savage, is a morally ambiguous character that Golding uses to convey the moral of the novel. Ralph’s carefree nature and moral righteousness from the beginning of the novel, contrasted by his violent and savage demeanor seen at the end of it, results in a character that highlights Golding’s worldview by embodying the idea that man, at its core, is more wicked than good.
Ralph's actions as a character in the novel assist in reinforcing Golding's point that the prevalent force within man is evil. While Ralph struggles, albeit unsuccessfully, to maintain a civilized society on the island, he repeatedly tries to resist the temptation of evil inside him. As the island descends into chaos under Jack's tyrannical regime, the rest of the boys on the island let their hair become longer, at the same time becoming increasingly vicious. Ralph tries to ignore the temptation of having long hair, trying to push it back to maintain the good he has inside him. Ralph wants to “have a pair of scissors” to cut his hair, but the hair is coaxing him to let evil dominate (109). ...
In William Golding's, “Lord of the Flies”, all the young boys depict one of the Kiersey Temperaments as they conform to what they believe are the islands expectations. There are four different personality types: the Guardian, Idealist, Rationalist, and Artisian. Ralph is the young boy in this novel that portrays a Guardian the uttermost, through his responsibility, common sense and charisma.
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.
At the beginning of the story, after the plane had crashed on the island and the boys are accounted for, Ralph feels very free and absent. He finds a lagoon to with warm water, and just like any other twelve year old boy, he goes for recreational swim. "Whizzoh! . . . Ralph inspected the whole thirty yards carefully and plunged in."(12) So far, not terribly worried yet, about being rescued and getting off the island. Along with him being fairly rel...
The novel, Lord of the Flies, is a compelling story displaying the metamorphosis of an individual when faced with external and internal conflicts. Ralph is the first character to be introduced in the book. He is the most likeable as he is charming, athletic, and displays strong leadership qualities. However, as the novel progresses, Ralph loses his sense of civilization and undergoes a change in character discovering the evil man is capable of. Ralph’s metamorphosis is captivating and displays the inevitable loss of innocence.
He blows the conch and summons the deserted children together” (Li & Wu 1). While all the boys are interested mainly in playing and setting out to satisfy their own needs, Ralph is focused on building shelter and keeping a fire going to facilitate their rescue. As one can see, Ralph is “the representative of civilization and democracy, lives by rules, acts peacefully, and follows moral commands and values the good of the group, who dramatically reveals the condition of civilization and democracy in Golding’s time” (Li & Wu
Ralph shows that he has a better understanding of the boys than Jack. He knows that the boys need some sort of order on the island in order for them to survive. He starts a simple form of government and sets a few rules for them. Even though they don’t last very long, the fact that he tried to help the group is what makes him a better leader. Ralph’s wisdom and ability to look toward the future also has an advantage over Jack. He has a sense to keep his focus on getting off the island. When the fire goes out, Ralph gets upset because the chance to be rescued was gone as well. Ralph enforces his role of leadership as he gives the boys a sense of stability of an authority figure. He keeps the boys in pretty good order at the meeting by making a rule that they can only speak if they have the conch. Ralph knows that the littleuns are afraid and they need shelter to feel more secure. They work together for a while, but as the time goes on the smaller boys want to go play. They slowly lose all their help until Simon and Ralph are the only ones left to work on them. Ralph knows that this is a necessity and keeps bringing it up at the meetings. Jack, on the other hand, is doing nothing but causing chaos.
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
Throughout William Golding's novel Lord of the Flies there is an ever-present conflict between two characters. Ralph's character combines common sense with a strong desire for civilized life. Jack, however, is an antagonist with savage instincts, which he cannot control. Ralph's goals to achieve a team unit with organization are destroyed by Jack's actions and words that are openly displayed to the boys. The two leaders try to convince the boys that their way of survival is correct.
This is the turning point for Ralph, not only as a person, but as a character in the book. Ralph goes from a somewhat flat character, to a round character, and with this transformation, he completes his dream, a dream which he had with him the whole time. Not only has he come to peace with himself and his accomplishments, he has come to peace with those around him, “Ralph watched the water fight with sadness in his heart, never guessing the scene would one day hearten him, as it did now.” (p296). Some may say that Ralph never achieved his dream. I say that he achieved his dream about half way through the book, he just didn’t realize all he had, and all he could lose until it was almost gone.
Ralph’s power at the beginning is secure but as the group succumbs to their savage instincts, Ralph’s influence declines as Jack’s rises. This is due mainly to the cruelty and violence that goes on in the story. This cruelty reveals that Ralph’s commitment to civilization and being rescued is so strong that he will not allow himself to change his morals and become cruel like the others. The cruelty in this novel also shows that Ralph is a very intelligent character. His intelligence can be proven because there was a point in the novel when he hunts a boar for the first time and he experiences the thrill of bloodlust. He also attends one of Jack’s feast where he is swept away by the frenzy and participates in the killing of Simon. This is a very tragic moment for Ralph because this is when he realizes the evil that lives within himself and every human being. It is the cruel acts that happen in this novel that reveals Ralph’s character of being intelligent and being able to think deeply about human experiences. He even weeps when getting saved because of his knowledge about the human capacity for
In the novel The Lord of the flies, William Golding illustrates the decline from innocence to savagery through a group of young boys. In the early chapters of The Lord of the Flies, the boys strive to maintain order. Throughout the book however, the organized civilization Ralph, Piggy, and Simon work diligently towards rapidly crumbles into pure, unadulterated, savagery. The book emphasized the idea that all humans have the potential for savagery, even the seemingly pure children of the book. The decline of all civilized behavior in these boys represents how easily all order can dissolve into chaos. The book’s antagonist, Jack, is the epitome of the evil present in us all. Conversely, the book’s protagonist, Ralph, and his only true ally, Piggy, both struggle to stifle their inner
Lord of the Flies provides one with a clear understanding of Golding's view of human nature. Whether this view is right or wrong is a point to be debated. This image Golding paints for the reader, that of humans being inherently bad, is a perspective not all people share. Lord of the Flies is but an abstract tool of Golding's to construct the idea of the inherent evil of human nature in the minds of his readers. To construct this idea of the inherent evil, Golding employs the symbolism of Simon, Ralph, the hunt and the island.
At the commencement of the novel, the author introduces Ralph as an innocent boy far from adulthood. Almost immediately, Ralph is described as a "fair boy." This phrase indicates a stereotype of the perfect child--blonde hair and blue eyes with blemish-free skin--which the author manipulated to show innocence. Also, Golding used this to give the reader a feeling of Ralph's position on the scale of maturation. It guides the destination of the novel and how much Ralph needs to grow to attain complete maturity. Ralph's innocence is further implied when he says his daddy is "a commander in the Navy" and that "when he gets leave, he'll come rescue us." Clearly, Ralph's comments call attention to his inability to view matters, especially his current situation, realistically, and to show Ralph's simplistic thinking, as well. Later in the novel, Ralph views Piggy as a fat bore with "ass-mar" and "matter-of-fact ideas." Ralph is still at the point where he believes that he is on a schoolyard playground where teasing and handstands are an acceptable practice. Similarly, Ralph's thoughts are intended to show what a sheltered child he has been all his life. Thus far, Golding developed Ralph so that the reader interprets him as an ideal child without any indication of maturity. The author will build upon this to transform Ralph as a character and as a person.
and he is the person who first tries to create an order on the island. In some ways Ralph's motivation for being a good, powerful leader is his longing for home. Ralph's relationship with another boy on the island, Jack is very important also. From the beginning of the book Ralph takes charge over his newly acquainted companion Piggy. When he calls the other boys together he takes control over the entire group and