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Innocence in american literature
About the human nature in the lord of the flies
Ralphs view of the lord of the flies
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Recommended: Innocence in american literature
This is easiest theme of the play to observe as it is crucial to the advancement of the plot. The harsh elements and realities of the boys’ island leads them from civil order to savagery and violence. Many of the boys cannot even kill animals the first time they go hunting, even Jack. But soon, they become blood-hungry hunters fighting for survival. Although Ralph holds onto his civility, his scene during his rescue where he realizes what evil humans are capable of represent his loss of innocence.
Ralph is the novel’s protagonist and tries to maintain the sense of civility and order as the boys run wild. Ralph represents the good in mankind by treating and caring for all equally, which is completely opposite of Jack’s savage nature. Jack is the antagonist in the novel and provokes the most internal evil of all the boys. Jack is seen at first as a great and innocent leader but he becomes t...
The main character is Ralph, a boy of "twelve years and a few months," is the first character the reader meets in the novel (Golding 10). The narrator is direct when describing Ralph's physical characteristics: "You could see now that he might make a boxer, as far as width and heaviness of shoulders went, but there was a mildness about his mouth and eyes that proclaimed no devil," (Golding 10). The narrator's first description of Ralph is his fair hair. Within direct characterization and straightforward statements, the narrator includes indirect comments on Ralph's nature. For example, the narrator implies that Ralph has a kind nature by saying his eyes and mouth bear no evil when talking about Ralph's build. Ralph is implied to be the largest and oldest boy on the island when the narrator notes, "The decrease in size, from Ralph down, was gradual," (Golding 59).
In the “Lord of the Flies” savagery gets the best of the boys. The boys have lost their humanity and let things get out of hands and ended up killing an innocent boy who they thought was a beast. “There was no laughter at all now and more grave watching. Ralph pushed both hands through his hair and looked at the little boy in mixed amusement and exasperation.”
The Lord of the Flies by William Golding is a novel about human nature and the functions of society. One of the main characters in this novel is Ralph, who is chosen to be the leader of a group of boys. He assigns tasks to the boys and tries to keep them accountable for it. However, the boys begin to slack because they can no longer see the point of these tasks and rules. As a result of the constant slacking the boys soon turned into savages. Ralph’s struggle to maintain order amongst the boys shows how without rules it is human nature to descend into savagery due to the avoidance of authority.
When Ralph is confronted with adversity his character develops. He loses his sense of civilization and the savagery within him grows after killing his friend Simon. Ralph faces the inevitable loss of innocence on the island when discovering what was humanity is capable of. This novel will forever remain popular as it shows human nature in its truest form.
When Ralph sees the naval officer that appears on the island to save them, he realizes that he will return to civilization. The shock causes him to reflect on what has happened. The rescue does not produce joy; instead he feels despair at what he has been through. He is awakened to the reality that he will never be the same. He has lost his innocence and learned about the evil that lurks within himself and all men through his experiences on the island. Ralph’s revelation to his loss of innocence and societal order among the boys is exemplified through the collapse of the attempted Democratic government, the killing of the pig, and the death of Piggy and Simon.
In literature, as in life, people struggle with the principles and beliefs they hold. In the novel, Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, Ralph represents order, civilization, and leadership. On the island, Ralph is conflicted with his principles and beliefs that he has acquired over the years of living in a civilized and humane world and is caught between holding on to them or submitting to the barbarism that seems to have taken over the other boys.
His concern for the individuals in the group is pertinent from the beginning: he conveys to Jack the necessity of shelters “as a sort of [home]”, upon noticing the distress of the younger children (pg. 58). It is seen that Ralph’s problems are not his own; he assumes the role of leader to bring orderly forces of civilization to all. By approaching circumstances with logistics rather than emotion, Ralph does not lose sight of himself in the face of adversity. Despite this, he is later forced to act irrationally in order to preserve his status. When confronted with the evidence of the beast, Ralph is hesitant to hunt it; he is only manipulated into doing so when Jack “[sneers]” and questions him if he is “frightened” (pg. 100). However, Ralph does not respond out of his spite or self-pride as he understands that he must retain his status among the boys. If he does not remain chief, Jack will secure the position, bearing the notion that there will always be individuals working against altruism for their own benefit. Ralph sacrifices his morals by becoming subservient to Jack’s ego, yet does so in order to preserve civility within the group. On the day of the boys’ rescue, Ralph understands that his efforts to preserve peace and order are all for naught. Man’s destructive forces overwhelm him as “[he weeps] for … the darkness of man’s
While the boys stranded on the island begin with the basis of a plan to keep order, as time progresses, they are faced with conflicts that ultimately brings an end to their civilized ways. Initially, Ralph, the assumed leader, ran a democratic-like process on the island; however, later in the story, Jack, one of the boys, realizes that there are no longer any consequences to their wrongdoings for the reason that there was no control. This ties in with the ideal that moral behavior is forced upon individuals by civilization and when they are left on their own, they return to their fundamental instinct of savagery. Furthermore, there is a differentiation in beliefs that result in chaos due to the fact that some favored an uncultivated manner of life over an ordered structure. Opposing ideas are commonly known t...
As Ralph is trying to hide from them overnight, he wonders, “Might it not be possible to walk boldly into the fort… pretend they were still boys, schoolboys who had said, ‘Sir, yes, sir’- and worn caps? Daylight might have answered yes; but darkness and the horrors of death said no” (186). No matter how hard Ralph tries, he cannot discard his new knowledge of Jack and his tribe’s potential for evil and corruption. For a long time Ralph seems to be in denial; like many others, he seems to want to stay true to his belief in the overall goodness of the human heart. Ralph’s expectations for human kindness are finally challenged to the point of irreversibility when Jack attacks him and tries to pursue him on a vicious manhunt. When Ralph collapses on the beach and a naval officer arrives, “With filthy body, matted hair, and unwiped nose, Ralph wept for the end of innocence, [and] the darkness of man’s heart...” (202). One might think it strange that rather than rejoicing over rescue, Ralph and the rest of the boys cry out in grief. The young schoolboys come to understand the enormity of human greed and evil, and unfortunately it is a lesson that they will not be able to ignore or forget. They witness and play a role in their own loss of innocence, and the time they spend on the island teaches them what
Lord of the Flies, a novel by William Golding, took place on an isolated tropical island. There were many symbolic items within the story, and their meanings changed as the story developed. The fire was the symbol of hope and civilization at the beginning of the novel, but at the end it had become a fire of destruction. Ralph, in the beginning of the book, stood for leadership and almost perfection, however as the story progresses, he was nothing more than a normal human. The beast, upon its first appearance, symbolized fear, but soon, it represented the savagery within them. The different symbolic figures within the book, such as the fire, Ralph, and the beast, shifted in meaning as the story develops.
In conclusion, the savagery of Jack, and the now fading order from Ralph shows a detrition of civilization. The boys on the island symbolize government taking a away peace, and savagery killing logic and order. This general theme arises all throughout the novel. It is clear what Golding’s goal for the theme was, and you could say he nailed it on the head. Everyone has logic and reason, but in the end savagery and chaos wins in the human condition.
Civilization started to disappear on the island. Even Ralph, the confident and chosen chief had given in to the savageness when he took a piece of meat from Jack who had left the fire unsupervised in order to go hunting with his hunters. The piece of meat represents the boy's loss of innocence and path to bad behavior from the civilized boys as well.
Jack uses fear and greed to scare the boys. He has no care for being rescued or getting off the island. Bribery is even used when he promised the boys meat and to kill the Beast. Jack is a dictator because he can’t be argued against and has complete control over the boys. He holds all the power in his dictatorship. Ralph makes a great attempt to prove the boys that rationality is what is needed for a good leader, but desires prevail over necessities. Jack overwhelms Ralph’s regime with his persuasion. Ralph represents the good in society, what is needed to have a functioning community. Jack illustrates the outlaws and people who disobey the law. In the end, craving to kill takes control over the boys, creating a beast within them all. Ralph in The Lord of the Flies makes unsuccessful efforts to improve island life because attempting to make a utopia out of a mock
In the account of the boys’ argument about whether “law and rescue” or “hunting and breaking things up” is better, the boys are slowly turning inhumane because the island is making the boys do things that they could have never imagined they would have to do.When Jack yells back at Ralph and stands tight against his hunters, the tribe is “a solid mass of menace that bristled with spears.” “Solid mass of menace,” one giant boy with no individuals, forced to bond together for protection from evil. “Mass,” composed of matter, the boys are no longer human. “Menace,” the boys are resulting in violence because the island is turning them insane. “Bristled with spears,” pointy and sharp like a porcupine, the “Spears,” used as a weapon to kill and for