Similarities Between Life Of Pi And Lord Of The Flies

Lord of the Flies is an allegorical novel written by William Golding. Golding examines the concept of conflict in numerous ways throughout his novel. The overarching theme of Lord of the Flies is the conflict between the human impulse towards savagery and the rules of civilization which are designed to contain and minimize it. The theme of savagery versus civilization shows Golding’s belief that savagery or evil is not an external force but an internal component within everyone.

Similar to Lord of the Flies, the film Life of Pi by Aang Lee features a young male protagonist left stranded by a devastating accident with no adult presence but unlike Ralph who in lord of the Flies is surrounded by other boys on the island, Pi is stranded on

a raft in the Pacific Ocean with a male Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. Life of Pi is tainted with conflict throughout the entire film, conflict both external and internal. The external conflict in the film centers on the extreme survival situation that Pi finds himself in. Pi's internal conflicts also relate to the situation that he is in.

Throughout Lord of the Flies, the boy’s descent into savagery is a central theme in the novel. This conflict between civilization and savagery is dramatized by the character comparison and clash between the two main characters Ralph and Jack, who respectively represent civilization and savagery. These differing ideologies are expressed by each boy's distinct attitudes towards authority. While Ralph uses his authority to establish rules, protect the good of the group, Jack is interested in gaining power over the other boys to gratify his most primal impulse. An Example of this is at the end of the novel when Ralph is weeping for “the darkness of man’s heart” and all that the boys have done, while Jack doesn’t even realize what’s happened. Golding suggests that while savagery is an inescapable fact of human existence, civilization can lessen its full extent.

Though faced with a similar situation in life of Pi, Pi never submits to the instinct of savagery, he stays civilized because of his connection to God, and unlike the boys in Lord of the Flies he has a bigger sense in life. Pi realizes that his suffering and conflict is a small part of a much bigger world, a conclusion that the boys in Lord of the Flies never come to.

The theme of loss of innocence runs throughout Lord of the Flies and Life of Pi.

In Lord of the Flies, the loss of innocence is not something that is taken away from the boys but something they lose due to their own actions. Golding shows this by using a biblical parallel, though it is not explicit, Simon parallels Jesus, and the Lord of the Flies, Satan. The forest glade in which Simon sits in chapter three symbolizes this loss of innocence. At first it is a place of beauty and peace, but when Simon returns to it, he finds the bloody sow’s head impaled in the clearing. The offering to the ‘beast’ has destroyed the paradise that existed before. The island itself (particularly the forest glade) recalls the Garden of Eden in its status as a pure place that is corrupted by evil. In addition the Lord of the Flies is a representation of the devil, for it works to promote chaos and evil among the

boys.

Compared to ‘Life of Pi’, when Pi finds the carnivorous island it appears to be a place of plenty, where life thrives, as it is inhabited by thousands of meerkats and full of food and fresh water. But the director’s use of camera angles reveal otherwise, an overhead shot of the meerkats reveals stark white bones at their feet, showing that all is not perfect with the island and foreshadowing Pi's discovery of its toxicity. When night approaches than undershot of Pi's face reveals his dismay at this new discovery, the island itself is carnivorous. A final overhead shot of the fish flapping as they are being dissolved by the pools acid looks like the iris of an eye. The 'eye' reveals the acid and evil of the islands soul. One last shot is an extreme close-up of a tooth inside a flower, the bud looks fresh, natural and beautiful on the surface, just like the island, but inside it reveals its rotten core. Both islands are evil but the island in lord of the flies is made evil by the boys, whilst the carnivorous island has always been evil.

Within Lord of the Flies Ralph experiences the most internal conflicts, which his inner thoughts reveal.

One important one is his desire to join in the hunt, Golding uses the technique of irony, as the boys want and need to hunt eventually leads to them hunting each other. In Chapter 5, for instance, Ralph experiences another internal conflict in his realization that he does not have enough to command the leadership: “Again he fell into that strange mood of speculation that was so foreign to him.....The trouble was, if you were a chief you had to think, you had to be wise....” Constantly throughout the novel Ralph wishes to return to civilization where adults have the answers. He realizes inside himself that he is not equipped to handle what changes are occurring on the

island.

Contrasted to ‘Life of Pi’ where Pi’s internal conflict is with religion and, like Ralph, losing his humanity. Pi notices his loss of humanity he compares his eating to Richard Parker's, animalistic. The technique used to show this is a camera shot of Richard Parker and Pi on his knees circling one another, this is done to show how similar Pi and Richard Parker truly are. Other examples of his slipping humanity is the time he kills a fish. As a Hindu and vegetarian, Pi saw all life as sacred, but in effect of his situation Pi had to ignore all his morals in order to survive. This explores when in conflict, survival depends upon sacrifice as well as skills.

External conflict is a driving force behind Lord of the Flies and ‘Life of Pi’. The elements such as the sun and storms acted as a huge opponent for Pi, and this is shown by computer generated lightning, giving a sense of how wild and horrific nature is the .The sun beat down on everything he had, wearing it down and storms tore apart his safety raft. The more obvious foes are the animals, most predominately Richard Parker. Richard Parker as a fully grown tiger is an insurmountable danger to humans, especially in as close quarters as Pi and Richard Parker were. Any live animal is a deadly creature to a human if provoked. The only reason why Pi was able to overcome these animal adversaries was his background in animal taming that spurred from being raised in a zoo.

Lord of the Flies introduces the question of man’s ideal relationship with the natural world. Thrust into the completely natural environment of the island, in which no humans exist or have existed, the boys express different attitudes towards nature. The subjugation of nature, is embodied by Jack, whose first impulse on the island is to track, hunt, and kill pigs. He seeks to impose his human will on the natural world. Golding uses Jacks desire to hunt as foreshadowing for what he later does to Ralph and the Island. Jack's later actions, in particular setting the forest fire, reflect his deepening contempt for nature and demonstrate his militaristic, violent personality. Jack responds to the perceived conflict of the island by acting destructively towards animals and plant life. Unlike in Life of Pi, Pi holds the utmost admiration for the natural world and what it is cable of doing. Pi understands that humans must respect nature, including its wildness.

In some ways Life of Pi and Lord of the Flies are very similar, they both deal with a breakdown of civilization once a traumatic accident leaves them stranded. But unlike the boys in Lord of the Flies who quickly lose hope of ever being rescued and descend into savagery, Pi has faith in life. Both texts are stories of survival but both have a different ending to their story. While in Lord of the Flies it ends with the message that when taken out of society, Man will degenerate into savages and lose its basic humanity, Life of Pi gives the message that man can keep its basic humanity even in the harshest of times.