Sympathy In William Golding's Lord Of The Flies

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George R.R. Martin once said, “A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. . . The man who never reads lives only one.” This is a quote that can be interrupted in many different ways by many different people. With each interpretation, I believe the ability to connect with the characters and their experiences remains unchanging. Words give readers the power to connect with characters' experiences, hear their thoughts, and understand their feelings stay the same. Reading literature of any kind allows readers to connect with people, fictional or real, and learn to relate and empathize. Literature allows people to live different experiences, understand others' lives, and relate to parts of the human experience they may never have otherwise …show more content…

Literature such as Lord of the Flies by William Golding presents conflicts that are a shared part of the human experience and gives new understanding to readers. In this story, a group of young boys crash on a deserted island without any adults and attempt to create a functioning society. Things quickly go wrong and a power struggle breaks out between the two boys. One of the boys, Ralph, wants the group to be rescued and is desperately trying to get the other boys to help him create a signal for passing ships. Jack wants to control the hierarchy of the group and gain power over the others by leading them on bloody hunts to kill animals on the island. Eventually, Jack overtakes the group through murder and fear-mongering, which plunges the group into violent chaos. This book describes the human condition as chaotic and uncivilized, similar to the way philosophers like John Locke and Thomas Hobbs did in the 19th century. In Lord of the Flies Golding explains how the human condition results in uncivilized nature and humans cannot accept the human

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