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Aristotle, the renowned philosopher with divine inspiration, writes, “At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst” (Aristotle). Aristotle tries to portray the feral nature of humans, a visualization that escapes even the most profound of scholars. Law is something of obvious importance, needed to place order to madness. The system that is responsible for making and enforcing the law is of still greater importance. Passionately, William Golding carves these wise values into his debut novel. Lord of the Flies illustrates the societal need for government foundation, legislation, and morality. A social contract is an agreement made with all other members of a community of the purpose of enabling …show more content…
On the island is the creator of the sinful nature that takes control of the boys. The book’s title is taken from a name for the Devil, Beelzebub. Beelzebub, the Lord of the Flies, speaks to a soft character Simon (Golding 143). The Lord of the Flies, in the form of a rotten pigs head that had been put on a stick by the hunters who mercilessly killed it, explains to the boy Simon that he is inside everyone’s thoughts. The beast, who is the Devil himself, is in Simon. Simon faints at first as he was frightened by the Beast. The Beast toys with him saying he will never be able to escape. Human nature is to burn down islands. The first time humans sinned, Adam and Eve were not allowed to reenter the garden of Eden (Gen. 3). Before the flood God saw that “every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen. 6.5). This is simply how God created us, with freewill. If the situation were not creepy enough, the Lord of the Flies foreshadows Simon’s homicide when he says, “we shall do you? See?” (Golding 144). It is clear to the reader that the bloody pig’s head himself is behind the ensuing indiscriminate massacre of Simon. The pig’s head names names ever one of his killers, down to the least predictable, “Piggy and Ralph” (Golding
In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, Simon and Piggy are among a group of boys who become stranded on a deserted island. Left without any adults, the boys attempt to create an orderly society. However, as the novel progresses, the boys struggle to sustain civility. Slowly, Jack and his hunters begin to lose sight of being rescued and start to act more savagely, especially as fears about a beast on the island spread. As the conflict progresses, Jack and Ralph battle for power. The boys’ struggle with the physical obstacles of the island leads them to face a new unexpected challenge: human nature. One of the boys, Simon, soon discovers that the “beast” appears not to be something physical, but a flaw within all humans
Simon, the wisest, calmest, and maturest of all the boys, is off by himself “talking” to a pig, perhaps going crazy. All others are sitting around the fire relaxing, ignoring the fact that one of the the wisest men of all has himself begun to lose sanity, possibly symbolic of the condition of people on the island. Of course, readers know, by the description of the bulging clouds, that the sky will soon break and, symbolically, something terrible within the plot will soon happen. Indeed, the entire novel has built to this point, as readers have observed the downward spiral of morality amidst the moral characters and increased savagery. Simon has observed this, and perhaps because he tends to take in everything inwardly, his depression over the gradual decline in the children on the island has caused him to become somewhat senile. Simon continues his “conversation” with the pig whom he calls “the lord of the flies” (“Beelzebub” in Hebrew, meaning “the devil”), and it is as if he is being tempted by the devil, or corrupt immorality that has taken over the other children on the island. However, he is able to be triumphant over the temptations, and staggers back down to the island to inform the other children that the beast on the island is
When viewing the atrocities of today's world on television, the starving children, the wars, the injustices, one cannot help but think that evil is rampant in this day and age. However, people in society must be aware that evil is not an external force embodied in a society but resides within each person. Man has both good qualities and faults. He must come to control these faults in order to be a good person. In the novel Lord of the Flies, William Golding deals with this same evil which exists in all of his characters. With his mastery of such literary tools as structure, syntax, diction and imagery, The author creates a cheerless, sardonic tone to convey his own views of the nature of man and man’s role within society.
Lord of the Flies is a novel written in the unknown future of 1954. Amidst a world of atomic warfare, a handful of boys find themselves deserted, and stranded on a coral, boat-shaped island. Ralph, the protagonist perceived it to be a paradise full of riches that could support a society. Taking a closer look, this “paradise” is crawling with bugs, fruit induced diarrhea, sharp thorns, and “skull like” coconuts. Also, horrendous storms destroy the serene landscapes, and uproot trees. In addition, certain places on the island signify different characters. The beach near the lagoon is where Piggy and Ralph first talk and find the conch, as well as hold their meetings. Not far away is the fruit orchard where the boys can eat, and inland from the lagoon is the jungle with pig trails and, which the "littluns" fear. The beast that haunts the children is a significant feature of the jungle. Yet, the beast is just a mental and physical manifestation of the boys’ own psyche. The jungle is also Simon's hiding place where he finds the pig's head that Jack mounted on a stake. The island has a mountain that Ralph, Simon, and Jack climb to ignite a rescue fire, which the boys must keep alive. Lastly, there is the castle on the island, where the first search for the beast is made, and soon becomes Jack's headquarters, after the group slits. The paradise island, an important feature in Golding’s story, represents a site of “hell on earth” and a struggle to survive for the boys as they let the fear of the beast grow inside of them.
Lord of flies is about a group of schoolboys, who got stuck on uninhabited island after a plane crash. On island they struggle with savagery and civilazation while they are waiting to be rescued. William Golding gives the examples of elements what makes society ‘civilized’ which contains rules, laws and morality. He shows the consequences of what happens if we don’t follow the rules which he lead to savagery in his book. This civilazation in book also can be a metaphor for a government, its creation.
At the beginning of Lord of the Flies, the boys create a democratic government. As the story progresses, the initial democracy on the island is ignored, and a dictatorship rises in its place. This dictatorship fails to keep the boys in order. The author, William Golding, shows that without the institution of a strong government and set of rules people will become impulsive and seek instant gratification. In the absence of order, people tend not to become disciplined of their own accord, but rather dissolve into destructive chaos.
On contrary from all the other boys on the island Simon, a Christ like figure in the novel, did not fear the ‘beastie’ or the unknown. “Maybe there is a beast....maybe it's only us” Simon explained. (p. 97) The fear of the unknown in the novel contributes to the boys’ terror of the beast, the beast is an imaginary figure which lays in all of the boys’ minds and haunts them. Golding uses the beast as a symbol of the evil that exists in every creature. "You knew, didn't you? I'm part of you? Close, close close! I'm the reason why it's no go? Why things are the way they are?" The sow head announced to Simon to be the “lord of the flies”. The “lord of the flies” is a figure of the devil, and brings out all the evil and fear in people. It wants you to fear it, but if you don’t believe in the “lord of the flies” nothing can happen to you. Therefore Simon didn’t fall into the trap, but the beast killed him, meaning the other boys on the island did. Simon discovered that the beast is in fact just a dead parachute man before he died and ran down to tell the boys about his finding. When Sim...
The title, Lord of the Flies, refers to the pig’s head that was placed on a spear and worshiped by the young boys on the island. In other words, the boys have chosen to believe in a fake deity, much like the people of Israel, who built golden calves to worship. And along with these fake gods comes along sacrifices, such as the head was for the beast as Jack stated, “This head is for the beast. It’s a gift” (137). Additionally, the lord of the flies is also known as Beelzebub, an Egyptian god that was linked with the 4th plague, as one of the ten plagues God sent over Egypt through Moses. To further suggest a biblical allusion, Beelzebub is deemed a demon within The Bible and is one of the many vividly described embodiments of evil within the book: “At least Simon gave up and looked back; saw the white teeth and dim eyes, the blood – and his gaze was held by that ancient, inescapable recognition” (138). Golding effectively uses the lord of the flies as a biblical allusion because he is able to exploit the underlying tone of subtle evil that begins to surface within the boys, through their worship of a disgusting thing. However, the allusion loses its power if the readers were unacquainted with The...
One of the main themes in William Golding's 1954 novel Lord of the Flies is that without civilization, there is no law and order. The expression of Golding's unorthodox and complex views are embodied in the many varied characters in the novel. One of Golding's unorthodox views is that only one aspect of the modern world keeps people from reverting back to savagery and that is society. Golding shows the extreme situations of what could possibly happen in a society composed of people taken from a structured society then put into a structureless society in the blink of an eye. First there is a need for order until the people on the island realize that there are no rules to dictate their lives and take Daveers into their own hands. Golding is also a master of contrasting characterization. This can be seen in the conflicts between the characters of Jack, the savage; Simon, the savior; and Piggy, the one with all the ideas.
And on the first day, God created evil. Golding’s intricately crafted Lord of the Flies on the outset may appear to be a novel about a group of boys marooned on an island and their struggle to survive; however, it also serves as a religious allegory drawing references from the bible. The island on which the boys are stranded represents an anti- Eden, a place that is devastated by evils of man. Simon, the blue-eyed sensitive boy exemplifies Jesus; however, unlike Jesus, Simon is unable to convey his message that the true beast is mankind. Jack and Ralph, the protagonist and antagonist are reminiscent of Cain and Able as Jack becomes jealous of Ralph and tries to murder him. In Lord of the Flies, Golding uses striking biblical references such as the story of Cain and Able and the Garden of Eden to express the inherit evils of mankind and their will to do evil.
The novel “Lord of the Flies” was written by William Golding to demonstrate the problems of society and the sinful nature of man.
One of the most important and most obvious symbols in Lord of the Flies is the object that gives the novel its name, the pig's head. Golding's description of the slaughtered animal's head on a spear is very graphic and even frightening. The pig's head is depicted as "dim-eyed, grinning faintly, blood blackening between the teeth," and the "obscene thing" is covered with a "black blob of flies" that "tickled under his nostrils" (William Golding, Lord of the Flies, New York, Putnam Publishing Group, 1954, p. 137, 138). As a result of this detailed, striking image, the reader becomes aware of the great evil and darkness represented by the Lord of the Flies, and when Simon begins to converse with the seemingly inanimate, devil-like object, the source of that wickedness is revealed. Even though the conversation may be entirely a hallucination, Simon learns that the beast, which has long since frightened the other boys on the island, is not an external force. In fact, the head of the slain pig tells him, "Fancy thinking the beast was something you could hunt and kill! Ö You knew, didn't you? I'm part of you?" (p. 143). That is to say, the evil, epitomized by the pig's head, that is causing the boys' island society to decline is that which is inherently present within man. At the end of this scene, the immense evil represented by this powerful symbol can once again be seen as Simon faints after looking into the wide mouth of the pig and seeing "blackness within, a blackness that spread" (p. 144).
William Golding’s Lord of the Flies shows man’s inhumanity to man. This novel shows readers good vs. evil through children. It uses their way of coping with being stranded on an island to show us how corrupt humans really are.
Imagine the world without judgement, rules, and those who enforce them, the key principles in a civilized society. How long would it take until desires and craving rebel against morality? With an authoritative power ceasing to exist, civilization would turn to chaos as the glory and thrill of savagery override ethics. In his novel Lord of the Flies, Golding demonstrates that without the restrictions of society, human instinct causes the boys to defy and shun social morals.
The Social Contract is an attempt to explain the reason why individuals agree to form organized governments. The idea that a person is willing to abandon the freedoms previously enjoyed under the State of Nature in which no government interfered with their pursuits, are believed to correspond to the individual’s attempt to protect what is on their best interest.