What Are The Similarities Between Lord Of The Flies And The Crucible

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Lord of the Flies by William Golding and The Crucible by Arthur Miller are both known as works of literature that are not afraid of social criticism. Both books explore faces of society in a way In both novels, the effect that a form of government has on its community is demonstrated through the reaction of the citizens faced with different ideologies and fear through the perspectives of both authors on the subject.
To begin with, one of the main manoeuvres used to lead both societies is to propagate fear in order to successfully control them. In The Crucible, the leaders of the theocracy use witches in order to be able to make the community behave accordingly to their beliefs. The government uses a list in Reverend Hale’s witchcraft books …show more content…

In Lord of the Flies, the fear that is first brought up by an innocent little boy quickly becomes the gateway for Jack to bring people into his tribe. He uses the boys’ fear of the beast to successfully lead the kids and make them do anything he wants. Furthermore, in The Crucible, fear caused by the threat of being accused of being a witch leads citizens to a state of hysteria, neighbours blaming each other for acts that in reality, no one fully understands. They go on a complete witch hunt, trying desperately to eliminate the fear so greatly controlled by the government. In doing this they become one with the established government, proving themselves just as cowardly as them, without knowing that what they are eliminating is really an illusion, an abstract fear. In Lord of the Flies, the boys become so obsessed with catching the beast and eliminating their source of fear, that, just like the people of Salem, they go on a hunt for the beast, becoming completely hysterical. They start doing dances and chants and do things that most of them would never normally do. Although …show more content…

The concept of every human being of equal importance is completely ignored and the main effort is made on maintaining a superficially “perfect” society. In The Crucible, one big thing that can be noticed is that the people who think differently, also known as “the rebels” of the story, John Proctor and Rebecca Nurse, both die as a result of the unfair actions of the system of government. They portrayed as the only two sane characters in the play yet most people in Salem see them as the complete opposite. Their death leads the community to believe even more strongly in the ideas “invented” by the government by showing that people who rebel are witches and are not good people. The citizens cannot think for themselves and have their own ideas for they are exposed to the constant exclusion of the different people. So what? When a person cannot think for him or herself and all that’s left is people that agree with the government, a community cannot evolve. The world around them will continue to develop but they will stay at the same place in time. In Lord of The Flies’ case, Ralph, Piggy and Simon end up alone after most of the boys decide to join Jack’s tribe. Because both boys don’t have the same beliefs as the ones in Jack’s group, they are cast away and left with nothing.

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