Although on the surface Mean Girls, Tina Fey’s 2005 film about the average experience of an average teenage girl in high school, and Lord of the Flies, William Golding’s 1956 book about a group of young boys stranded on a deserted island, could not be more seemingly different as they share the common themes of hierarchy and descent into savagery. They explore these themes using a variety of different techniques, specific to each text’s medium. Both passages explore the dynamics of hierarchy and the embedded power that comes with it through their different genders and expectations. The iconic teenage movie explores these themes through the eyes of a woman, teenage girls are sly with their intentions and plan out their attacks, their hierarchy is based on likability and influence. …show more content…
She does this specifically while Cady is watching to prove that she will forever remain on top. Whereas the characters of Lord of the Flies value brute strength and survival instinct in their leaders, as it proves their superior masculinity. Ralph, one of the leading boys in the novel, is an elected leader meaning he has an immense influence on the other boys he has power in numbers and unity. Jack runs a more despotic society, he forces his way to the top through threats and brutality, he takes higher advantage of his power and the hierarchy runs deeper through him. Because of the two leaders, there is a division between the democratic and despotic society. To secure its survival, the despotic society run by Jack tries to demolish the democratic one run by Ralph through heated threats and physical violence. Through their distinct narratives, Mean Girls and Lord of the Flies showcase how hierarchical structures, whether based on social influence and likability or brute strength and dominance, ultimately lead to power struggles and conflicts within their respective
In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies and Tina Fey’s Mean Girls, both authors reveal similar symbolism and settings that can relate to reality and todays society. Golding and Fey show symbolism through the lack of clothing and how it can guide another being to make assumptions of another’s personality. They unravel setting through the world of teenagers and children that create trouble amongst the places they inhabit and their surrounding areas alongside explaining how it can heavily impact the direction in which society travels. So, this exposes how clothing tells about another’s personality and how a world with teenagers and children governing themselves can lead to a corrupt and destructive society.
Throughout the course of the play Romeo and Juliet and the novel Lord of the Flies, there is a common motif of light versus dark that affects the way characters grow and view the world. Contrasting sharply between the two written works is the usage of this idea. In Romeo and Juliet the light is treated as a problem that will bring their forbidden love to “light” whereas the darkness provides a covering for their rendezvous. In Lord of the Flies it is the opposite, with the darkness being representative of the boy’s hidden savagery as well as providing fear of the unknown while the fire, a symbol of light, provides safety in warmth and food as well as the ability to see through the dark.
The Lord of the Flies is a gruesome story about young boys stranded on an island, who underwent a transformation from polite British choir boys to savage hooligans. One of the main difficulties the boys face during their adventures upon the island, is their method of government, they either follow the path of Ralph, the democratic leader whose main focus is to escape the despairing island; or Jack a power-hungry monarchical leader who won't ever take no for an answer. The two boys are constantly bickering and arguing over who deserves the leader-position. We all understand Ralph wants to be leader so that he can ensure that the boys will return back home, but in Jack's case, it is a constant mystery to us about why he wants power over the other children. But we do get much small hints from the author, William Golding, that Jack's biggest fear among the other children on the island is public humiliation. This becomes more and more evident the farther on into the book, and his fear seems to be what persuades him to reach for a powerful position.
After being marooned on an unknown, uninhabited island and desperate to survive, the characters in William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies are pushed to the limits of their humanity, and no one is safe from the atrocities from within, not even the seemingly innocent littluns. In an environment where civilization does not exist, the boys of the story attempt to form a society among themselves. Among the group of boys is a young boy who stands out from the rest. Jack Merridew, the leader of the choir boys, strives to take the role of leader of the boys, and he appears to be completely competent. In the beginning, Jack seems to be innocent and civilized. Jack is the cultured leader of the boys’ choir. Although the reader’s first impression of Jack Merridew may be one of an innocent leader eager to be rescued, his true, truculent nature manifests with the development of the novel, and the reader is gripped by Jack’s true schismatic, belligerent, and iconoclastic nature.
1961, Stanley Milgram conducts an experiment on participating adult males utilizing the power of authority and electric shocks to examine two common underlying principles in humanity: blind obedience to authority and the fear of the repercussions of contravening. Similar to the focus of this study, the dreading of consequences and trusting higher authority are the basis of the plot in The Lord of the Flies, where William Golding depicts a large group of boys (aged twelve and under) stranded on a desolate island that are left to configure their own law and order. The essence of this novel is clear; the blind trust of authority in societal situations, which will tarnish the conditions of a person’s life, and the
William Golding, the author of the highly-acclaimed book, The Lord of the Flies took the reader into a world where underage boys live in an uncharted island with no adults no other human contact; just themselves and finding ways to survive and to get off the island. However, that is no easy task, Golding shed some ground-breaking light on how really boys will act with no authority in their lives and the term “boys will be boys” will arise. The boys were placed in a situation where they were force to act a certain way of nature and condition. In consequence, the boys’ savage and immoral behavior shown is to be blamed on the situation/environment nurtured factors. For new readers who starts to read the book they witness the boys into a sort
In the novel The Lord of the Flies by William Golding, a group of English schools boys are stranded on an island in the Pacific Ocean. The boys’ plane crashed into the ocean in a futuristic war-ridden world. In these dire times, the boys manage to create a hierarchy and assign different roles to all of them. Throughout the novel, a human element of fear terrorizes their island society. Fear is the key element in the novel. It controls how their island society functions and it controls the boys’ actions. Fear was something that affected the adolescent school boys to a large extent by that led to the corruption and crumble of their society.
Throughout William Golding's novel Lord of the Flies there is an ever-present conflict between two characters. Ralph's character combines common sense with a strong desire for civilized life. Jack, however, is an antagonist with savage instincts, which he cannot control. Ralph's goals to achieve a team unit with organization are destroyed by Jack's actions and words that are openly displayed to the boys. The two leaders try to convince the boys that their way of survival is correct.
Circumstance and time can alter or determine the different paths a group of young boys will take. These paths can have the power to strip children of their own innocence. Such a statement can be explored in William Golding’s “Lord of the Flies” as it ventures into the pros and cons of human nature. William Golding’s tale begins with a group of English school boys who crash land on a deserted tropical island during World War II. In Lord of the Flies, the island that the boys crash on is beautiful, glamorous, and magnificent; yet, it proves to become a dystopia by the horror of the cruelty, violence, and inhumanity.
The film Mean Girls follows the story of Cady Heron, a teenage girl who was homeschooled in Africa by her parents all of her life until moving to the suburbs of Illinois and joining a public high school. Cady soon finds herself in a group known as ‘The Plastics’, who are the dominant group in the high school. The film highlights the ways that people, specifically teenagers, both consciously and unconsciously, conform to different aspects of society, based on race and class, and how the different groups view each other. On Cady’s journey through this year of high school she is given a glimpse of how strong a society can impact an individual when she begins to socialize with ‘The Plastics’ and they completely change her personality and values.
In Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’ and Golding’s ‘Lord of the Flies’, the portrayal of disturbed characters differentiates. The story of Macbeth was set in medieval Scotland during an era where fear and violence dominated the world; a society where clans fought for power and craved the title of being the next king. In the play Macbeth is a glorified solider that meets his fate after being led astray by selfish ambitions. Similarly, Golding’s experience with World War Two had a profound effect on his view of humanity and the evils of which it was capable. His novel demonstrates a postmodernism view – the principal that rejects the idea of objective truth and universal social progress- by leaving boys stranded in an island. Free from the rules that the adult society formerly imposed on them, the boys struggle to maintain a civilised community and finally descend into anarchy. Both writers have different opinions toward the definition of disturbed and this is reflected through their characters.
On the other hand, Gregory Mantsios’ point of view on the “effects on Family” that over the years, the upper-class who have more of an advantage due to better education, healthcare coverage and are fundamentally more well balanced have a better chance at getting married which gives them better family activities because they have financial acumen (Mantsios290). The wealthier you are, the more opportunities your family is given. Mr. Mantsios list four myths in his article that are relative to the “effects on family” which are: 1. “Rich or poor, we are all equal in the eyes of the law, and such basic needs as health care and education are provided to all regardless of economic standing.” 2. “We are, essentially, a middle- class nation. Despite
In conclusion, this report has explored several rationales behind the boys’ behavior in Lord of the Flies, and suggested how girls in the same position would have behaved in a more accepting, nurturing, polite manner. Media stereotypes on ideal gender conduct, family socialization, and fundamental differences in leadership approach are all factors that contribute to boys’ and girls’ very contrasted behaviors. Clearly, had females been in the same situation as the boys in Lord of the Flies, they would have fared considerably better.
Lord of the Flies is a novel about power. This is because of the conflict between Ralph and Jack for leadership of the boys. Ralph symbolizes civilization and democracy. Jack symbolizes savagery and dictatorship. For instance, in the begin...
A running theme in William Golding's works is that man is savage at heart, always ultimately reverting back to an evil and primitive nature. The cycle of man's rise to power, or righteousness, and his inevitable fall from grace is an important point that Golding proves again and again in many of his works, often comparing man with characters from the Bible to give a more vivid picture of his descent. Golding symbolizes this fall in different manners, ranging from the illustration of the mentality of actual primitive man to the reflections of a corrupt seaman in purgatory.