Robert Michael Ballantyne Essays

  • The Social, Cultural, and Historical Issues in Coral Island and Lord of the Flies

    1488 Words  | 3 Pages

    arrogant novel. This, however, is because the book is being read from a 21st century perspective, whereas when Ballantyne wrote ‘Coral Island’ it was seen as a thoroughly enjoyable story. This is because the book was written in the 19th century, when the people of Britain felt that they had developed an organised society where humans were at their best and flourishing. As Ballantyne himself described the society: ‘Britons at the top of the tree, savages and pigs at the bottom.’ Looking

  • Reacting against Victorian optimism and to the horrors of the 20th

    3112 Words  | 7 Pages

    Reacting against Victorian optimism and to the horrors of the 20th Century, William Golding chose to express his anti-Utopian views about humanity in Lord of the Flies (1954). Explore how Golding crafts his narrative in order to voice his philosophical views about man's essential illness. To what extent do you agree with his views? Golding's dystopian views of 'man's essential illness' are derived from his experience of 20th Century warfare. 'Lord of the Flies' is a fable in which Golding

  • Lord of the Flies and and The Coral Islands

    951 Words  | 2 Pages

    Lord of the Flies, which was written by William Golding, and The Coral Islands, which is written by R.M. Ballantyne were two books about British boys who were stuck on an island. Lord of the Flies is an imitation of The Coral Island. In Lord of the Flies the scene is set up with two boys stranded on an island from a plane crash, in which all the adults died. These boys were schoolboys that later found more boys that were stranded on the island by blowing on a conch shell. They all get together and

  • Golding vs. Rousseau

    638 Words  | 2 Pages

    have both touched upon. While Golding believes that humans are born inherently evil, Rousseau believes the opposite: that humans are inherently good. Golding wrote the novel Lord of the Flies as a response of the novel, The Coral Island by R.M. Ballantyne because he believed that it was farfetched. In this novel Ballantyne’s main characters are able to enjoy their time on the deserted island. My opinion on this matter leans to Rousseau’s side. I believe that people are born naturally good. Jean Jacques

  • The Extent to Which William Golding Portrays Mankind as Being Inherently Evil

    2680 Words  | 6 Pages

    The Extent to Which William Golding Portrays Mankind as Being Inherently Evil Although I do not think he shows humans to be completely, irrevocably evil, I think that Golding paints an increasingly dim picture of humankind. As his faith in humanity's intrinsic good fails, Golding's foresight of a dark future for man is reflected in the colour of his metaphorical oil paints as he writes this allegorical novel. Even supposedly innocent children are shown to be incredibly sinful and the rules

  • Symbolism in Lord of the Flies

    1354 Words  | 3 Pages

    Flies. New York: Penguin Group, 2007. Print. "Lord of the Flies (film by Brook [1963])." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica. Web. 24 Feb. 2014. Reynolds, Kimberly. "R.M. Ballantyne." The Cambridge Guide to Children's Books in English. 2001. Credo Reference. Web. 3 Feb. 2014. Wallace, Robert. "The Young Wild Pack in Lord of the Flies." Editorial. LIFE 25 Oct. 1963: 95-105. Lordoftheflies.org. Web. Web. 18 Feb. 2014. Zimbardo, Philip G. The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good

  • Criticism on Lord of the Flies

    3555 Words  | 8 Pages

    Lord of the Flies reveals Golding as the supreme revoker, the most obvious abrogator in modern literature, employing the dark discoveries of our century to disclaim the vapid innocence of its predecessor. The target is R. M. Ballantyne's The Coral Island and Golding points up the ironic contrast by lifting even the names of his boys from the earlier work. Ballantyne's book could be used as a document in the history of ideas, reflecting as it does a Victorian euphoria, a conviction that the

  • A Comparsion of Coral Island and Lord of the Flies

    769 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Coral Island and Lord of The Flies have a matching basic story but diverse things within the stories. The Coral Island, by R.M. Ballantyne, was the basic plot of the story Lord of the Flies, by William Golding. The island is the same in both books; likewise, the main characters; Jack and Ralph are the same people in both stories. Ballantyne’s story is about three British gentlemen whereas Golding’s is about boys that turn cruel and against each other. There are dissimilarities between the characters

  • Gender, Contingencies of Self-Worth, and Achievement Goals as Predictors of Academic Cheating in a Controlled Laboratory Setting

    1017 Words  | 3 Pages

    would be needed to be maintained and would predict more cheating as well as performance-approach goals. But, it was also hypothesized that if mastery goals were being approached, this would predict less cheating as well as virtue. (Yu Niiya, Robert Ballantyne, Michael S. North, and Jennifer Crocker, 2008) Methods: For this study, the experimenters used 70 college students. Within those 70 students, 38 of the participants were male and 32 of the participants were females. When the experiment began