Lord of the Flies and Great Expectations - How circumstances cause characters to change.

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Lord of the Flies and Great Expectations

How circumstances cause characters to change

Great Expectations is a novel written by Charles Dickens and Lord of the Flies is a novel written by William Golding.  In this assignment I will be comparing characters and situations that occur in both novels and how these cause the characters to change.

In the beginning of Great Expectations we meet a young orphan boy alone in a dim and lonely place, which is the local churchyard where his mother is buried. This is how Dickens has created a character you feel sympathetic for because of him being alone in a cold and bleak churchyard in which his mother is buried.

A man grabs Pip in the churchyard. The man is nervous because his legs are cast in irons, he learns that Pip lives with a blacksmith and threatens Pip to get him a file, food and drink, ’whittles’.

When Pip returns home his sister beats him with a hard stick, which she has given it the name of the Tickler. His sister far too often beats Pip. She is a character who almost always turns to violence. This makes you feel even more sympathetically for Pip as he has no one to stick up for him accept Joe who gets beat often himself.

Lord of the Flies begins very differently than Great Expectations because it is set on a hot exotic island far from a cold bleak churchyard that Pip was the subject too. This maybe that Golding is trying to have no emotion towards the characters or even for you to feel jealous of them.

Piggy and Ralph have a swim and spot a shell, the ‘conch’, Piggy shows Ralph how to blow down it to make a very loud noise so they can attract and draw any other living people around on the island.

The boys on the island start emerging and among the boys came a group of choir boys lead by a boy called Jack Merridew. Ralph was the one who blew the conch even though it was Piggy’s idea and instead of Piggy getting gratitude Ralph does and the boys look up to him as he appears to them as what could be a leader.

Jack Merridew asks if there is any adults on the island, if there were adults on the island jack would not be older and be a leader that he enjoys being. Jack suggests that the boys fend for themselves, Jack would find it very easy to fend for his self but would the younger boys and who will become the true leader will it be jack who thrives on control.

In Great Expectations Pip does as the convict had asked of him and steals a file, food and a drink. He bumps into another convict who attempts to hurt Pip but Pip manages to get away. Pip tells the other convict about the man and the convict finds it amusing.

Later Pip feels guilt due to stealing from Joe and his sister. This is because Pip has never before done much wrong and he has a good understanding of what is right and wrong. Pip wishes to confess to someone however does not.

Soldiers come to the house while Pip is eating the Christmas dinner scraps that Joe, his Sister and their guests do not want. The fact that his own Sister and her husband do not attempt to give Pip a delicious Christmas dinner they do have shows how they feel he does not deserve it and that he is not important and they never expect much from him because he has been stereotyped for his class and sex.

Pip is always reminded by his elders that he lacks gratitude for them that "brought him up by hand" and that the young are naturally trouble. This again shows how he is stereotyped. Pip thinks that it is injustice however knows he cannot dispute the fact due to being of no importance to them. This may also be another motive of why he would want to grow in class and importance so maybe people will listen to him and his views.

 The soldiers are looking for two escaped convicts and ask Joe if he can make them some handcuffs. Thoughts of him stealing lead him to become nervous and even consider that the soldiers are there for him and his actions he was forced into. I think Golding uses this to show how Pip has a strong distinction from right and wrong and that stealing the file, food and drink for the convict is probably the first crime he has ever committed, which causes Pip’s guilty conscience to become active.

In Lord of the Flies the boys gather to decide who should be leader. They all have a vote and the obvious choices would be Jack, Ralph or Piggy. However Piggy is perceived as an outsider due to his appearance and Ralph was the one who blew the conch therefore seen by others as a leader.

The boy’s vote in Ralph, Jack is jealous but keeps his composure when Ralph tells jack that he can still be the leader of his choir and gives jack the idea that he and his choir could be hunters.

Ralph, Jack and Simon climb the mountain to try to discover if they are on an island or not. The find out they are and Ralph actually likes the thought of them being alone on the island,’ this belongs to us’, maybe Ralph has not thought of all that could happen when they are on the island.

On the way back down the mountain they find a piglet caught in a curtain of creepers. They need to eat so Jack pulls out his pocket-knife, then he freezes and the pig runs away, he swears he will kill a pig and the beginning to his obsession to kill. This may be the beginning of any evil on the island.

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Jack could not kill the pig because he probably has never done it before and being an awful savage like thing to do froze. The boys chose there leader by using a democratic vote which was a civilised “mature” way of deciding who would be there leader however trying to kill the first pig they see is a silly, which shows that Jack is the first to make mistakes.

In Great Expectations Pip, Joe and Mr Wopsle are allowed to follow the soldiers into the marshes, who find the two convicts fighting each other. The convict tells Joe that it ...

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