William Golding - 'The Lord Of The Flies.' - The long way back

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Sue-Ellen Castellino

Year 5

English

Mr. Krader.

William Golding, wrote a well known classic called ‘The Lord Of The Flies.’ In this book he brought forth a story about the traumatic change in the human nature of children brought up in a proper British society. These children are faced with a crisis; a plane crash brings them to an island on which they have to survive. I will talk about some of the events on the island and I will build upon the two pivotal personalities of Jack and Ralph. This essay will address how Jack and Ralph’s ‘traumatically changed’ physiological state will affect their competence in society.

Firstly, the two most traumatic things apart from the plane crash are the deaths of Simon and Piggy. The death of Simon was done in a group, where each boy would share the same guilty conscience. I think this would eventually turn into paranoia. At the end Ralph’s paranoia does in fact become a reality as Jack and his group are actually after him.

Secondly, at the end of the book, in the last chapter, Golding describes Ralph’s feelings upon the cruise. Quote “Ralph begins to weep for the first time on the island. He weeps for the end of innocence and the darkness of man's heart and for the fall of Piggy.”

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I think the above line is self-explanatory. Ralph feels deeply for the loss of his friend Piggy. The loss of a loved one or a friend is bound to leave a scar of some sort. This could lead to schizophrenia, since Ralph’s mind would invent a character associated with those traumatic memories. Or, at the least, Ralph would become a chronically depressed person.  

Jack on the other hand, portrays the kind of person who has the ability to tell people what they want to hear. This trait helped him to overthrow Ralph as chief. He uses this ...

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