Lord of the Flies
"Lord of the Flies is just a children's adventure story." Argue against this statement. It may look as if Lord of the Flies is just a children's adventure story. However, there is also a truth concealed deep inside the novel where Golding uses symbolism effectively so that readers are able to become conscious of certain issues. The issues it concerns are: society, human nature, good vs. evil, ecological balance and cooperation. Lord of the Flies reveals a multifaceted story beneath an effortless storyline. In the novel, Golding takes the time to explicate to readers that man and women are who they are because of their childhood, that if they were not brought up well they will grow to be uncivilized. Take this for example Piggy continuously talks about his auntie saying, 'my auntie-'this and 'my auntie-'that, remembering everything that his auntie told him, what was right and what was wrong and understands that,' grown-ups know things.' This shows that without care and guidance that children receive from parents, guardians, or anyone at all, children will regress back to the roots of savagery of their fellow ancestors. Nonetheless, if you look in-depth into the story there is more than meets the eye. Thus claiming that Lord of the Flies is just a children's adventure story is incorrect, the story exposes a more intricate plot. At the beginning, the boys were ordered and
law and order lord of the flies
Law and Order One of the first characters to emerge as a distinct personality is Piggy, who represents law and order. One of Piggy's first inspirations is brought about by the sight of a conch in a pool. When Ralph retrieves the conch, Piggy realizes that: "We can use this to call the others. Have a meeting". Piggy's first instinct is for organization, and the conch which he spots becomes a symbol of the fragile system of order that the boys create. Piggy is critical of the kind of freedom that leads to disorder and chaos. When the boys agree to build a fire on the mountain to send a smoke signal, the first meeting breaks up as everyone rushes towards the mountain. Like the crowd of boys, the fire quickly gets out of control, and one of the younger boys appears to be missing -probably trapped in the burning jungle. Piggy tells the others that they have acted "like a pack of kids!" and asks, "How can you expect to be rescued if you don't put first things first and act proper?" The only salvation Piggy can envision comes from behaving in an orderly manner. The degree to which he values this vision of order is shown by his reverence for the conch, which he attempts to protect from Jack later on in the book. Even when the majority of the boys have abandoned the original, organized society, Piggy clings to the shell, stubbornly believing that the beauty of order cannot be denied.
What is the importance of Simon in Lord of the Flies
WHAT IS THE IMPORTANCE OF SIMON IN LORD OF THE FLIES The character of Simon is featured heavily in the novel, but his personality is quite a mystery to the reader. This essay aims to explore and explain the importance and significance of Simon in the novel, and various viewpoints and connections with him and other characters. Firstly Simon's importance will be considered in relation to the plot of Lord of the Flies. Generally Simon is on the outskirts of the goings on in the novel, such as meetings or when the three boys climb the mountain to find the beast, but occasionally he speaks out, to the sound of much ridicule from the rest of the children. One such occurrence is on page 159 where, after much prompting he manages to say: ' "I think we ought to climb the mountain" ' then a few lines later he whispers: ' "What else is there to do?" '. These apparently irrational ideas are in fact those of a much more intelligent mind and in truth are not as unusual as the boys imply, but on the island he is generally regarded as weird. Up until his death, Simon is often ignored and left to himself in the novel, with only Ralph and Piggy really taking any notice, such as on page 64 only the Ralph and Simon are working on the shelters when Jack appears, and Simon suddenly enters the conversation: ' "They're hopeless. The older ones aren't much better. D'you see? All day I've
Violent Society in Lord of the Flies
Why does the society on the island collapse into violence in 'Lord of the Flies'? 'Lord of the Flies' is an allegorical novel by William Golding in which he employs the scene of a deserted island and the cast of a group of English schoolboys to serve as a framework, through which he explores the themes of his book. The major themes that Golding tackles are the conditioning of behaviour vs. the malicious inclination of human nature and the spectrum of civilisation and savagery. The violence on the island is generated for several reasons, major ones being the loss of conditioning, the transformation from civilised to savage and the conflict between Ralph and Jack. Conditioning is the learning process by which our behaviour becomes dependant on an event or action occurring in our environment. The boys have been constantly conditioned by schoolteachers and parents to follow the conduct of the English society, and not to do wrong or be immoral, as if they were disobedient, they would have been given punishments from authority: in this period, corporal punishment would have been common. The point in the book which clearly demonstrates the conditioning of the boys is when Roger throws stones at Henry in chapter four: 'Roger gathered a handful of stones...a civilization that knew nothing of him and was in ruins.' (page 78). Here, Roger is incapable of throwing the stones directly at
What is the importance of Simon in 'Lord of the Flies'
What is the importance of Simon in Lord of the Flies? Write about: - The importance of the part Simon plays in the plot - How Simon is different from the other boy's - What Simon might represent - The ways the writer uses Simon to convey his ideas. 'Then one of the boys flopped on his face in the sand and the line broke up.' Even at this point, the very first mention of Simon in The Lord of the Flies, Simon is marked out as something different. Throughout the book, he is the outsider. Inhabiting the 'dubious region' between biguns and littluns - he is singled out for his faints, as Jack says, 'In Gib.; and Addis; and at matins over the precentor,' and, like Piggy, is often the subject of group ridicule. For example, when on page 92 he admits to being out at night, his mumbled excuses are put down with Jack's dismissive 'he was taken short' - and he is crushed by 'the derisive laughter that rose.' He also seeks solitude, not companionship - but somehow is never afraid, unlike the other boys - who are all afraid at one time or another. In due course, as the story progresses, he seems to become even more of a social recluse - even Ralph, who Simon generally seems to support, confides to Jack that 'He's queer. He's funny.' And this is without the one important, most drastic difference between Simon and the others - which only the reader finds out about - Simon's
Less Obvious Symbols in Lord of the Flies
How does Golding use the less obvious symbols in 'Lord of the Flies'? 'Lord of the Flies' is an allegorical novel by William Golding in which he employs the scene of a deserted island and the cast of a group of English schoolboys to serve as a framework, through which he explores the themes of his book. The more obvious symbols in the book appear to be the conch shell, which symbolizes order and civilisation, and Piggy's glasses, which symbolize science, intelligence and clear-sightedness. However, there are some symbols that are less obvious but still play a key role in revealing the major themes in the novel. These less obvious symbols are the action and movement of the boys, the shelters and the use of light imagery. The action and movement of the boys tracks their energy and physical ability, and this leads onto understanding their ability to persuade and control others. The shelters are the basis for their civilisation. The light imagery is used not only to describe the way that the light seen, but is symbolic of the very central theme of civilisation versus savagery, or perhaps the more universal good versus evil. The movement and action of the boys, as aforementioned, is important in understanding how physically able the boys are, but it seems as though the more physically able boys gain the control and authority over the weaker and less physically able boys. It is as
What is the importance of Simon in The Lord of the Flies?
What is the importance of Simon in The Lord of the Flies? Write about: First. The importance of the part Simon plays in the plot Second. How Simon is different from the other boys Third. What Simon might represent Fourth. The ways the writer uses Simon to convey his ideas Simon is a very important character in the story because he represents the good in all people and he is not touched by evil at all. The first mention that we get of Simon is at the beginning when he is in Jack's choir and faints from the heat. From here we realise that Simon is different to the others in that he sees the good in things for example, at the end of the first chapter Simon sees the beauty of flowers that look like candles, "Here they paused and examined the bushes around them curiously. Simon spoke first. 'Like candles. Candle bushes. Candle buds.'", this could suggest that Simon is very spiritual. Furthermore in the third chapter he is the only one to stay with Ralph and build the shelters, all the other boys just go and play in the sand or the sea. Simon also represents good in the story because he is always helping the other boys and has no evil or violent actions during the life of his character, one example of this is that he helps the littleuns to get fruit "Simon found for them the fruit they could not reach", this is a truly altruistic action and helps the reader paint a
Lord of the flies: How does Golding Present the Loss of Innocence?
Lord of the flies: How does Golding Present the Loss of Innocence? In Goldings' Lord of the flies, the boys slowly loose their civilisation and become savages as they also loose their innocence as their original sin is revealed represented by the 'beast'. He slowly describes them in ways to show us the change from what we know as good to evil. As Golding unveils the boy's original sin, he slowly begins to refer to the boys as savages and even devils. He writes "...behind the tribe and the anonymous devils' face swarmed across the neck." This is very effective as it indicates to the reader that Golding now I confirming the boys are drenched in Original sin as he labels them 'devils' after they have killed Piggy. The innocence of the boys is lost as two of the boys are killed by other boys on the island. Piggy is killed when Roger releases a very large rock and it plunges him to his death. It says "...Piggy fell forty feet and landed on his back...his head opened and stuff came out and turned red." In this quote, Golding uses quite colloquial language to describe Piggys' death. By using the word 'stuff' rather than the distinctive language he used to show us the meaning of Simons' death, the effect of this is that although Piggy was a main character, he did not have a special meaning in this book. At the start of the book were Jack was faced with the challenge of killing a
How is fear presented in Lord of the Flies?
How is fear presented by Golding in Lord of The Flies? Fear is an elemental part of the boys' life, it coexists with them throughout the novel, contorting and evolving at the hands of the boys' imagination. This fear mutates, it grows from being just a singular emotion to a catalyst of events; it lives almost a life of its own upon the island, feeding off the lonely isolation of the boys and giving birth to ever more engulfing notions of the emotion. Ever developing the fear is never suppressed, never 'washed to away from the island', until the cleansing hand of civilization once again takes responsibility of the boys-this being the arrival of the navy ship and 'a uniform'. At first fear is merely the speech of the littlest children, harmless to those who were older and 'mature' enough to give it no heed. Maturity, it would seem, within the novel appears to have a definition that implies that the longer one has been in the bosom of society, educated and disciplined by her, the more mature they are. 'He says the beastie came in the dark' tells us far more than just the first incarnation of fear. The quote gives us the idea of the beastie, incidentally a 'snake-thing' (see Adam and Eve). It introduces to us how the fear of the creature is amplified by the inability to see it, given by inclusion of the word 'dark', This is a running theme, without being able to 'see' the beast
The symbolism of the beast in Lord of The Flies
The symbolism of the Beast & its significance to characters in LOTF In LOTF the beast is a symbol of fear, and is represented by Golding in many different ways. It is not only a physical thing, but also a presence within all of the boys, which creates an atmosphere of darkness, and horror. It is one of the signs that Golding uses to show that the island isn't as beautiful as it may seem, and that it has a dark side too. The beast is introduced when the littluns says that he has seen a "snake thing", describing it as "big and horrid." At first the beast is just a vague idea, and Simon says that the littluns scream in their sleep "as if it wasn't a good island." Highlights the dark side of the island. The main characters see the beast differently. As leader, Ralph tries to comfort the boys, by describing the idea of the beast as 'nonsense', which is helping the littluns come to terms with the idea. Jack almost undermines Ralph by saying that even if there was a beast "we'd kill it". This shows his hunter- gatherer quality. Piggy is the rational one, and says that "life is scientific", and that the beast doesn't exist. He gets close to the truth when he explains to the boys that it is possible to be "frightened of people." (The beast is within us all.) Simon is also very rational. He suggests that the only thing they should all fear is the savagery and evil in human nature.
