Lord of the Flies.
Lord of the Flies, which tells the story of a group of English boys marooned on a tropical island after their plane is shot down during a war, is fiction. But the book's exploration of the idea of human evil is to some extent based on Golding's experience with the violence and savagery of human beings during World War II. In exploring the breakdown into savagery of a group of boys free from the imposed moral constraints of civilization and society, Lord of the Flies dramatizes a fundamental human struggle: the conflict between the impulse to obey rules, behave morally, and act lawfully and the impulse to seek brute power over others, act selfishly, behave in a way that will gratify one's own desires, scorn moral rules, and indulge in violence. The first set of impulses might be thought of as the "civilizing instinct," which encourages people to work together toward common goals and behave peacefully; the second set of impulses might be thought of as the "barbarizing instinct," or the instinct toward savagery, which urges people to rebel against civilization and instead seek anarchy, chaos, despotism, and violence. The novel's structure and style are extremely straightforward. The book largely excludes poetic language, lengthy description, and philosophical interludes. The novel is also allegorical, meaning that characters and objects in the book directly represent the novel's
Lord of the Flies.
Tuesday 9th March 2004 Lord of the Flies Lord of the flies is a story about a group of boys stranded on a remote desert island and how they cope and survive. The story starts off with Ralph and Piggy coming across a conch and deciding to blow it, in hope those survivors will come to the calling. Thankfully no one is lost in the crash and they all eventually join up and decide to elect a chief to command the group. After a quick discussion Ralph is chosen to be chief and his first act as of being in charge he allows Jack to be leader of the choir and appoints them to be the groups hunters. Throughout the story you recognise Jack change from being a typical happy boy to a quite a vindictive cruel child. Jack is not just a plain evil boy; it is due to the fact of him being alone on a desert island, which has a bad effect on his way of thinking. First sign of Jack's aggressiveness is when he kills the wild boar and finds it fulfilling and thrilling. " Jack stood up, holding out his hands. He giggled and flinked them" Pg.149. Jack's evil side comes about through the whole story, he feels that he should be listened to and obeyed by all the boys. This is expressed fully of Jack telling the 'littleluns' that the 'beast' exists and even if they give the boar's head he wont be happy. Jack does to build on the children's fear, so they only feel safe with him. Another example of
Lord Of The Flies.
Lord Of The Flies William Golding used a group of boys stranded on a tropical island to illustrate the malicious nature of mankind. Lord of the Flies deals with the changes that the boys underwent as they gradually adapted to the freedom from society. It is shown through many ways, but most notably during Simons's conversation with the 'Lord Of The Flies', which is actually a pig's head, when he understands that the beast is a result of the wickedness within themselves. William Golding presents numerous themes and basic ideas in the novel. One of the most obvious themes is that society holds everyone together, and when society breaks down, the basics of right and wrong are lost. Without society's rules, chaos and savagery can come to light. Golding shows that if there is no civilization around us, we will lose our sense of values. Positive qualities are shown at the beginning as the boys try to be civilised in electing leaders, as there are no adults, hence no rules. A conch is discovered, and whenever it was blown there was to be a group meeting. Different boys are also given different chores to carry out, which goes very well for a while, until things dramatically changed. One of the first characters we are introduced to in the novel is a young, fair-haired boy of twelve, called Ralph. He realises, that a world without adults means that they could do as they pleased but
Lord Of The Flies
p>Throughout the novel Lord Of The Flies, the boys on the island are constantly faced with various fears. However there is nothing on the island which they fear more than the beast. In Lord Of The Flies, the theme of the beast is extremely important. The beast represents the way in which man will try to convince himself that there is no evil inside of him by making someone or something else seem to be the cause for the evil. There are many examples of evidence to support this throughout the book, but first it is necessary to outline the rise of the beast and the evil within the boys. Talk of a dangerous presence emerged on the very first day on the island, when a little boy with a mulberry-coloured birthmark on his face informed everyone of a "beastie," which he apparently saw on the previous night. At the time, this was dismissed by the older boys as his imagination, but even at that early stage it was evident that the younger children were troubled by the little boy's words. It must be noted at this point that there was no definite physical appearance to the beast because it was assumed to be the over-active imagination of little children at work. At the same time it is obvious that Golding uses the early chapters in the book to set the scene for the chaos and terror of the beast that follows. Soon it became evident that even the older boys had begun to wonder whether in
lord of the flies
Chapter-1 The whole scheme of Golding's writing is based on the concept of situation, even though he has varied approaches in his novels. 'Lord of The Flies', the first novel, has incorporated some moral issues and has thus drawn on an indigenous tradition of sober moral enquiry. Like any religious writer, Golding, has treated the question of 'Good' and 'Evil' and the theme of original sin in allegorical method. In his own way, Golding tries to bring home the idea that man by birth is sinful. As though a moralist, he points out the fallen nature of man. It is this thesis that attempts to construct in this novel. He has done a critical investigation into a primitive spectrum of human experience and the question of religious and moral aspects comes to the fore front. In a way the implied argument of the novel seems to be specific and arresting because we may agree at the end of the novel that if we scratch the civilized man a little, we find the savage inside. It is beyond doubt that 'Lord of The Flies' is based on and reshaped from the situation of Ballantyne's 'Coral Island'. In his interview with Frank Kermode, Golding has stated that 'Lord of The Flies' is in fact a realistic view of the Ballantyne situation. But what is unique with this novel is that it is cast in a modern atmosphere and it deals with the contemporary predicament. Golding invents a new
Lord Of The Flies
Lord of the Flies "Lord of the Flies" is a novel written in the early 1950s just after World War II, by William Golding. It is set around the time of war, after a group of young boys are sent on a plane to live where there is no violence, unfortunately their plane crashes and they are left deserted on an island. They have to take care of themselves, and choose a leader, Ralph, to take control of the group and ensure they get back to safety. Things don't really turn out to plan though and they find themselves battling with good and evil, civilisation and savagery. Throughout my essay I intend to discuss the two main characters that contrast, Ralph and Jack. At first Ralph shows complete goodness within him, whereas Jack is shown to be evil, and struggles to control his temper. When Ralph is first introduced he is described as a boxer. "You could see now that he might make a boxer, as far as width and heaviness of shoulders went." This shows Ralph has power because he was big but he would not use this to be evil. Golding emphasises Ralph's goodness, this hints to what may happen at the end of the book. Golding also describes Ralph's inner being. "but there was a mildness about his mouth and eyes that proclaimed no devil" This again shows how good Ralph is, and his purity. Golding shows the contrast of Ralph and Jack by specifically describing their eyes, as it is
Lord of the Flies.
Lord of the Flies Lord of the flies is a story that begins in the aftermath of a plane crash in the Pacific Ocean during an unnamed war in which a group of English schoolboys are isolated on what they assume to be an island, under no adult supervision they are left to 'fend for themselves' create their own friendships and fight their own battles. As the story unfolds the boys develop a miniature society in which they try to include rules and order, but, each with their own ideas of right and wrong and sometimes totally different priorities, difficulties inevitably arise, their little community collapses and the boys are thrown into a world of hurt and fear. Because of the intensity of the problems each of these boys have to face in this novel at such an early age you could say that each one is, in his own way, a hero but you could also say that, because of its tragic storyline this novel holds no heroes. In this essay I hope to find out why or why not the characters in this story are heroes. Before I start this essay I feel it is necessary to define a 'hero'. The Collins dictionary defines a hero as "one greatly regarded for achievements or qualities" but I don't believe that this is necessarily true, in my opinion a hero is someone who does something unusually brave to their own standards, someone who puts themselves out in order to do something for someone else. A hero is
Lord of the Flies - Simon's character.
Throughout the story Simon is kind and thoughtful. When Jack insults Piggy, Simon always tries to manipulate what Jack has said into a compliment. Simon also confronts Jack in acts of courage to help Piggy. One of these times is when Simon goes to Jack after Jack has taken Piggy's specs, and he takes them off Jack and returns them to Piggy. He then defends Piggy, when Jack is trying to convict Piggy of not helping to start the fire. Simon says 'We used his specs...he helped that way'. This shows that he has some affection and sympathy for Piggy. In the novel, Simon's character is a Christ figure. Everything he does is good. All the other boys on the island have the secret 'inner evil', which only Simon can fight against. This 'inner evil' is William Golding's idea as to why people do evil things. He believed that when you are born you have a certain amount of good and a certain amount of evil inside you. He believed that as you go through your life you would show bits of evil at any time. The only problem is that the evil would be totally out of your control. Some people only show small amounts of evil, and others would turn completely evil, like Roger or the 'pig's head'- the Lord of the Flies itself. Simon is completely good because he has controlled the amount of evil showing form his body, down to a minimum. On the island there are different objects and characters,
Lord of the Flies
LORD OF THE FLIES By Mohammed Taguri In the beginning of lord of the flies both Jack and Ralph establish some sort of leadership characteristics. But on an Island with so many young children only one of them can become Chief. They both are very different but have an admiration and mutual respect for each other. Ralph is an upper-middle class English Boy. His father is a commander in the Navy, Ralph shows his naïve side when he tells piggy how once his father gets leave he'll come and rescue him. Ralph's main difference to Jack is that he has not altogether lost morality of his life prior to crash landing onto the island. Ralph in comparison to Jack is a lot more timid and sensitive, he does not share the aggression which emerges in Jack. Ralph however has an insensitive side at times, this is shown in the way he treats Piggy. Ralph's main weakness is his inability to decide on what to do, despite quickly maturing on the island, Ralph is still as confused and bewildered as any child would be when stranded on a desert island. His bad judgement is shown when Ralph must make a quick decision to either to fetch Piggy's glasses and risk the fire going out and ship leaving or climb on and risk the fire being totally out and unable to start again. Ralph is naïve and this is shown when the worst word he can possibly come up with is "bloody." Ralph tries to show
Lord of the Flies
The lord of the Flies by William Golding focuses on two natural instincts that all humans have intertwined inside of them. Golding's first instinct is that humans strive to live with peace and order by having rules, regulations and by valuing the good of the group over individual needs. This natural instinct is competed by the urges to relieve ones immediate desire with acts of violence to obtain what one needs making this natural instinct individually based. These two instincts are hardwired into human nature. Golding uses the protagonist Ralph to represent the human need for peace and order while the antagonist Jack represents the savagery in humans. Ralph is elected to be the leader of the children in the beginning but throughout the first three chapters the reader begins to get the sense that Jack, the antagonist will supplant Ralph as the leader. The shift from Ralph being leader to Jack taking over is representing the shift from civilization to savagery that the community of the kids are experiencing. The first chapter starts to present the idea that Jack will take over when Jack and Ralph's election got heated because both of them are natural born leaders. Through the second chapter Jacks leadership is displayed when he takes control and steals Piggy's glasses to construct a signal fire, giving the reader a foreshadow that Jack will take over as leader. In the third
