Compare and Contrast the Opening chapters of Lord of the Flies by William Golding and Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.
Lord of the Flies written by William Golding and published in 1954 is written in modern society, during the time of the cold war conflict, whereas Great Expectations was written in 1861, during the Victorian era. The differences in style in which the books are written are immediately obvious to the reader. This essay discusses the similarities and differences of all aspects of both opening chapters.
The opening chapter of Great Expectations, which is written in the first person, concerns a young boy called Pip. The reader immediately gets the impression that he is very young by the way in which he portrays himself. Pip describes himself as ‘undersized for my years, and not strong.’ He would obviously not be able to fend for himself in a bad situation as we see when he meets Magwitch and also he is not mature enough to make conscious adult decisions. The boys on the island, although some are even younger than Pip, try to act how an adult would in their situation.