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Archetype In Lord Of The Flies

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Johanna Mejias
Ashlock 2
Lord of the Flies

“Chaos was the law of nature; Order was the dream of man.”- Henry B. Adams. In the midst of the next world war, a group of British school boys are left stranded on an island after their plane crashes. Blinded by the freedom of no adult supervision, the fragile order of the island collapses and terror takes over. In the book Lord of the Flies by William Golding the archetypal characters of the Mentor, Simon, and the shadow, Jack, are used to show the two sides of society; order and chaos. Simon is the mentor character archetype because he suffers from trying to give the gift of knowledge to the other boys, he helps the learner, Ralph, overcome obstacles, and he is a misunderstood prophet who understands …show more content…
Go on being chief… Keep the fire going.”(127). Simon encourages Ralph to keep on being Chief because they both understand that they need the fire to be rescued and that rules are needed to keep order. He helps get over his self doubt and in his idea to keep the fire going. Simon is helping Ralph, the learner, overcome internal obstacles of doubt, which is a trait of the mentor archetype. Simon is also trying to keep order together because if Jack were to become leader, the whole island would spiral into chaos. So by encouraging Ralph, he is attempting to keep the chaos at bay. As Ralph watches the sea numbly, he realizes how normal their situation has become to them. As his thoughts became darker and darker, Simon comes up to him and whispers in his ear, “You’ll get back all right.” (154). Simon is prophesying Ralph’s safe return. Ralph does not understand why or how Simon knows this, but Simon has never been wrong before. Simon is the misunderstood prophet because he has a higher level of knowledge and wisdom than the other boys, even Piggy and Ralph, cannot comprehend. When Jack and his tribe are performing a ritual dance depicting the boys hunting the beast, Simon stumbles into their circle being mistaken for the beast …show more content…
At the serious meeting Ralph called, Jack keeps interrupting even though he does not have the conch. Ralph shouts that he is breaking the rules because whoever has the conch is not to be interrupted. He replies with, “Who cares?... Bollocks to the rules! We’re strong -- we hunt! If there’s a beast, we’ll hunt it down! We’ll close in and beat and beat and beat --!” (123-124). Jack thinks the rules are nothing and does not take them seriously, valuing strength more. He believes that strength and violence is the answer to their problems. His first instinct is to hunt, which is a very primal and at times negative instinct. He also shows no interest in order as he finds the chaotic noise to be encouraging. Before the bigguns go off to Castle Rock, Piggy asks what they should do if the beasts comes to attack him and the littluns. However, Jack interrupts him with an insult resulting in Piggy saying that he has the conch. Jack shouted, “Conch! Conch! … We don’t need the conch anymore. We know who ought to say things” (139). The conch represents order, so Jack is essentially saying that order and rules are no longer needed. He is also saying that the only opinions that matter are his, leaving everyone else without a voice. He says things purely on impulse especially when people, namely Piggy, say things he does

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