...In William Golding's Lord of the Flies, a group of boys have survived a plane crash and have landed on an island. Without any grownups, the boys are forced to learn how to survive and cooperate by themselves, but the boys will soon be uncoordinated. The boys lose their innocence, and most will turn into savages. In developing the theme of the predatory, bestial atavistic nature of man, Golding employs numerous symbols using characters, symbolic acts, and objects. Of the groups of symbols, characters in Lord of the Flies symbolize different aspects of man. Some characters represent the different personalities that are involved with Sigmund Freud's id, ego, and superego. Piggy, a fat boy who wears spectacles, represents the superego as he is...
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...How often do we find ourselves modifying our own image because of the opinions of others around us? Do we live in a world of disguise? William Golding wrote a novel called The Lord Of The Flies, that shows how we as humans in society put on a mask that conceals us from both good and evil qualities. He explains and shows how things that happen in this life are not at all what they always seem to be. He expresses how humans hide their true selves and perhaps even change their appearance, for the purpose of making others think differently about them. In the selection, The Lord Of The Flies, William Goulding ties in a similar topic- creating a mask so that others become oblivious as to what we are hiding underneath. In the first chapter of the...
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...or to become accustomed to their solitude and learn to fend for themselves. Such realities can also be portrayed in works of fiction such as The Hunger Games and Lord of the Flies, two stories that may seem very different in content, but are based on very similar ideas. In these two stories, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and Lord of the Flies by William Golding, there are two main characters by the names of Katniss and Ralph who both go through their life journeys isolated from society and in each story, their situations becomes a disadvantage for them. Lord of the Flies and The Hunger Games are novels that portray an abuse of power as a result of leadership roles in society, an absence of identity used as camouflage, and finally, a loss of innocence among the characters as a result of living in a corrupted and chaotic environment. In both stories, there is an abuse of power, which destroys the main characters’ lives. In Golding’s Lord of the Flies, once Jack had decided to run the island the way he sees fit, things started to go downhill for Ralph. When Ralph was chief of the island, the children tried to stay as civilized as they could, and even started establishing rules and tasks for each person to accomplish. When Jack started to take control of the island, however, everything was completely ruined. Jack did not care for rules and made that very clear to the rest of the kids on the island. If one was on Jack’s side, one was guaranteed to have fun, do whatever one wanted...
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...book, Lord of the Flies by William Golding, Sam and Eric were influenced to change by the other boys and the actions that surrounded them. At the beginning of the book, Sam and Eric were loyal to Ralph, but in the end they were manipulated by Jack. Being on the island started to make them lose their civil nature and act as if they were older. They were also treated as if they were one person, Samneric, causing Sam and Eric to lose themselves as individuals when they were treated like biguns, although they still tended to act how boys their age were supposed to act. Other times they had more responsibilities and had to take actions like adults because of how the new society was put in place. In Lord of the Flies, Samneric were treated differently by the biguns, which influenced them to evolve into completely different people. In the beginning, Sam and Eric were very loyal to each other and Ralph. Towards the end, they were not loyal to Ralph. Jack and Roger forced information out of them and "While [Ralph] was eating, he [heard] fresh noises- cries of pain from Samneric, cries of panic, angry voices" (Golding 191). After the information was let...
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...gives a beautiful bull to the king of Crete. Expecting the bull to be sacrificed in the name of Poseidon, the king was infatuated by the beauty of the bull and kept it for himself. Enraged, Poseidon punishes the king by making the king’s wife fall madly in love with the bull. In result, the Minotaur was created: A half man, half bull cannibal. Mortified and disgusted, instead of killing this creature, the king created a labyrinth and locked up the Minotaur. Every nine years, to feed the Minotaur, the king would order Athens to choose seven boys and seven girls to be sent to the labyrinth. Because of the complicated architecture of the labyrinth, the youths would be helplessly lost until the Minotaur would find them and devour them. Why did Athens agree to do this? Why is the Minotaur so intimidating? Athens and the King of Crete could have treated the Minotaur as an individual, but instead they were captivated by fear. Although the Minotaur has many human features, we categorize him as a beast because we fear him: his abnormality, inscrutability and forbidden nature. The Minotaur, aside from being too big and a carnivore, was thrown into a never-ending maze mainly because of shame and chagrin. The Minotaur was never seen; only the king, the queen as well as the cycles of fourteen youths who never lived to tell the tale, have laid eyes on this monster. If this is the case, then why do the people of Athens believe that the Minotaur exists? The Minotaur scandal propagated and...
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...In William Golding’s 1954 award winning novel, Lord of The Flies, Golding introduces religious allegory in many of the characters and many of the scenes within the novel. Not only does Golding depict religious allegory, but so does Harry Hook in his 1990 film, Lord of the Flies. In his film, Hook depicts his interpretation of the novel, and does a very good job at doing so. While the movie consists of a slightly different plot than the book, Harry Hook is also able to insert the ideology that Golding strived to do in his writing. They are both able to depict Simon and Piggy as Jesus-like characters in the sense of truth telling, and the reference of being a martyr. Jack is depicted as a devilish and totalitarian dictator character, and it is...
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... Lord of the flies essay This essay is going to show the extent of which Jack and Ralph symbolise the struggle between good and evil. As you read further on you should notice that Jack goes to a much larger extent to represent evil rather than good, however Ralph is the complete opposite. Jack uses his talent and skill to become a hunter and Ralph to try and keep order and rules over the Island. Jack is quite selfish but Ralph is more caring towards the other boys. The essay will compare Jack and Ralph and show some of the few similarities that they have; it will also show the competition between them to try and become leader. My first impression of Jack was that he is used to being the leader and he thinks is better than everyone else, he is self-centred and quite arrogant; however Jack does have some good leadership skills as he was head of the choir. I think this because in the book it says, “kid’s names, why should I be Jack? I’m Merridew.” This suggests that Jack thinks that he is higher in authority than all the other boys because he wants to be called by his surname instead of his first name (Jack). I think Ralph gives a better first impression than Jack because he was immediately thinking about organising the boys on the island in order to get them all rescued. This shows that Ralph wasn’t just thinking about...
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...In both Lord of the Flies by William Golding and I’m the King of the Castle by Susan Hill, the authors have effectively used settings and locations in their novels. This is a great impact, as most of the settings and locations have a meaning, representing something to do with the plot. The writers have used certain locations in a way that affects the understanding and thoughts of the reader, ranging from calm, peaceful settings, to terrifyingly dark ones. Each novel has different high and lows to their story, and locations are effectively used to express this. In Lord of the Flies, the Island is the main location, and this is used as a symbol of isolation. The Island is in the middle of the sea, and the location is unknown. The boys are separated from the outside, and are isolated from society and rules, leading to no order. William Golding is trying to create a claustrophobic fear in the readers, one of the main emotional states shown in the book while the boys are on the island. The Island is the opening location of the novel, which is deliberately violent, as this is the setting of “the scar.” This instantly portrays the negative effect the boys will have on the environment of the Island. The influence this has by being at the very start of the book on the reader’s interpretation is that it will give a feel to the reader about how the plot will twist throughout the book. In I’m the King of the Castle the main location is Warings. Warings is a ‘gloomy,’ ‘entirely graceless’...
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...descendants of primal animals. In William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies, violence consumes the boys stranded on the island, and reduces the civilized lifestyle that once existed in their lives by what they have been shown to complete savagery. The violence of humanity throughout this novel stems from the fall of civilization and entrance into a society rich with savagery and violence, the fear of which can create such a society and the justification of their violence through the creation of a persona. If the fall of a civilized society were to occur, it would result in it transitioning into...
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... Pretty bad, right? Poor, young, twelve year old Ralph had to go through all this after their plane crashed into an island, in the book, “The Lord of the Flies.” Imagine how nervous and scared Ralph was to take care of a group of young boys, who rebelled against him. Ralph is a great example of taking power as a leader and looking out for the interest of others. The Lord of the Flies is a story about a group of English boys whose plane crashed in an island. These boys decided to elect a leader, so they picked Ralph, the oldest boy of the group. One of the other boys, Jack, wanted to be the leader, and Ralph didn’t want to upset him, so he made him his assistant. Day after day the boys get tired of Ralph’s rules and begin to disobey him, and Jack also gets jealous of him being the leader. So when Jack saw that mostly everyone hated Ralph, he made his own group, where there are no rules or work. Most of the boys join Jack’s group except for a few boys who stayed loyal to Ralph and didn’t leave him. Over time Ralph gets...
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...Lord of the Flies is a book that conveys the message about human beings having rules, authority, and government in order to maintaining a safe environment. At the beginning of the book we find out that a group of british boys ages 6 to 12 are stranded on an island alone without any adults due to their plane that has crashed on the island therefore they are destined to govern themselves in order for their survival. A major character whom portraits a big role in the book is Piggy, when he is first introduced we meet him as the “fat boy,” he himself says to Ralph “They used to call me Piggy.” (1.65-70) Throughout the book we find out that they aren’t able to govern themselves and have difficulty communicating with each other yet at the same time we realize that Piggy is the closest thing we have to an adult on the island, insisting on having rules and order....
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...In Lord of the Flies all the boys who arrived on the island were all innocent and naïve but without any adults to look over them they quickly started to lose their innocence and do things that where they were originally from would be deemed illegal. Once arrived on the island Jack is one of the boys who quickly shows he wants control and to lead the boys but with him wanting this he quickly turns not so innocent. One of the things that Jack does that shows he is losing his innocence is when he goes after a female pig that just had piglets. What he does is “the sow gave a gasping squeal and staggered up with two spears sticking in her fat flank.” (8.147-148) By Jack doing this it goes against human nature and killing it also reduces their...
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...Savagery in The Lord of the Flies William Golding’s novel ‘The Lord of The flies’ presents us with a group of English boys who are isolated on a desert island, left to try and retain a civilised society. In this novel Golding manages to display the boys slow descent into savagery as democracy on the island diminishes. At the opening of the novel, Ralph and Jack get on extremely well. We are informed Jack, “shared his burden,” and there was an, “invisible light of friendship,” between the two boys. Jack changes considerably throughout this novel. At first he tells us, “I agree with Ralph we’ve got to have rules and obey them,” This shows us that at the beginning of the novel, just like Ralph, he wants to uphold a civilised society. We are also notified, “Most powerfully there was the conch.” As the conch represents democracy we can see that at the beginning of the novel the boys sustain a powerful democratic society. This democratic society does not last very long as the children (especially Jack) have a lack of respect for the conch and the rules. We can see this when Jack decides, “We don’t need the conch anymore, we know who should say things.” As the conch represents democracy we can see that civilisation on the island is braking up and savagery is starting to take over. We can also see a brake up in society when Jack says, “Bollocks to the rules!” Here we can see that Jack contradicts himself while managing to diminish the assembly and the power of the conch. Golding...
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...Lord of the Flies In the book Lord of the Flies the boys are stranded on an island all alone. They need to make some kind of system to keep order amongst the group. A utopia is formed quite early on, within the first few chapters in fact. The island seems wonderful with no parents around to boss the kids. The island itself is beautiful and free, to them it is like a vacation of some kind. The leader, Ralph, does a great job of keeping all of the kids very happy. He assures everyone that someone will indeed look and search for them. He does this to keep them from being hopeless, and depressed, for he knows that there might not be escape. In the mean time while waiting Ralph tells everyone to have fun and enjoy what they have on the island. They have a bathing pool and they can build huts and play around. At this early stage, a definite utopia is formed within the novel. Of course the kids will stay happy knowing their parents aren’t there to cause stress and bark orders, but the fact that they are stranded is terrible. Ralph does play it very good in keeping order and telling the kids that rescue will come for them. Order is eventually lost when Jack turns rogue on Ralph and decides to do his own thing. There is a constant fight for leadership in the middle section of the book. Both Jack and Ralph go at it nonstop verbally testing each other. This is where the book becomes dystopian, because things are not good at all and tensions...
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...On the island some time ago, a group of boys were stranded with nothing remaining. On the island, the group decides to elect a leader, the boys select Ralph. Ralph leads the group with help from Piggy and a little from Jack. While time passes the group starts to split into two separate factions. This soon leads into a gruesome war. After death, savagery, and brutality, they soon get rescued. Golding portrays Jack’s appetite for hunting pigs, dominance over the choir boys, and desire for absolute leadership to not only demonstrate the deterioration of the boys’ society, but also to depict the intimidation and fear that jack receives for the boys. In the beginning, Jack’s bloodlust was vague but Golding was hinting at the real personality...
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