...Dystopia ≠ Utopia A dystopia is a fictional society, usually portrayed as existing in a future time, where the conditions of life are extremely bad due to oppression, or terror. Science fiction (particularly post-apocalyptic science fiction and cyberpunk stories set in an imaginary future world controlled by technology and computers) often feature dystopias. Common traits of Dystopian fiction: The setting is the future, but often with contemporary social trends taken to extremes incorporated on purpose. A hierarchical society where there are unbending and definitive divisions between the upper, middle and lower class Society is conditioned to fear the outside world, and one of the methods for achieving this is the restriction of information and freedom. A corrupt authoritarian and totalitarian government creates or sustains the poor quality of life This government makes people believe that society is proper and just, even perfect. State propaganda makes citizens worship the state the leader of the state and the government. There is strict conformity among citizens and the general assumption that having opinions and individuality is bad The penal system often employs psychological or physical torture Violence, cruelty and aggressiveness are always present. Dystopias are frequently written as warnings, or as social satire, criticizing a current trend, norm or political system. In order for the dystopia to have an effect on the reader, the author uses characteristics...
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...How does William Golding support his hypothesis of what could possibly happen on an island when humans and boys in particular are marooned there? You may consider setting, characterization, themes and/or symbolism you must incorporate quotes from the text to support your analysis. William Golding wrote Lord of the Flies shortly after the end of WWII. The novel's plot, in which a group of English boys end up stranded on a deserted island struggle to develop their own society, is a social and political thought-experiment using fiction. The story focuses on their attempts at civilization, devolution into savagery and violence puts the relationship between human nature and society under literary observation. Golding uses several allusions to human evolution, such as when the boys discover fire, craft tools, and form political and social systems in a process that recalled theories of the development of early man. Golding's hypothesis about humanity is pessimistic, that is, there are anarchic and brutal instincts in human nature. He displays this throughout his conveying of the setting, characterization, themes, and symbolism. The novel takes place on an un-known inhabited island in the Pacific Ocean, Immediately in the novel Golding reveals the instinct of the restricted human savagery in the boys in regard to the setting. “Behind this was the darkness of the forest proper and open space of the scar” Page 10. Golding shows the...
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...In the book Lord Of The Flies by William Golding, the conch is used many times for certain things. The conch symbolizes a sense of power. It is used to call the boys for a meeting, it's used as a horn. During the meeting called Ralph, the conch is used to determine who has the right to speak. The one holding the conch is the one holding the power to speak in which the other boys must obey and listen, except for Ralph. Not only does the conch symbolize power, it also symbolizes order. It brings order to the boys in which they must follow. Mentioned in page 16, quote "We can use this to call the others. Have me meeting. They'll come when they hear us--" said by Piggy, tells us that they wanted to use this conch is call others. This conch brought...
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...Throughout the novel the boys constantly battle losing themselves to savagery in many different scenarios.In the Lord of the flies,loss of identity enable the boys on the island to commit evil actions that they would normally not do. Throughout the novel we witnesshow gradually the boys start to lose humanity and end up killing eachother at the end of this process.’’There we no words,and no movements but the tearing of teeth and claws’’(chapter 9 pg 139).Life on the island was being striiped away of civilization and the killing of simon was the last link of any civilization the boys had in themselves.Through this brutal animalistic murder of simon the smallest ounce of good they had left in themselves was quickly ripped away.Due to this event the boys all had become inhumane savages and lost who they really were....
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...with the consequences and hurting the ones they love. When one fail's to accept responsibility for their actions there are a series of events that follow through. For example, in Lord of the Flies Jack did not...
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...While Ralph hides from the savages, he enters Simon’s clearing, which has also become the place where the other boys sacrifice a pig’s head to the beast. Golding uses poetic devices here to show the significance and beauty of the scene. The first device he uses is alliteration on the letter “s” in the line, “The slanting sticks of sunlight” (Golding 185). The alliteration on the “s” sounds like a snake’s hissing sound. In the story of Adam and Eve, the snake tempts Eve to eat an apple from the tree that God told them never to eat from. This shows how the boys have taken the step away from God and civilization, and completely joined the world of savagery. The next device is personification. In the clearing, “rock prevented vegetation from growing” (Golding 185). Here, the rock represents the harsh island, and the vegetation represents life and beauty. The rock preventing the vegetation from growing shows how the island prevents life and civilization from starting and thriving on the island. The third device used is metaphor, which comes when the clearing is described as a “pool of shadows” (Golding 185). A pool is usually a small body of water, and water is often used to represent the subconscious, while shadows symbolizes darkness and evil. Subconscious evil is what Simon realizes is the inner beast, so the pool of shadows represents the inner beast inside everyone and everything, even the beautiful clearing. Later on, the device of personification is used again. Here, personification...
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...In the book The Lord of the Flies Piggy reacts to fear by going into denial. In chapter 10 he and Ralph are talking about how Simon died in the last chapter. He keeps telling Ralph that it was an accident and how he and ralph were in the back of the group so they didn’t do anything wrong (Lord of the Flies, 157). Piggy is scared because he knows that killing is wrong. The “evil” in this could be savagery because that is what made the boys kill Simon. They are losing their humanity and become more animalistic the longer they spend on the island. There was also a sign of Evil in chapter 11 when Piggy is killed by Roger and this is a sign of evil towards Piggy because Roger represents evil throughout the book (Lord of the Flies, 180-181). Evil is attributing to Satan, the fall of man,genes, human nature, or unnamed dark forces lurking in our unconscious. ( ,1)Roger took part is forcing Samneric into joining their tribe. He beat them and then he and Jack explained how they plan to kill Ralph. Roger then kills pigging with the boulder and crushes...
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...In William Golding’s captivating novel, Lord of the Flies, fear of an unknown and menacing beast drives a group of boys to violent tendencies. The fabled beast begins as a rumor among the littluns, eventually manifesting itself as an unspoken terror in the boys’ minds. As the beast becomes more and more tangible, fear begins to dictate their everyday lives and tear their society apart. Fear possesses the power to alter civilizations, disperse figures of authority, deliver irrational power to others, and wear down civilized behavior until people resort to murder. Fear first establishes itself through whispers of the littluns. The littluns have dreams about the beast and one says he “...saw the beastie. It came and went away again an’ came...
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...Every living being has the ability to be bad or if put in a tough situation became bad even if not inherently so. This message is conveyed in multiple scenarios throughout history like when Stanley Milgram held the electric shock experiments at yale university in 1963(the bad show podcast). This experiment proved that even a normal human could do horrible things to another and we all have a beast within ourselves. In the book The Lord Of The Flies by William Golding, there are multiple examples of symbolism. Some examples include, the conch, Piggy's glasses, and the killing of the pig. The story starts odd during the time of world war two. Many british school boys are evacuating the country on a plane. It is shot down and crashes onto a deserted island where the boys form a small government making their leader: Ralph. The boys quickly realize they must somehow signal for help and build a large fire using Piggys glasses, the fire burns the entire forest down and even kills one boy. The conch is found by Ralph and Piggy when they got off the plane and start walking a long the beach. They use it as a horn to call out to all the other boys. Ralph blew a series of short blasts” (page 15). The conch is a symbol of organisation at first because it allows the person holding it to speak about issues at...
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...A gleaming white shell was held high above a crowd of power-hungry boys. It became a beacon, shining as the face of the newly found government. Man is always fighting for recognition and reverence from others. Ironically, this is often what causes chaos in civilizations. Humanity’s desire for power leads to their own destruction. In the novel Lord of the Flies, Golding uses the conch as a symbol of power and civilization. Arguably portraying the conch as the face of the government. The “conch” is “most power[full]” and gives authority to whoever holds it (22). When the boys create a social organization on the island the conch is what holds them together. Otherwise the leaders of society would have no authority of the civilians and order...
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...In the story, Lord of the flies, twelve boys are in a tragic plane that crashes into the ocean. This leads them to a deserted island, where they're forced to create a democracy. This democracy is represented by a conch shell that the boys find in the ocean. The idea is that whoever has the shell has the right to speak; as well as, whatever happens to the conch shell happens to them. However, as the movie continues you start to see the failure of their democracy from the three things: Tragedy of the Commons, Prisoners Dilemma, and Free Riders. Tragedy of the Commons is when you see their first flaw. The ‘leader’ Ralph suggests that they create a fire. This fire will be used as their signal, source of warmth, and how they’ll cook their food....
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...The Conch shell symbolizes the boys losing their innocence on the island but, they also used the conch as a tool. Using the Conch as a tool starts to divide the boys and pushes them away from each other, causing a riveral for power that then leads to their fall of innocence. The shell reflects power, organization, and authority in the beginning. At the very end of the novel the shell symbolizes a loss of innocence in all the boys. After Ralph finds the shell Piggy, tries to explains that “It's a shell I see one like that before on someone's back wall. A conch he called it. He used to blow and then his mum would come. It's ever so valuable”(15). Piggy understands from the very beginning of the novel, that the conch is very valuable, and he believes that the shell should be used as a leadership tool. The shell was originally used as the glue that held the boys together, not to drive them apart in the hopes of having more power. Once they blow the other boys come out of hiding, showing that when Ralph blows the conch people will come, it's a way of communication on the island. As the choir boys lead by Jack made there way on to the beach Jack asked “Where is the man with the mega phone” (7). The idea of a load noise calling everyone together would be something an older adult would do since there is no adults on the island the boys will have to use the conch as a tool and govern themselves. Ralph understands this and while everyone is fighting over whether they explore the island...
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...is a condition of war of everyone against everyone,” (bhsa). The debate of whether humans are born pure or evil has been argued since the 1500’s and one person who had an opinion on this topic was William Golding. Golding, a former WW2 veteran, agreed with Hobbes’s belief that humans are inherently evil and this concept is shown throughout his novel, The Lord of the Flies. In the book, a group of British boys crash on an island and the constant power struggle between two of the boys, named Ralph and Jack, along with the desire to survive brings out the worst in all of the boys . The question of whether humanity is inherently...
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...Why is it that a commander always has a second-in-command? Or a president, a vice president? A king or queen, a royal advisor? Is it so there’s someone to take over if the leader dies? Is it to keep the leader in check? Not entirely. There’s always a second, because one person can’t be a good leader alone. There is no person in the world who has every trait of a great leader. The traits are shared and spread between various people. Not only does this make people work together to overcome their difficulties, but it also ensures a separation of powers in order to keep one person from rising up as a tyrant. Lord of the Flies showed a great example of this idea. Ralph and Piggy were easily the two best leaders of the group, but neither of the boys...
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...Leadership and Knowledge Using symbolism, Golding enhances the meaning of the book itself and objects in the book. Many objects or event in the book have a meaning behind them that help to give the book more definition and expand Golding’s intentions. Some objects used in the book to symbolize something more meaningful could be Piggy’s glasses and the conch shell. In the book, Golding has Piggy’s glasses and the conch shell’s symbolism pop up many times. Throughout the book Golding gives certain objects a meaning behind them to make those objects symbolize important things that enhance the meaning of the book. One of the many symbols in the book is Piggy’s glasses. Piggy’s glasses are brought up in the beginning of the book and the symbol...
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