...Lord of the Flies William Golding Analysis of Major Characters Themes, Motifs & Symbols Ralph Ralph is the athletic, charismatic protagonist of Lord of the Flies. Elected the leader of the boys at the beginning of the novel, Ralph is the primary representative of order, civilization, and productive leadership in the novel. While most of the other boys initially are concerned with playing, having fun, and avoiding work, Ralph sets about building huts and thinking of ways to maximize their chances of being rescued. For this reason, Ralph’s power and influence over the other boys are secure at the beginning of the novel. However, as the group gradually succumbs to savage instincts over the course of the novel, Ralph’s position declines precipitously while Jack’s rises. Eventually, most of the boys except Piggy leave Ralph’s group for Jack’s, and Ralph is left alone to be hunted by Jack’s tribe. Ralph’s commitment to civilization and morality is strong, and his main wish is to be rescued and returned to the society of adults. In a sense, this strength gives Ralph a moral victory at the end of the novel, when he casts the Lord of the Flies to the ground and takes up the stake it is impaled on to defend himself against Jack’s hunters. In the earlier parts of the novel, Ralph is unable to understand why the other boys would give in to base instincts of bloodlust and barbarism. The sight of the hunters chanting and dancing is baffling and distasteful to him. As the novel progresses...
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...Civil societies consists of organizations and institutions that help and look after people, their health, and their rights. In the book Lord of the Flies by William Golding a group of kids are stranded on an island and have to fend for themselves. They attempt to create a civil society that ends up becoming unstable due to the jealousy of character named Jack who later becomes a dictator. Virginia’s early years consisted of death, disaster, disease, starvation and attack threats from the Native Americans. The Laws of Virginia are strictly based on God. Even though the Laws are based on God in creates organization whereas Jacks society is reckless and not civil. Jacks tribe from lord of the Flies and the Laws of Virginia society when compared and contrasted based on the civil society principles of free expression and philanthropy that the Laws of Virginia is more civil. Both Jacks society and Virginia’s society allow you to express yourself to a certain point without having to face the consequences. “ For hunting. Like in the war. You know-dazzle paint. Like things trying to look like something else”(Golding 63). Jack doesn’t have rules against expressing yourself, he just demands respect. Virginia is the same way because they don’t have rules against the way you express yourself, their only concern is that people follow God. “No man shall speak any word or do any act which may tend to the derision or despite of God’s holy word, upon pain of death”(24). The Laws of Virginia...
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...Lord of the Flies Comprehensive Test True/False- Mark “A” for True and “B” for False. 1. When Ralph is elected chief, Jack is so frustrated that he refuses to hunt. 2. Ralph starts the signal fire by rubbing two sticks together. 3. The signal fire goes out because Jack and the hunters neglect it. 4. A wild boar eats the littlun who has a mulberry-colored birthmark on his face. 5. Piggy’s parents will come find them. 6. The conch provides a symbol for authority that the boys recognize as civilized. 7. The main source of food on the island is food scavenged from the wreckage of the airplane. 8. The boys murder Simon because they think that he is “batty.” 9. Piggy is not afraid of Jack because he knows that SamnEric will protect him. 10. Ralph and Jack initially had a mutual respect for each other that diminished by the end of the book. Match the following descriptions with the choices given (A-E) a. Ralph b. Piggy c. Jack d. Simon e. Roger 11. dies when a rock falls on him 12. the elected leader of the group 13. the most evil character; kills Piggy 14. puts his own lust for hunting ahead of everyone else’s needs 15. sees people for what they really are 16. represents the power-hungry dictator in society 17. represents the mystic philosophers in society 18. represents the good-hearted rule-following leaders in society 19. represents the evil sadist figures in society 20. represents the scholars...
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....: The Lord Of The Flies :. Persuasive Essay Junior English 3rd Hour Zach Jones In the story “The Lord of The Flies we encountered a most interesting situation where a group of young boys are stranded on an island, presumably far away from all other land masses, where three boys stood out as leaders, of those who wanted order of stability. Those boys, Piggy, Ralph, and Jack all went about contributing as leaders, though Ralph was an actual leader, if only for a time, while Jack (a boy who has the whole “holier than thou” aspect going on and is power hungry) eventually steals away Ralph’s power and followers, but before that was the head of his own sect, the choir boys. However though ralph was pushed out of power (except for his few followers, Piggy -till his death-, Samneric, and Simon –until his death-) and the fact that jack took over in an occult like manner I suppose, Ralph is the one boy I believe is the proper leader for the boys, because he has rational human emotions like compassion, care, kindness, calmness, level-headedness add to that he is not a crazy narcissistic war monger with superiority issues like Jack nor does he like to control people using fear and other sneaky underhanded methods, and he seemed to be a guy you could get along with. Though Ralph isn’t mad with power or rules using fear or shady ways in general, he lacked the proper leadership experience to handle the boys as shown in the way he lost the vastest majority of them to Jack. In Jack’s...
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...How does Golding establish the mood in the first 3 chapters of the novel? Introduction Willam Golding creates an evil mood in Lord Of The Flies. But how does he do it? He does it in 3 main ways. Read on to find out more. Chapter 1 In chapter 1, Golding introduces the novel's major characters as well as its theme: that evil, as a destructive force in men, society and civilization, is in all of us. To illustrate this theme, Golding uses several motifs: civilization vs savegery, human nature vs animal nature, technology vs nature, and the intellegent vs the physical. As the characters interact with each other and their environment, so do the forces they represent. By making the characters interact with these forces, it allows Golding the opportunity to compare and contrast between both forces and characters. The novel opens with a description of “the long scar smashed into the jungle”. This signifies to the audience that the plane has crashed on an island without civilization. It also makes the forces contrast between each other (technology vs nature). This is a persuasive technique used by Golding to make the audience want to read more. Ralph is elected as leader for superficial reasons. He is a a charming, handsome boy who appears to be in charge because of his use of the conch, which functions for him at the moment of his election as a symbol of authority. Although it was Piggy's quick thinking to use the conch to summon the others, hampered by asthma, he must allow...
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...Lord of the Flies Lord of the Flies is a fantasy book that tells the story of what happens to a group of boys stranded on an island after a plane crash. Many events occur while the boys are on the island. Some are good, others are not quite so good, and then there are some events that are just down right horrible. Even though the boys are on an island that seems to be very far away from civilization, almost all of the events that happen are caused by the war that is going on in the adult’s world. In Lord of the Flies, William Golding demonstrates how the wickedness of mankind causes the destruction of the boy’s civilization on the island. There are many events that symbolize how the boy’s civilization was corrupted by mankind. Simon’s death is a good symbol for this because his death was caused by “the beast”. A dead parachuter floated onto the island because he was shot down out of plane from the war and the boy’s called it “the beast”. Simon is the only boy brave enough to get close enough to “the beast” to find out anything more about it, and when he does he finds out that it is just a dead man. Simon goes down to the beach to try to tell the boys what he discover but they are doing their hunting dance, and being caught up in the moment they kill him (52). Simons death illustrates that mankind corrupted the boys civilization because they new it was Simon that they were attacking but they didn’t care. They thought nothing about what they were doing and the consequences that...
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...AS ENGLISH 91479: Develop an informed understanding of literature and/or using critical lens. Literature/text: Lord of the Flies Critical lens: Freudian psychoanalytical criticism Take away parents and society and you are left with mere children, who have the instinct to only pleasure oneself. This is what Sigmund Freud theorizes in his psychoanalysis. Lord-of-the-Flies by William Golding is a novel that uses Freud’s work. The Lord-of-the-Flies is a novel that depicts a microcosm of society. A plane-full of boys are stranded on a desert island, away from civilisation. Freud’s theory is that if you eliminate rules, “children are completely egoistic” – they only care about themselves. Without any parental guidance, a child relies on its instincts and this is where Freud’s theory of personalities are cleverly conveyed: id, super ego and ego. The use of Freud’s theories exceptionally allows us to have a great depth of understanding of the characters. The first part is the id. This is the “primitive impulses” of the human being. Golding used the character of ‘Lord-of-the-Flies’ to represent the id. Freud’s theory is that the id is based upon pleasing oneself.1 The Lord-of-the-Flies is the instinct that tells the boys that they do not need civilisation anymore and thus this is when savagery prevails. Golding uses Roger to represent the id. The Lord-of-the-Flies, inside Roger, turned him from a young-civilised boy to a killer, when he violently kills Piggy, as a release of his...
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...Lord of the Flies Full book report 1. A person’s behaviour is determined by several causes through out his life. The phase already begins when we are born. As a child we’re taught how to behave by our parents. Later on our teachers and surroundings influence our behaviour towards a more and more civilized one. In a society we’re kept as civilized as possible by following rules and laws. If we as human beings are placed away from a society, will we be able to maintain our civilized characters, or will we become savaged barbarians? This is the theme William Golding creates in his novel The Lord of the Flies from 1954. Golding takes his readers on a journey, where he shows what mankind is capable of doing through youngsters. The question is: can the young kids maintain civilization? 2.c. The Lord of the Flies is a novel about a group of young boys who crash on an island. While they’re stuck on the island they manage to establish some order and civilization by choosing a leader and by using a conch shell to arrange meetings between the boys. The established civilization crumbles as the book goes on because some of the boys can’t control their animalistic qualities. The boys waddle between the human instinct of savagery and the civilized ways of order, which they’re taught from home. Despite the fact that they try to establish order they become more and more drawn towards savagery throughout the book. The sow’s head and the conch shell are both symbols of power, but...
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...The Abominable Man William Golding's novel Lord of the Flies was published in 1952, seven years after the disastrous WWII. During the war, the veil of civilization was exposed very center revealing the true underlying evil of mankind, resulting in the death of millions including one victim; Anne Frank. Although she was hiding in a annex for two years because of the result of the brutality of people’s discrimination, she wrote; “It's really a wonder that I haven't dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.” It is hard to think that such a young and innocent girl would perish soon after writing this in the concentration camps constructed by the Nazis. The Nazis’ brutal ‘purification’ of the world, leaving millions dead in the brutal concentration camps and the horrific gas chambers, exemplify Golding’s ideas of mankind; brutal, destructive and evil which are inherent in human nature. The use of Jack, the pig hunts, the Lord of the Flies, Simon and the island that Golding believes in the idea that evil in an inborn characteristic of the archaic human race. Golding's use of characterization of Jack portrays the capacity of evil and violence which men are capable of due to their inborn human nature of evil. This is indicated when Jack, feeling especially bloodthirsty after a pig hunt starts to chant: " Kill the pig, cut his throat! Kill the...
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...Lord of the Flies: Literary Analysis In the novel Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, a plane full of English boys was attacked and crashed onto an island when trying to evacuate a nuclear war. Now the boys must learn to survive and work together. Although they began as a civilized bunch, after conflicts between group leaders Ralph and Jack, savagery starts to emerge. Golding uses the conflict between the civilizations to show how the darkness of human nature can affect even little childrens. At the beginning of the novel, Ralph, described as “the boy with fair hair”, and Piggy a whiney, intellectual chubby boy, found a conch shell which was used to call the other boys who were lost on the island to the beach. Among the boys was a choir group led by a boy named Jack. Ralph was soon elected as leader seeing as being the one who called everyone together. Jack was in charge of the choir group to hunt for food. After countless failure of capturing a pig, Jack decided to paint his face with clay to be camouflaged from the pig. He lead the boys and finally killed his first of pig and came back to the group with the pig strapped to a stick and the boys chanting, “ Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Spill her blood!”(69). We can see how excited the boys got from killing a measly pig. Jack describes his experience with Ralph explaining, “ There was lashings of blood...you should have seen it!”(69). Jacks thirst for more blood is an obvious sign of the development of savagery. Later...
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...In his book “Lord of the Flies” William Golding expresses his opinion on human nature through the story of a group of schoolboys who get on a deserted island after an airplane crash. Through the thoughts and actions of different characters, their behavior in different circumstances William Golding shows us that the mankind is naturally evil, everyone is born with the evil inside and the society and the surroundings in which people live don’t play any role in making them bad and fulfilling evil intentions. At the same time the ability to control the bad side of his personality depends on the person himself and the moral norms that he can oppose to the evil. From the very beginning of the novel we observe the inequality which exists among the boys, the appearing of the leaders and those whose opinion is not taken into account. The big boys feel their power and start to use it against the younger ones. They pick on the small boys for no reason, run through their sandcastles destroying them. Sometimes they show real examples of cruelty without any reason (Roger throwing stones at Henry). Almost all the boys pick on Piggy, an overweight boy who wears spectacles and has asthma, never listen to his wise advice judging only by his appearances. At the same situation appears another boy called Simon who announces the main reason of everybody’s fears but is also mocked at and not paid the proper attention. Thus we can see that the boys of about 12-14 years already show the features and...
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...The Flies that Plague Us All " Lord of the Flies" is the book that could strike a nerve of each and every individual whoever reads it. To me, it seems like to start an enthralling and fascinating journey when diving between the lines of this work. Bearing in mind that it was written during the time of WWII , I’m not surprised that this book discusses the essential evil of man. The story begins with a group of fifteen prep-school boys are stranded on a Utopia-like paradise island in the pacific after their plane crashes. With no adult supervision, they immediately try to set up a social system like any modern-world people would. Initially, they elect a chief and call group meetings to discuss important things to do such as building shelters and maintaining a signal fire. Through this system they select an attractive, intelligent boy named Ralph as leader. They also select a wild, power-urging boy named Jack and a mellow, calm, an most importantly peaceful boy named Simon as his assistant-leaders. However, as the boys indulge in the joy of their freedom and find that nothing there could hold them back or their misbehavior, they begin to fall from the floor of civilization and order to the abyss of chaos. Golding portrays this novel with an exploring eye for details and natural images. No one shall ignore the brilliant descriptions Golding made through out the whole book. “A great platform of pink granite thrust up uncompromisingly through forest and terrace and sand and lagoon...
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...In the midst of a nuclear war, a young group of British boys find themselves lost on a tropical island without the supervision of adults. The group stumbles upon countless problems in Lord of the Flies during their duration of being stranded on the island, resulting in multiple disputes between the boys. Conflict is apparent through the novel, whether it's being man versus man, man versus himself or man versus nature. Author, William Golding, portrays conflict through two of the main characters, Ralph, leader of the civilized group, and Jack, leader of the savage group. Golding reveals the growing tension between civilization and savagery from when a signal fire is let out, Piggy’s glasses breaking, and the pig hunts by Jack. The adventure that the boys encounter in Lord of the Flies explores the dark side of humanity showing the civilized versus the savage-like nature of human beings. Golding attempts to unearth the flaws of society back to the flaws of the nature of humans. The first key moment in the rising action that shows the growing tension between civilization and savagery is when Jack and his hunters let the fire die out, causing a ship to pass by without a smoke signal showing and allowing the group of boys to miss an opportunity of being rescued. This key moment is important because it marks the first dispute between the antagonist and protagonist in the novel. Ralph’s priorities are to build shelters and keep a signal fire going in order to get rescued, however Jack’s...
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...The Lord of the Flies by William Golding is a novel in which the theme of savagery versus civilisation is explored. Some British boys are stranded on an isolated island at the time of an imaginary nuclear war. On the island we see conflict between two main characters, Jack and Ralph, who respectively represent civilisation and savagery. This has an effect on the rest of the boys throughout the novel as they delve further and further into savagery. The theme of savagery versus civilisation is first introduced to us through the symbol of the conch shell which we associate with Ralph as he is the person who first uses it and becomes the elected leader of the boys. This symbolises authority amongst the boys. At the first assembly Ralph says “I’ll give the conch to the next person to speak…he won’t be interrupted”. This suggests civilisation as Ralph is allowing each boy to have an equal say and opinion. If they have the conch, no matter who they are or what age they are they will be given the chance to speak and will be listened to by the rest of the boys. The boys have created the island to be a democratic place which shows a civilised side to them as they try to mimic the homes they have just left. Contrasting with the symbol of the conch is the symbol of the beast which comes to be associated with Jack as by the end of the novel he is almost devil worshipping it. The beast begins as a “snake thing” but by the end of the novel it has become “the...
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...In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, a plane filled with kids aging from six through twelve crashes on an island during a nuclear war. Due to the plane crash the adults die and Ralph and Piggy gather up the remainder of the kids through a conch shell that Ralph found and choose a leader. Ralph is good looking and Jack is a leader of choir boys. The group of kids choose Ralph as the leader over Jack . Ralph designates roles to the kids and assigns Jack and his choir boys to be hunters because of the knife he has. He splits the group of kids into a search party containing Ralph, Jack, and Simon to search for life but find the island is uninhabited. On their way back they see a pig stuck in between vines and tell Jack to kill it but Jack...
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