...Power and Abuse Leaders with high authority have a potent influence on society. Power can either nurture subordinate people or ravage their self-worth through rules and demands. Abuse occurs because malicious impulses are not repressed nor denounced. Dictators notoriously kill several civilians, yet because of their position, they avert castigation from civilians. In Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, a group of boys descend into savagery as Jack’s power ascends. “The Struggle for Iraq” by John Schwartz describes the process by which normal college students turn spiteful when they become prison guards. Lord of the Flies and “The Struggle for Iraq” illustrate how boundless authority often leads to sadistic behavior. Jack Merridew, a stubborn and fascist teenager in Lord of the Flies, represents man’s descent into savagery and brutality. After being elected as leader of the hunters, he tries to emulate Ralph’s position as chief. As he gradually gains power, the hunt -- along with violence -- turns into an unhealthy obsession. He convinces other boys to hunt because of the thrill; eventually, nearly every survivor chants, “Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Bash her in” (75). As more boys join the assembly, Jack’s thirst for barbarism becomes immense: “The forest near them burst into uproar. Demoniac figures with faces of white and red and green rushed out howling...star naked save for the paint and a belt was Jack” (140). As Jack exalts, he starts abusing the boys for no apparent...
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...The Lord of the Flies: Characters The world had witnessed the atrocities of World War II and began to examine the defects of their social ethics. Man's purity and innocence was gone. Man's ability to remain civilized was faltering. This change of attitude was extremely evident in the literature of the age. Writers, who through the use of clever symbolism, mocked the tragedy of man's fate. One such writer was William Golding. An author who has seen the destruction of war and despises its inevitable return. Through the use of innocent and untainted children, Golding illustrates how man is doomed by his own instinct. The novel is called Lord of the Flies, and is of extreme importance to help reconstruct the current wave of revolutionary ideas that swept the twentieth-century generation. Lord of the Flies portrays the belief of the age that man is in a constant struggle between darkness and light, the defects of human nature, and a philosophical pessimism that seals the fate of man. Golding's work are, due to their rigid structure and style, are interpreted in many different ways. Its unique style is different from the contemporary thought and therefor open for criticism. The struggle between darkness and light is a major theme in all the works of William Golding. Strong examples of this are found throughout Lord of the Flies. The most obvious is the struggle between Ralph and Jack. The characters themselves have been heavily influenced...
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...One of the main themes in William Golding's Lord of the Flies is the struggle between Society and Savagery. The boys' first intention on the island is to create a society based on the one they had in the adult world: one with rules, limitations and order. But at the same time, they want to have fun. As time progresses, they start ignoring the rules that they had originally set. Instead of using the designated lavatory stones for bathroom purposes, they start using the bathroom wherever they want, even near their special meeting place. The shelters that they all intended on helping to build end up being built by only a few of the boys and therefore, are not as sturdy as they could have been. According to Henri Talon, "[The boys] planned order and allowed disorder to settle" (Talon). The longer they stayed on the island, the more they lost touch with the boundaries set by society, and they eventually started to resort to primitive behavior. Throughout the novel, each of the boys struggles to keep remnants of society in tact, while their primitive nature tries to reel them into savagery. Some of the boys give into their primitive behavior very quickly, while others strive to hold on to their civility as long as possible. This struggle is portrayed masterfully by Golding who uses symbolism to enhance the reader's understanding of it. The first prominent symbol of society that we see is the conch shell that Ralph finds near the shore at the beginning of the novel. Upon Piggy's suggestion...
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...Fear is the main driving force in The Lord of the Flies. How does fear in various forms affect the boy’s attitudes and behavior? Golding's novel in which a lot of prominent theme, the Lord of the Flies, is fear. From the first chapter, until the last, fear plays an important role in this novel. It is the only thing that will stop the boys from acting rationally, from questioning strange circumstances and hindering physically almost all of the boys, so often. The ongoing role of fear in Lord of the Flies, was deliberately used by Goldin, because he knew it would cause any kind of image. Fear is described by Webster's Dictionary of English Mirriam- because ?? to upset or worried. "The feeling was mutual for all the island boys experience many different ways. Originally the boys have obviously fear alone, and then we know the beast, or as littluns mean, as fear ?? Beast "brought. While this fear continued throughout the novel, we have come into contact with the other three events of fear. The first one is the fear of the consequences of civilization, only when the child is regarded as a young boy of civilization, the first chapter is displayed. The last two are different in nature, and these fears losing power, fear of rejection, fear of the minority. All these different fear, then traced back to the characters, such as Goldin was expertly planned, and will affect people's attitudes and behavior....
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...The novel, Lord of the Flies by William Golding, is about a group of boys who are stranded on a desolate island. They begin their struggle for survival by organizing and cooperating with each other. They elect a chief, a boy named Ralph, and a leader of the hunters, a boy named Jack. These two boys are the dominant figures of their newly formed society; however, two dominant males are by nature, unable to coexist and share power, therefore a struggle between them arises. Each of the boys wants to lead the society in the direction of their choosing. Ralph believes it is important to maintain a fire in the hope of rescue, while Jack emphasizes hunting for game and gratifying his killer instinct. Through the novel Lord of the Flies, Golding...
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...How Are Power and Corruption Related? by Sebastian Sandoval "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely." – Lord John Dalberg-Acton Macbeth and Lord of the Flies depict power and corruption. However in Macbeth's case it is his fear of being forgotten that leads to his ambitions for power and in turn corrupts him. In Lord of the Flies we see Jack's ambition to become chief corrupt him into doing whatever it takes to achieve that position. Both works seem to coincide with Hobbes theory that "man is naturally savage" and that savagery combined with the notion of power can only lead to one thing, corruption. In this essay the relationship between power and corruption will be explored through the lens of three texts: Macbeth by William Shakespeare (1623), Lord of the Flies by William Golding (1954), and Of Man, Being the First Part of Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes (1651). Let us begin with The Tragedy of Macbeth. Throughout the play, we see Macbeth change from a noble and brave soldier into a shadow of his former self. In the beginning we see an internal struggle with the decision to kill King Duncan. This is most clearly depicted in act I when Macbeth says, "We will proceed no further in this business. He hath honored me of late,"(1.7. 28-30 ). It is after the murder of Duncan that we begin to notice a sinister change. Macbeth begins to murder anyone who has or could get in his way even his friend Banquo. In act 3 Macbeth's plan is first revealed in his conversation...
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...evil ways.” In essence, this quotation denotes that because every human being has a brain, they also possess the ability to think and act in a malicious and inhumane manner. Considering this, William Golding, the author of Lord of the Flies, illustrates that uncivil behaviour will prevail on the adult-free island. In a like manner, Macbeth by Shakespeare gives insight to the lengths people will go to so that one can achieve personal profits at a rapid pace. Through similar fashions, both novels depict the true nature of human beings. Similarities between the characters of Jack from the Lord of the Flies and Macbeth from Macbeth reveal that power and greed is the root of all evil. In addition, the use of knives and representation of blood in both novels plays large roles in the quests for power. Also, similarities in plot structure help to further establish the sinful nature of humans. One can conclude that both Macbeth and Lord of the Flies give insight to the fact that human nature is predominantly evil through the characterization of Jack and Macbeth, symbolism of knives and blood and similarities within plot structure. Initially, the predominantly evil aspects of human nature show through the characterization of Jack and Macbeth. In the Lord of the Flies, the society the boys live in begins to crumble as Jack becomes less and less civil while the others follow. Jack quickly turns from an innocent young boy to an uncivil animal, “He looked in astonishment, no longer at himself...
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...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 destructive powers of humans already, for the boys have just reached the island and there is already a large brooding scar on a once beautiful island never defiled by man. The quote...
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...Are humans by nature inherently evil Lord of the Flies provides one with a clear understanding of Golding's view of human nature? Whether this view is right or wrong is a point to be debated. This image Golding paints for the reader that of humans being inherently bad, is a perspective not all people share. Lord of the Flies is but an abstract tool of Golding's to construct the idea of the inherent evil of human nature in the minds of his readers. To construct this idea of the inherent evil, Golding employs the symbolism of Simon, Ralph, the hunt and the island. Golding drives the point that the instinctual evil within man is inescapable. At one point in the book, when the Lord of the Flies is representing all evil, this theory is stated as, "The Lord of the Flies was expanding like a balloon". Along with this idea is the religious symbolism that is used for ineffectively confronting the evil. At a point in the book, Golding has Simon, symbolic of Jesus Christ, confront the Lord of the Flies. This is a pig's head on a stick that is imagined to talk and represent the evil in all humans. Simon tries to act and spread the knowledge of this evil to others but is killed. This is a direct reference to the death of Christ, alluding to the Holy Bible. At many points throughout Lord of the Flies, Golding writes for the characters to become gradually more and more evil. This attribute even reaches the symbols of goodness and order, such as Ralph. Once, when Ralph and...
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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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...In the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, Ralph experiences the loss of innocence on the island. In his experiences, we see that evil is inherent in man- something only Simon has understood on the island. The boys first enjoyed the freedom from adults, but soon all civil ideas on the island collapsed, leading to chaos and the death of Simon and Piggy; a metaphor to the background of the war in the adult world. This implies that every man has some capacity for evil within himself, even small children, leading to a loss of innocence. Furthermore, Ralph’s Loss of Innocence occurs during the death of Simon and Piggy, and during the destruction of the conch. At the beginning of the novel, the remains of what would be civilization still...
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...stuck on an island? In the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding a group of English schoolboys find themselves in that exact situation. The boys, with their ages varying from six to twelve years old, get into a plane crash in which no adults survive, and they are left to fend for themselves on a mysterious uninhabited island. In the beginning the boys attempt to organize themselves and establish a civilized way of life on the island they elect a chief, named Ralph. Led by Ralph, the boys set rules, hold assemblies and are assigned jobs. However, as their time on the island grows some boys drift farther and farther away from their civilized origin. Eventually, one of the older boys named Jack creates...
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...Good or Evil? The Fight For Dominance The fierce battle between the lightness and darkness of man’s heart has coexisted since the earliest of times. William Golding’s award-winning novel, Lord of the Flies, is one that captures this very judgment. A group of young British schoolboys who were once innocent and pure of heart are quickly devoured by the dark powers of destruction, savagery, and murder. However, even with these destructive powers at hand, the young schoolboys along with their distant memories of being in a civilized society, fight in an epic battle to try and prevent the full outbreak of evil. Golding illustrates the never-ending combat of “good” and “evil”, amidst the young schoolboys and the Beast; Ralph, the democratic leader, contrary to Jack, who favoured dictatorship; and the strength of civilization versus the forces of human nature. First and foremost, the story displays the constant conflicts between the innocence of the British schoolboys and the dark nature of what they come to know as the Beast. An example of this is when the twins Sam and Eric encounter the Beast in Chapter Six: "Beast From Air." In the beginning of the chapter, Sam and Eric, who were on duty to watch the fire, falls asleep as a dead parachutist falls from the war in the adult world and lands on the island. When they awake from their sleep, they noticed a “figure that hung with dangling limbs” (103) and mistake it as the Beast. Sam describes to Ralph that the Beast was ‘“furry”’...
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...In 1957, scientist Leon Festinger proposed “Cognitive Dissonance Theory”, which states that a powerful motive to maintain cognitive consistency can give rise to irrational and sometimes maladaptive behavior. Cognitive Dissonance affects the person's ability to make decisions and allows for them to escape the guilt. Lord of the Flies is an example of “Cognitive Dissonance” in humans, in that both the novel and the psychological theory illustrate the premise that humans tend to justify their actions by lying to themselves. William Golding’s book Lord of the Flies is about a group of boys whose plane crashes, leaving them stranded on an island. Throughout the book the boys lose their sanity and begin to fight. As the boys struggle to find a balance in power between Ralph, a young boy who was originally elected as leader, and Jack, a wild, ill tempered, boy who challenges Ralph; the two shy intelligent boys, Piggy and Simon, are ostracised and viewed as unreliable and suspicious.Subsequently Simon is brutally murdered after trying to alert the group that the monster they have feared is really just a dead military parachutist (Golding, 138-139). Later Piggy also dies as an effect of Roger, Jack’s second in command, crushing him with a boulder (Golding, 164-165). “Cognitive Dissonance Theory” is the theory that humans justify our actions by...
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...Literary Devices in Lord of the Flies Ayomide Fakuade English III - 2nd Period 4-18-13 Is every human being predisposed with the capabilities to do evil? This question has stimulated minds since the beginning of time. In the Bible, as far back as the book of Genesis, we find the ineluctable capacity of man to commit evil. Likewise, in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies we find the depiction of the proclivity of man to transgress. William Golding “presents the universe under the guise of a school adventure story on a coral island” (Forster V). Golding presents the universe and the inescapable struggle of human kind between good and evil through his prolific use of symbols and metaphors. Symbols are one of the principle literary devices used by Golding in Lord of the Flies. Golding uses many of the devices discovered by the boys to represent vital elements of structured society. Ralph makes the statement, “The fire’s the most important thing” (Golding 162). The fire symbolizes the structured society the boys want to exist on the island. The fire represents structure and organization. Without the fire, the boys will never be rescued, and without an organized, structured society, they will not survive. Just as organization and structure are essential to the perpetuation of a society, the fire is vital to the survival of the boys on the island. When describing the setting of the novel, the narrator states, “It [the island]...
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