Thesis Statement: The novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding portrays the theme that regardless of each person’s different background and characteristics, every individual has the ability to commit brutal acts. While this book depicts Ralph and Piggy as the most civilized characters, and Jack and his hunters as young English choir boys, their actions reveal that they all have the capability to act violently. While Jack and his hunters started out as just choirboys, they become obsessed with violence and are driven to kill. In the beginning of the book, Jack hesitates and misses his chance to kill a trapped pig. Later on, as Jack and his newly formed tribe hunt in the forest, they discover a sow. Following the desperate chase after …show more content…
While Roger only threw rocks at the littluns to miss in the beginning of the book, Roger becomes more violent and demonstrates that he is capable of committing murder by releasing a rock that kills Piggy. Moreover, the conch—which is the symbol of order and civilization in Lord of the Flies—“exploded into a thousand white fragments.” Without the conch and its reminder of order and civilization, the boys become more savage and all show that they have the ability to kill. Regardless of their background as innocent choir boys, these violent events where Jack and the boys in his tribe bring a cruel end to a sow and Piggy show that all humans have a capability for brutality, despite their background. Even as two of the most civilized characters in Lord of the Flies, Ralph and Piggy still show their capability to act violently. As Ralph, Jack, and the other older boys return to their shelters from the Castle Rock—which is where they suspect that the beast would live—the boys encounter a boar and attempt to kill it. Soon after, the excitement turns into an act of hurting Robert, the pretend pig. While all the boys aggressively chant their ritual and fight for their chance to hurt Robert, “Ralph too was fighting to get near, to get a handful of that brown vulnerable flesh. The desire to squeeze and hurt was over-mastering” (Golding 114-115). In this scene, Ralph finds excitement in harming others and “was fighting to get near” for a chance to hurt
In the story “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding, he shows how the boys lost all innocence and civilization. The boys went from having innocent child minds to taking lives of other people, acting savage, and losing all civilization due to problems on the island. The boys had forgotten where they came from and became savage in order to survive; it was the need of survival that caused the loss of innocence among the boys.
(Golding 33). Being stranded on the island has majorly changed Jack, he is praised for killing pigs because of it supply of meat. The amount of praise and the feeling of victory after a kill has caused Jack to go mad. The society within the island has corrupted Jack and many of his hunters because they are praised so greatly for killing a pig that they have now adapted this hunting as an evil game, the hunts are no longer for food but instead for self pride, and praise, and power.
In the novel Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, a group of English boys in their adolescence are stranded on an island. They crash-land while being evacuated because of an atomic war, so the boys must learn to cooperate with each other in order to survive. The boys are civil at first, but the bonds of civilization unfold as the rapacity for power and immediate desires become more important than civility and rescue. The conflict between Ralph, the protagonist, and Jack, the antagonist, represents the conflict between the impulse to civilization and the impulse to savagery, respectively. In Lord of the Flies, Golding uses Ralph and Jack’s struggle for power to show that greed and lust for power can corrupt the best
In the novel, "Lord of the Flies," a group of British boys are left on a deserted island in the middle of nowhere. Throughout the novel, they have conflicts between civilization and savagery, good vs. evil, order vs. chaos, and reason vs. impulse. What would it be like if the boys were replaced by a group of girls? Would they behave the same way they did in the novel? I believe that the girls would act in the same behavior as the boys in all ways because, everyone is installed with evil inside them which is their natural instinct, also because in life there is always a power struggle in all manners, and the outcome with the girls would be similar-since both sexes would plan on getting rescued.
After Rodger kills Piggy Jack “viciously with full intention, he hurled his spear at Ralph” (181). The spear hits Ralph not killing him and Ralph runs off. After Roger had killed Piggy it set off a spark in Jack, one that made Jack not hold back. To Jack, Roger killing someone was the excuse he needed to start killing someone. Ralph later stumbles upon the twins who are now part of Jack’s group against their will and they see him. They start talking and the twins since rally warn Ralph “you have got to go because it’s not safe” (188). The twins then tell Ralph that Roger “sharpened a stick at both ends” (190). Ralph then sees Roger approaching the twins and Ralph runs off. This warning about the stick is not clear until Ralph later knocks over a pig head called “The Lord of the Flies” when he's on the run from the all the other kids chasing him with Spears. The stick that the head rested on was sharpened at both ends. From this it is made clear that after Ralph was successfully killed his head was to be put on a stick. When the kids all give into Jack’s orders and go to kill Ralph, they are ascending into the evil that exists in people. Ralph did nothing to deserve death but the other kids still try to kill him. Putting Ralph's head on a stick is a barbaric thing to do after he's dead and is truly inhuman. The kids were so controlled by their “darkness” that they were to put a dead person's head on a stick. The kids show the embracing of evil and turning to killing when they all try to kill Ralph with a terrible plan for him after he’s
William Golding, author of the classic novel, Lord of the Flies, had a number of life experiences that impacted his view of the world and led to the creation of his book. The most prominent experience he has had might of been his time spent in the Royal Navy, which revealed a darkness in himself and his writing. This darkness was portrayed by the beast by aspects of War, Fear, and Savagery.
The boys chant, “Kill the beast, cut his throat spill his blood!” in chapter 9, while they horrifically murder Simon because they believe him to the beast. Golding never properly explains what exactly the beast is, though his heavy use of symbolism can give many clues. Whatever the beast is, it’s horrible enough to drive the boys to murder. Throughout Lord of the Flies, the beast takes many forms: it begins as fear, then morphs into war, which then combine to demonstrate the savagery of human nature.
Character Description- gives the reader the perspective of the lives of the "New People"; the artist
Finally, I am finished with middle school. Anxiously thinking about the first day of high school, I knew that it would be hectic and wild, but I was ecstatic. Of course, the night before I could not sleep. I lay awake dreaming about how my first day at John Paul II will go. How will it be meeting new people and seeing old friends from last year? Will high school be hard? Will I get lost? I kept thinking about the unknown and worst possible outcomes. My first day of high school was unexpected.
Lord Of The Flies is a story about these kids stranded on a island in the Pacific
Even in the kindest of boys among the Island, all of them display some form of savagery. After the boys had hunted down a pig, they got in a chaotic circle chanting “Kill the pig! Cut his throat! Kill the pig! Bash him in!" (114). These energetic, savage, and chaotic dances would carry away even the most innocent boys. Even Ralph thought that “the desire to squeeze and hurt was over-mastering” (115). Ralph, among the most reasonable and helping of the group, was carried away by the thrill of hurting and killing. This represented his barbaric side, the side that existed in all of the boys, even though at times it may seem not present. This shows that people in their everyday personality show the amount of evilness they wish, and it alters the perception people will have on someone. But in “Lord of the Flies”, this raw human
Humans have a monster inside of them that is subdued by society, and if society is taken away, then that “monster” will consume them. This is true for most people, but not all humans are like that. One of the most notable humans to over come the “monster” is Simon, a character from the book “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding. The story is set on an island in the Pacific Ocean. A plane full of British schoolboys crash lands on an island and they’re stranded there with no adults, no society, and no rules. Simon is one of the few characters that stay sensible and good throughout the story. He has a sixth sense about things happening around him, he is kindhearted, and he faints a lot which give the appearance of him being weak.
William Golding’s novel ‘The Lord of The Flies’ tells the story of a group of English boys isolated on a desert island, left to attempt to retain civilisation. In the novel, Golding shows one of the boys, Jack, to change significantly. At the beginning of the book, Jack’s character desires power and although he does not immediately get it, he retains the values of civilized behaviour. However, as the story proceeds, his character becomes more savage, leaving behind the values of society. Jack uses fear of the beast to control the other boys and he changes to become the book’s representation of savagery, violence and domination. He is first taken over with an obsession to hunt, which leads to a change in his physical appearance This change
Symbolism is a very important factor in many books. The use of symbolism in William Golding’s novel The Lord of the Flies is the most essential aspect to the function of the story. At first glance you may not think the symbols are very important, but with some in-depth thought you can see how it is necessary to explain the microcosm of an island.
“Isolation is a dream killer” (Barbara Sher). In the novel Lord of the Flies written by William Golding, kids stranded on an island must figure out how to survive. By hunting pigs and building shelters the kids tried to subsist on the island. Through the process of hunting, the kids became cruel, evolving to the point of being barbaric. Thus, through the barbaric actions of the boys and the outside world, Golding shows that savagery exists in all people.