“[…] Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart, and the fall through the air of the true wise friend called Piggy” (182). This quote shows that Ralph has realized that he will never be the dame since he lost his innocence and learned that evil is in all human beings. In Golding’s Lord of the Flies a group of boys gets crashed onto an island and struggles to survive. Ralph is entitled leader, but the Jack disagrees and decides to run his own group. The boys start to fight and have mini war.
Lord of the Flies by William Golding is a story of civilization that quickly turns into savagery. The defects of human nature are displayed through a storyline of adolescent boys stranded on an island, fighting for their humanity and praying for rescue. This intense story has been adapted into movies over time, and Harry Hook created a version in 1990. Some could argue that this most recent film outshines the book itself, for example it did not spend too much time on considerably boring events and the visually appealing setting and sound added to the viewers understanding. Yet, it is very clear that the novel is greatly inferior.
This desire for success caused egotistical and self-indulgent behavior among some members of society who were willing to step on people’s toes or act wickedly to reach their goals. All of this attributes to the reoccurring ‘overwhelming self-absorption’ found in characters throughout Gatsby’s stories. In the trilogy stories as well as The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald depicts the characters as selfish for their wants and desires. Tom and Gatsby are prime examples as their actions are destructive to other characters. Both characters are affected by the power and moral decay of the era.
Death of Reason and Birth of Beast Order and chaos of human nature in isolation in Lord of the Flies by William Golding Order and chaos, the two initiated and have kept balance the way of the world since the beginnings of civilization. Mankind then established the basis of our culture based on that delicate equilibrium; yet, to the author William Golding, “the universe is a ‘cosmic chaos’ that resist simplistic patterning” (Friedman, 14). We strive to appreciate but also dominate; we try to create justice, but we are willing to sacrifice it for even the slightest material gain; in short, the melting pot of emotions and desires is separated into two opposing fronts, the rational and the irrational. The rational people are individuals who are capable of great achievements, joy, and empathy toward others but who also realize their abilities and limitations; they were the forerunner who incorporated reason into our lives and further developed our abilities to deduct and analyze. Today, however, we can see the number of irrational people grow in such a huge disparity and the reason stems from a common source; rather than a conspiracy many people, it is the effect of many individuals pursuing their own selfish and separate agendas.
The broken conch symbolizes the end of any reason they boys ever had. Now the boys turn into savages and there is just mass chaos. The conch is destroyed there is no way the boys can or will ever have any order again. As you can tell while the conch existed it had great significance and it contained a lot of symbolism. In The lord of the Flies the conch started out representing order then it symbolized authority but in the end stood for chaos.
Okonkwo’s fate is determined through his own free will of actions. Okonkwo’s fear of being like his father leads him to work harder for his fame and wealth. Okonkwo’s manliness brings him to fame and because of his determination to be different from his lazy father; he shows no emotion other than anger. To Okonkwo, free will is what he believes in; your actions attribute to your own fate and can change depending on your determination. In the Umuofia clan, to change your luck, you must work hard through all odds; Okonkwo’s sheer will to change his fate of being like his father takes Okonkwo’s emotion.
Therefore, Golding explores the fragility of order in a society under stress. He also expresses this through constantly referring to the conch as fragile such as in the line ‘the fragile white conch’, emphasizing that civility can be lost any moment. This is also shown when the conch smashes to pieces, now representing broken civility and chaos. At this point, Piggy also dies. ‘Piggy was dead and the conch smashed to powder’ enforces that Piggy represented the need for science and intellectual endeavour in society so the break of both of these symbols at the same time shows a sudden corruption of civilisation.
Although his actions are very insane, they can be seen as rational to reader considering hedonism. Devotion to pleasure, hedonism, makes Dorian be deceitful about his true self by deflecting the attention of the public from the mad man to the beautiful and intelligent gentlemen. Dorian is, young, sensitive, and emotional, meaning that he is susceptible to manipulation. Lord Henry takes advantage of that opportunity and gives Dorian the yellow book; this book opens up the world of hedonism and aestheticism which eventually turns his young life into an eternal oblivion of misery. Dorian develops a fear of aging so he tries to live his life as if it was his last day on earth.
Ralph represents the goodness left on the island, while Jacks worst got the best of him. He then becomes very violent “He's like Piggy. He says things like Piggy. He isn't a proper chief.”(Gift for the Darkness, p.138) Jack challenges Ralph whom he calls a coward; Ralph had insulted Jack's hunters as "boys with sticks”. He wants to turn everyone against Ralph so they join his tribe and become hunters leaving Jack in charge and chief of the island.
The elders, Howard and Ethel, are the first ones to rob Bobby, suggesting the elder generation relying on the efforts and losses of the next. They do a war dance, but the younger generation drums too quickly, leaving the elders breathless. This suggests that the cultural disturbance has grown too big for the elders to fight, so they just give up. Ethel would, if she had money, spend everything to get her son out of jail, again, indicating the impotence of the elders to protect or defend their offspring. The middle aged, Bobby Lee, Thompson, Alice, Betty, Marie and Eulahlah behave as if they have lost all hope except for the