Karlee Herbert Mrs. Martinez English 10 22 November 2011 Jealousy Is the Ugliest Trait When something tragic happens, we must learn to cope with the feeling and emotions, when people do those things, it helps the people around us. In the novel, The Lord of the Flies by William Golding, some boys were stuck on an island, and one thing they did not do was stick together. On this island, the boys went from civilized people to savages in a matter of days. There is jealousy, betrayal, and leadership between the groups of boys. Sometimes life gets hard and bad things happen and no one knows why.
They proceed by doing many things they regret. Throughout the novel, with the representation of the author, Jack and Ralph are demonstrated as complete opposites due to their behaviours on the island. Their different priorities, their different leadership skills and their different ways to interpret situations explain their extreme contrariety. Firstly, Jack and Ralph are absolute opposites because of their clashing priorities. This is indicated with Jack’s obsession with hunting and with Ralph’s efforts trying to keep a fire going so they can get rescued.
The two main character of the novel are Ralph and Jack. Ralph being the protagonist, represents order, leadership, goodwill and Civilisation while Jack the antagonist represents violence, desire for power and Savagery. Ralph and Jack convey their respective qualities through actions, decisions, ideologies and attitudes towards authority, while Ralph uses his authority to stay civilised by establishing rules, enforcing moral and ethical codes for the boys to follow and protecting the good in the boys from savagery behaviour like hunting. Jack on the other hand uses his power to gain more power over all the others to satisfy his primal impulses and demonstrate the idea of savagery which can gain illicit power if exploited. In early stages of the novel while trying to light a fire for the smoke Ralph and Jack are clueless about how to make a fire, “Ralph and Jack looked at each other while society paused about them.
People have changed through the course of time, but what are the things that change people knowing that they inhabit some sort of bad or good in their life. Is it man that changes them or just the “evolution” that is known to exist. Every civilization has a symbol that represents their existence and they also take good pride in it, because that’s what represents who they really are. Golding transfers the same idea in Lord of the flies. The symbols that Golding puts out there in Lord of the flies reflects on how the boys changed on the island.
Wider Reading: the Written Assignment-‘The Lord of the Flies’ and ‘The Day of the Triffids’ Both Golding and Wyndham write about groups of people trying to hold onto civilization after a disaster. What is each writer showing us about human beings by putting his character in this situation? Each writer shows us aspects of human beings largely through putting their groups of people in extreme conditions as they hold onto civilization revealing their true personalities such as fear. However, there are large differences as Golding shows group of young boys stranded on an island, Wyndham using groups of sighted people of various ages sometimes with the blind as well. This is carried on further by the different views of human beings as each writer observes different experiences during the Cold War, the time when the book was written.
Since, theme is a recurring idea within a work of literature, one of the most obvious themes in Lord Of The Flies, is savagery vs. civilization. Since the boys had been on the island for such a long time, they eventually forget all about rules
Corey Noble Pre AP English II 23 September 2011 Analytical Essay: Lord of the Flies Since the beginning of time and recorded history, humans have had constant strife with the concept of morality. With transcendental skill, the ongoing struggles of the human race are addressed in the novel Lord of the Flies, which chronicles the survival of a group of castaways, their lasting hardships, and the ever present internal battle between good and evil. In the masterpiece Lord of the Flies, William Golding uses a combination of characterization and symbolism to convey the existence of righteousness and malevolence in the world. Foremost Golding employs various devices in the characterization of the principals in the novel, to assert their specific
The boy feels like he is carrying on the legacy of “the good guys.” This compels him to retain his moral center even when the father does not. Whenever the father and son come into contact with evil, the boy pleads with his father for mercy. The father and son’s experience with exile is essentially a synopsis of the theme of the book. Their journey through the living hell of the world is harrowing; filled with narrow escapes and brushes with the pervading evil. Throughout it all though they retain their hope, the only thing they have.
This theory represents a conflict between good and evil in us which is determined by the capacity to keep "evil" impulses in check. Stevenson states "With every day, and from both sides of my intelligence, the moral and the intellectual, I thus drew steadily nearer to the truth, by whose partial discovery I have been doomed to such a dreadful shipwreck: that man is not truly one, but truly two." (Stevenson 104) The "evil" in ourselves is based off the high expectations and traditions presented to us. It’s in our human nature that suggests the different personalities of a person that’s affected which act independently and unknowingly of one another, whereas in the case of Dr. Jekyll, his second personality is a conscious creation brought into being willfully. In this situation, Dr. Jekyll inherits his family's reputation in high social status.
The boys are slowly turning barbaric towards their actions and fellow companions. In the lord of the flies, the boys land on the islands as civilized young adult but as time progresses they begin to lose sight of their moral values. By the boys losing sight of morality it leads them to savage behaviors. Do we become savages when we are not under control by law & order or are we just born savages? The barbaric life style that the boys decide to portrait leads them into chaos, envy, arguments, and murder threw out the novel.