Microcosm in Lord of Flies

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MICROCOSM IN LORD OF FLIES: SYMBOL OF REAL WORLD. Lord of the flies is a dystopian novel written by William Golding in 1954 about a group of British boys stuck on an uninhabited island where they try to govern themselves with disastrous results. The novel indicates that it was written at the time of an unspecified nuclear war hence in a way or other it is actually presenting the outer world of reality in which we are living. The novel is a microcosm which means that how the novel does actually relates to our real Life thus microcosm is something small that contains or represents all the features or qualities of something larger. Microcosm is a community, place, or situation regarded as encapsulating in miniature the characteristics of something larger. In this novel there are three main components which are representing the real world; The Island, the characters and the plot. The ISLAND is where the main story occurs and it is to the boys what the Earth is to us. The island is representing Earth in this novel, having different areas or countries. Just like Earth we have democratic countries, totalitarian countries and destructive part on the Island. Democratic countries of the world are represented through the lagoon or the platform that the boys always had for their assemblies. According to novel this is the place where first semblance of ‘democracy’ was established. “Let’s have a vote.’ ‘Yes!’ ‘Vote for a chief.’ This lagoon or platform can be easily linked to democratic countries in our world where people vote for the person they want to be their leader as the boys vote for Ralph as their leader on that platform. While on the other hand we have the mountainous area where Jack moved after making a new party introducing the concept of dictatorship thus presenting totalitarian countries of the world. It is here that Jack establishes a ‘totalitarian’ rule

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