Critical Analysis of Golding’s Use of Tone in Lord Of The Flies When viewing the atrocities of today's world on television, the starving children, the wars, the injustices, one cannot help but think that evil is rampant in this day and age. However, people in society must be aware that evil is not an external force embodied in a society but resides within each person. Man has both good qualities and faults. He must come to control these faults in order to be a good person. In the novel Lord of the Flies, William Golding deals with this same evil which exists in all of his characters. With his mastery of such literary tools as structure, syntax, diction and imagery, The author creates a cheerless, sardonic tone to convey his own views of the nature of man and man’s role within society. The use of diction is powerful, with the gripping use of words and description. Golding creates tension and reinforces his theme and tone with the use of specific words. Many are connotative and therefore create a story abundant in meaning and symbolism. Golding uses colors such as pink to symbolize particular things such as innocence, as shown in the piglets and the island. The word yellow makes the reader think of the sun, enlightenment and Ralph; the words black and red bring to mind evil, blood and Jack. With the use of words the author also creates the novel's own private symbols that are key to the tone. The conch comes to symbolize authority, democracy and order. Upon the mentioning Piggy's glasses, images of insight and reason come to mind. With this highly connotative language, Golding creates many contrasts as well to convey his underlying theme. He compares the dazzling beach's "pink granite" [Page 12], green feathered palm trees and endless sand [Page 10] to the "darkness of the forest", full of "broken trunks", "cables of creepers" [page 28], and dense vegetation. He also compares the day's "torrid sun" [Page 176] to the night which makes everything as "dim and strange as the bottom of the sea" [Page 62]. The lagoon's security and the dangerous open sea are also contrasted when Golding qualifies them as "still as a mountain lake" [Page 10], "dark blue" [Page 31] and "deep sea" [page 62]. Golding also uses dark and inherently bad words such as "dark", "Jack", "broken", "torrid", "coarse" and "splintered" to describe sinister things and euphonious words such as "feathers", "glittering fish" and "Ralph" to describe more peaceful things.
Katherine Paterson once said, “To fear is one thing. To let fear grab you by the tail and swing you around is another.” William Golding, who is a Nobel Prize winner for literature, writes Lord of the Flies, originally published in 1954. Golding’s novel is about a group of boys who crash land on an island. All of the adults are dead and they are abandoned on an island. The boys try to set rules and create a fire in efforts of being rescued. The group of boys chooses Ralph to be their leader. This choosing makes a literary character named Jack, who doesn’t show his anger until half way through the plot. The novel shows the nature of humans and how fear can control them. The novel also shows the difference between good and evil. Golding experienced this when he was in World War II. There were many times fear controlled the boys in the island in Lord of the Flies.
In the novel Lord of the Flies William Golding uses many forms of symbolism to point out the underlying conflicts in their society. By using these symbols he makes the reader not only think about the problems that arise in the book, but also hints towards problems in our society today. The story uses the conch, fire, and the glasses to reference other meanings in the story. These symbols play a crucial part in the story in which they provide the reader with information that isn’t directly stated but is inferred.
In Lord of the Flies, Golding extensively uses of analogy and symbolism like the dead parachutist in Beast from Air to convey the theme of intrinsic human evil through the decay of the character’s innocence and the island itself. In this essay, I will view and explain Golding’s use of specific symbolism to explain the novel’s main themes.
William Golding explores the vulnerability of society in a way that can be read on many different levels. A less detailed look at the book, Lord of the Flies, is a simple fable about boys stranded on an island. Another way to comprehend the book is as a statement about mans inner savage and reverting to a primitive state without societies boundaries. By examining the Lord of the Flies further, it is revealed that many themes portray Golding’s views, including a religious persecution theme.
"William Golding's Lord of the FLies: Man's Capacity for Evil." Teen Ink. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.
The issue on whether man is good or evil has been debated over several generations. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, a group of young boys are stranded on an uninhabited island. In the beginning, the boys have fun and are carefree while adventuring on the island. With no adults around to tell them how to behave, the boys declare war on one another and face several conflicts. These conflicts provide Golding with the opportunity to explore the idea that society restrains the evil intentions of human nature.
Humans are inherently evil in nature and without law will unknowingly let this vile aspect of their own person be revealed. The depravity of actions in humans is expressed in William Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies, by a group of English boys that are stranded on an island, and disconnected from society. The fear from violation of laws that holds people to their morals and rationality in their society vanishes, and a growth of savagery is present in all the boys. Savagery, an element innate to humanity, can only be repressed by the laws of society; the lack of regulation removes all inhibition, and therefore, exposes the beast representing evil from within.
In William Golding 's, Lord of the Flies, a group of young, British boys become stranded on a island after their plane crashes. When a boy named Ralph becomes the chief to govern the boys in order for them to be rescued, it ends up becoming disastrous because of little control and the absence of adults. Throughout the novel, Golding uses symbolism to convey his message that evil lies within everyone. Although there are various symbols that Golding uses to convey his message, there are three that show the transformation from good at the beginning the novel to evil as the plot evolves. The readers start to see a break down of democracy as the boys become more savage. The three symbols that he uses are the conch, Piggy 's glasses, and the fire. At the beginning Golding 's symbols give an impression of safety, democracy, and hope. Then as the boys journey progresses, so does there fear and the readers start to see a change as they gain more knowledge on what is really happening.
In “Lord of the Flies” William Golding delivers a realistic fiction story in a way no other author can. He tells a story about a group of boys stranded on an island struggling between the forces of good and evil. The story is carried by powerful diction, frightening detail and insightful imagery to show how the shell is a symbol of good that is used by Ralph to show the boys responsibility while the sows head is a symbol of evil that is used by Jack to instill fear in the boys. When Ralph and Piggy discovered the conch shell, they realized that it could be used for communication to summon the boys. Golding expresses the little power Ralph has by saying “most powerful[l], there was the conch” (Golding 22).
Golding has a rather pessimistic view of humanity having selfishness, impulsiveness and violence within, shown in his dark yet allegorical novel Lord of the Flies. Throughout the novel, the boys show great self-concern, act rashly, and pummel beasts, boys and bacon. The delicate facade of society is easily toppled by man's true beastly nature.
The Lord of the Flies gives an accurate insight to the problems that we are faced with everyday like violence, greed, fear, and religious power and shows how civilization and savagery contrast because of this. It shows us no matter who we are evil lies within all of us. This is exemplified through the breaking of the conch, the Lord of the Flies (pigs head), and through Jack. This novel shows that even the most innocent of children can turn evil, everyone is capable. Friedrich Nietzsche once said ““Man is the cruelest animal.”
Using plot and characters, Golding depicts the conch as a symbol of civilization, democracy, and law and order. As a tool used to summon the boys to assemblies, the conch holds significant influence as a makeshift authority figure—one powerful enough to establish some semblance of order and civilization amongst the boys despite a complete lack of adult supervision. Ralph, the boys...
Through the symbol of the conch, the importance of stability, order, and civilization are established. When the boys first arrived on the island the conch was used to summon and unite the boys in order to form a civilization. The conch also serves as a regulator of democracy, “ We’ll have to have hands up, like at school… then I’ll give them the conch [to speak]” (Golding 31) said Ralph. This universal understanding that everyone would follow and respect the rules of the conch allowed every individual to speak his mind and to be a functioning member of society. However, as time progressed the mutual respect for authority and the power of the conch began to diminish. The assembly began to disrespect the whoever held the conch. As a result, the rules of their society began to become unstable. “As Piggy stood on the platform, the white conch gripped in his hands…” (141), the conch that was once vibrant in color and importance, was now faded and irrelevant. As the walls of civilized society crumbled, the boys gave into their animal desires and disregarded the only element of order apparent on the island. The symbol of order and civilization continued to lose its value as Jack mocked its importance. “The sound of the inexpertly blown conch interrupted them. As though he were serenading the
William Golding’s Lord of the Flies exemplifies man’s capacity to unveil his innate primal nature when there is a breakdown of social order and a thirst for power. The characters of his novel portray the monstrosity of evil which dwells within human beings. For instance, Kunwar’s analytical essay about Golding’s novel states, “Though the young kids are in a place which is far from corruption, a place with no outside infl...
In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, evil is portrayed through various types of situations, characters and symbols. Over the course of time, these boys demonstrate elements of human nature beyond civilized human beings as they are put in a society and environment where there are no rules or civilization set in place. Golding shows that human nature, when free from the constraints of society, draws people away from common sense into savagery. His arguments state that human beings are savage by nature, and are moved by urges toward brutality and dominance over others. William Golding shows that humans, when taken away from there society, hide the potential to be evil which slowly releases from within. The use of characterization, symbolism, and character development are literary devices that Golding uses in Lord of the Flies to illustrate that all humans are inherently evil.