In the blink of an eye, everything can change. For the young schoolboys in the novel Lord of the Flies life changed for the worse leaving the boys stranded on an island. After a deadly plane crash, the pilot was killed along with nearly half the boys. After the crash, the schoolboys were exposed to not only unknown surroundings, but to an unknown world with no adults. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, he effectively uses the person vs. person conflict to illustrate the idea that the fear of the unknown can be a powerful force that can turn people to either focusing on what is important or losing their moral compass. He illustrates this through the use of symbols, such as; the Beast.
The first sign of fear caused by the unknown occurs
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After, the news of the possibility of a beast on the island, Ralph calls an assembly. During the assembly, Jack speaks without holding the conch, he starts a tirade against Ralph and Piggy. Jack argues “Bollocks to the rules! We’re strong—we hunt! If there’s a beast, we’ll hunt it down! We’ll close in and beat and beat and beat—!” (91). Furthermore, this statement explains how once the boys are all spooked out because of the beast, they lose what used to be most important to them-the rules. Ralph even adds “Because the rules are the only thing we’ve got” (91). This clarifies that the rules were once really important to the boys but now the boys would rather act inhumane, than do what is morally right. Another act of violence occurred when the hunters let the fire go out, while they killed a pig. Piggy and Ralph were arguing with Jack and the hunters about killing a pig instead of doing their duty of keeping the fire lit. Suddenly, Jack became irritated “He took a step, and able at last to hit someone, stuck his fist into Piggy’s stomach. Piggy sat down with a grunt” (71). Jack hitting Piggy proves that violence was caused by the boys not knowing how to handle all these new responsibilities. Most likely at home, Jack would have expressed his anger in a different way but on the island, he avoided the righteous way of dealing with violence. All in all, Jack hit Piggy and seriously hurt him. Normally
They often obey his destructive orders just to avoid being punished. Jack tells Ralph, after Roger kills Piggy, “ ‘See? See? That’s what you’ll get! I meant that! There isn’t a tribe for you anymore! The conch is gone—’ -He ran forward, stooping- ‘I’m chief!’ ” (Golding 181) Jack threatens Ralph and the boys by reminding them of the consequences of not succumbing to his authority. They are physically and emotionally tormented, forced to participate in Jack’s violent acts. As time goes by, they willingly join in on Jack’s brutal endeavors, such as hunting Ralph down in an attempt to sacrifice him to the beast. He
Fear is a driving force in The Lord of the Flies. How does fear in all of its forms influence the boy's attitudes and behaviours?
Imagine flying on a plane and crash landing on an unknown island with a select group of people. How would humans deal as a result of this horrific situation? Is cruelty and violence the only solution when it comes down to it? In Lord of the Flies, William Golding explores the relationship between children in a similar conflict and shows how savagery takes over civilization. Lord of the Flies proves to show that the natural human instincts of cruelty and savagery will take over instead of logic and reasoning. William shows how Jack, the perpetrator in the book, uses cruelty and fear for social and political gain to ultimately take over, while on the other hand shows how Ralph falters and loses power without using cruelty and fear. In Lord of
Since the beginning of humanity, fear has driven peoples’ actions. Fear, the natural response to danger, has saved people from hurting themselves and others. Without this natural instinct humans would be extinct. However, fear can take a person away from the path they wish to go. If left alone, fear can take over a person instead of saving them, making the thing they fear most, themself. In Hosseini’s The Kite Runner and Golding’s Lord of the Flies, fear is a driving force of the narrative. Despite differences in the use of characterization, conflict and imagery, both authors develop the theme that fear controls a person, leading them away from their ideals and principles.
“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself” said FDR, but too often people fail to realize that and costs them dearly. Fear is a trait of all living creatures and is what H.P Lovecraft calls the oldest and strongest emotion and due to the nature of the world and the amount of unknowns around us influences all of our actions and thoughts. These influences of fear are shown throughout The Lord of the Flies a novel by William Golding and published in 1954 during the Cold war, a time where fear was rampant throughout the world due to the enormity of so many WMDs. However in the lord of the flies, a group of british schoolboys stranded on an island, without any rescue in sight are left to fend for themselves, and ends up as a reflection on
In Lord of the Flies Ralph asks, “ What makes things break up the way they do?”
Adversity builds character, but it also tests it. With adversity, survival is often challenged; it is man’s responsibility to remain committed to civilization. In the novel the Lord of the Flies, a group of boys are deserted on an island following a plane crash. During times of despair, civility and morality can easily be lost because savagery exists in all people. In the Lord of the Flies, William Golding uses symbols that change to emphasize the deteriorating society and breakdown of humanity. Symbols that show the changes to society and humanity include the signal fire, the conch, and Piggy’s specs. Fire can either be used as vital resource for as a means of destruction.
Stranded on an island are a group of school kids who do horrible, savage things and it is all caused by, fear. In the book Lord Of The Flies an evacuation plane full of school kids and some adults crash no adults survive so the kid are stuck on an island with no adults. The fear an imaginary beast and the fear causes them to do savage things on the island. One of the savage things that happened because of fear was when they killed simon because they feared he was the beast. Fear is often used as a reason for why the kids are doing some of the things that they are doing. He also uses savegary as a motive for some of the violent behavior that they exhibited.
In William Golding’s book Lord of the flies he explains how society affects human nature. Human beings are unpredictable and vulnerable, this makes them susceptible and unpredictable. William Golding clarifies how society influences individual actions. To achieve this the author uses tormenting, fictional belief, and the corruption in humanity throughout the story. We live in a world of changes, the writer has utilized the power of the mind to prove how these changes humans.
Anthony Borrero Feminella Language Arts I 30 January 2017 Fear of the Unknown What would happen if boys from a civilized society were suddenly thrown together on an island with no adults? The novel "Lord of the Flies" is written by William Golding shortly after the end of World War II. The novel is about a group of English boys who are stranded on an island during the period of war.
In addition, Jack treated Piggy with extreme cruelty. Jack's brutal behavior toward Piggy exposed his evil side. This could be why he wanted to kill him, as they began arguing since they had first met. Jack also felt a desire for power; Piggy would never grant him this supremacy, which led to violence either physically or verbally. After Jack let the fire go out, Piggy reprimanded him leading to frustration in Jack; “This from Piggy, and the wails of agreement from some of the hunters, drove Jack to violence. The bolting look came into his blue eyes. He took a step, and able at last to hit someone, stuck his fist into Piggy’s stomach ” Jack could have hit anyone else but struck Piggy, showing his deep hatred for him. All Jack needed was the opportunity to kill Piggy, and he would have taken it just like when he punched him in the stomach.
Human's fears should not be taken lightly. Fear could do anything to one's minds, though without fear, man can be as savage as animals. In the book Lord of the Flies, William Golding presented fear of the unknown to be a powerful force in a man's mind. Fear of the unknown is a powerful force, which can turn to either insight or hysteria. The kids feared of not being rescued off of the island, so they made signal fires on top of the mountain. Then, there and gone, Roger's fear of the old rules he abided to. Also, there were the fears of the beast which confused and isolated the kids from the top of the mountain.
Importance of Leadership Leadership is something that stands out in people. In a group, people tend to look for the strongest person to follow. However, the strongest person may not be the best choice to follow. In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, Ralph and Jack each have leadership qualities. Jack is probably the stronger of the two; however, Ralph is a better leader.
“The thing is – fear can’t hurt you any more than a dream” (“William Golding quotes.”). Fear lives to haunt and torment the person to a point of destruction and can be within everyone. Although a person is able to overcome fear, it is still very dangerous because it affects the person as well as everyone and everything around. In the book Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the boys are all so overwhelmed by fear that the island starts to recede into a state damaged beyond repair. In this case, Jack’s fear of not being leader originally starts to affect him, but it gradually starts to affect Ralph, and the rest of the boys. Ralph’s fear of survival brings out his inner savageness and an innocent life is taken away. Lastly, the boys’ fear of the beast causes them to feel so unsafe and uncertain that they are willing to do anything. As a result of the boys being consumed by these fears, it becomes the most destructive force on the island.
The survival instinct in the book was survival of the fittest they must do anything they can do to survive. They all elected a leader, which was Ralph and they use the conch shell to make orders when they need to and the conch symbolizes government and power, piggy and Ralph respect the conch. "We've got to have rules and obey them. After all, we're not savages. We're English, and the English are best at everything" (Golding, 42). This quote mean that having rules are necessary in order to survive on this island. Without rules they would be uncivilized and the boy will face their evil side and just be rebellious. Ralph was focused on building huts and surviving until they get rescued. Piggy is beside Ralph to keep him focused on getting rescued so he doesn’t start putting his focus on the beast. Piggy orders thing on the island everyone has a job to do. Piggy’s glasses tell us something about him, according to Dana Linde “piggy’s glasses represent intelligence and the sense of safety for piggy.” (Linde 5/3/16) Jack on the other hand, he wanted power over the boys and he did not care about survival and wanted to just have fun on the island. Every one plans for survival and being rescued fails and they just start to turn on each other it all leads to murder. This is the human survival in lord of the