In the novel, Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, a group of boys are been stranded on an island due to a plane crash. They build a weak government body, but soon watch as their civilization begins to crumble. The disintegration of the society created in Lord of the Flies is demonstrated how out of control fears as well as having fun rather than working both contribute to the fall of government and society. In the novel, Golding often shows how the boys’ out of control fears cause them to think irrationally and make poor decisions that harm other members of their society. For example, the author describes the fearful scene when the boys encounter what they think is the beast. This fear is depicted vividly when some of the boys “screamed …show more content…
Another example of bad decision making from the boys because of their extreme fear is when the society divides into two groups. Golding creates a scene where Jack attempts to scare the boys with such extreme fear, using phrases like: “The beast came out of the sea—” and “out of the dark—” and “perhaps it’s waiting—” (125,126), in order to follow him. This irrational decision that many make out of fear ends up being a harmful decision for their society. A final example of fear causing the boys to make a bad decision for their society is when Jack decides that they need to leave part of the pig that they hunted for the beast. Golding illustrates Jack’s electrifying fear of the creature, and Jack says, “...we’ll leave part of the kill for [the beast]” (136). Jack’s decision to leave part of the kill for a creature that they haven’t seen yet is irrational, also because they have a limited supply of meat on the island. With Jack throwing away meat and taking it for granted, he is making it much harder on the boys to …show more content…
For example, Jack decides to go hunting all day while Ralph stays back and works on building shelters, but Jack tell Ralph that he will keep the signal fire alive. Ralph later sees a ship on the horizon. He goes and finds that Jack has left the fire and it has been extinguished. The ship passes by, and the boys remain on the island. When Jack returns from hunting, Ralph confronts him: “Don’t you want to be rescued? All you can think about is pig, pig, pig...And I work all day” (54). Jack’s poor decision to go hunting and leave the fire unattended hurts not only himself but all of the boys on the island. When Jack lets the fire go out, he ruins the signal for the passing boats to see, causing more time and hardship on the island. Further, another example of choosing fun over hard work is when Golding creates a situation where the boys are swimming in the water and playing at the beach. Piggy eventually becomes fed up with their laziness; he knows that they should be working on shelters and maintaining the signal fire. After a while, he tells Ralph, “You said you wanted things done. So as we could be rescued” (65). Ralph and the boys ignore Piggy, and keep on swimming and playing in the sand. Ralph looks out and sees a ship coming toward the island, but they realize that the signal fire is no longer
Some of the most important rhetorical strategies and literary devices used by Golding are hyperboles, archetypes, and symbolism. A good example of a hyperbole is when the twins are describing the beast they saw. “There were eyes-“, “teeth-“, “claws-“ (Golding, 100). The boys exaggerate what they saw in order to prove a point. They did not actually see claws or barred teeth; it was just a dead man. An Archetype used in this novel is the ‘classic nerd’ that Piggy portrays. He is chubby, smart, short and unathletic. William Golding uses a great deal of symbolism but the “beastie” is a perfect example. The beast that the boys describe represents their internal fear of the unknown and how it is affecting their sanity. The twins say “We ran as fast as we could.. the beast followed us”. (100, Golding). It represents that their fear is catching up to them.
William Golding, author of Lord of the Flies, creates a dystopian society which displays civilized English schoolboys transform into human natures barbaric state. It starts after the crash of their school’s plane onto an uninhabited island where Golding demonstrates how humans have an innate compulsion to be corrupt and chaotic. The boys first want to mimic their British civilization, but later on their mindset starts to change when they lose hope on being rescued. In the beginning, they make a miniature democratic society which had the flaw of higher power. After hope of rescue starts to dwindle and the fear of the “beast” dawns on the boys, their sense of civilization begins to diminish, and the democratic society starts to crumble. The conditions that the boys went through shows how civilized citizens can turn into barbaric savages.
forgets about the beast and ignores it. After a while, though, some of the boys are in Jack's tribe because of their fear, but not their fear. of the beast of the sea. They stay in Jack's group because they are afraid of Jack and, eventually, Roger. Jack controls them all by showing he is merciless.
When placed on a deserted island, a group of strangers banded together to try to survive. They decided on a leader, problem-solved, fought off a beast, and formed their own society, even if it was somewhat flawed. This was the situation in the famous TV show, Lost. The Lord of the Flies and Lost are similar in these many different ways, with the exception that the show featured a tribe of adults instead of children. That just proves how difficult it is to maintain order in a society; even the adults struggled with keeping it peaceful and civilized. In Lord of the Flies, William Golding presents a broken society of savage boys fighting one another to suggest that man’s capacity for evil is brought out by the need for power and control.
One of many prominent themes in William Golding's novel, the Lord of the Flies, is Fear. From the very first chapter, until the last, fear plays an important role in this text. It is the only thing, which stops the boys from acting rationally at times, from questioning curious circumstances and it physically hindered so many of the boys, so many times. The active role of fear in Lord of the Flies, was intentionally used by Golding, because he knew what images it would create. Fear is described by Mirriam- Webster's English dictionary, as To be uneasy or apprehensive'. This feeling is mutually experienced by all of the boys on the island in many different ways. Initially the boys have an obvious fear of being alone, which then brings upon the fear of what we know as the beast, or as the littluns refer to is, as the beastie'. While this fear continues for the whole of the novel, we are also exposed to three other incidents of fear. The first of these is the civilised fear of consequences, displayed only when the children are seen as young civilised boys, in the earliest chapters. The final two are of a different nature, with those fears being the loss of power, the fear of rejection and the fear of being in the minority. All of these different fears, then relate back to the character, and as was expertly planned out by William Golding, influences the characters attitudes and behaviours.
Golding was such an excellent writer because even though his plot was incredibly simple it makes us think about the true meaning behind his words. Golding is able to convey vast information in simple ways through characterization such as when we see Jack manipulating the boys through pathos, Ralph establishing himself and relying on his ethos, and Piggy ineffectively attempting to use logos. The devote use of symbolism throughout the novel creates a unique writing style and conveys an elegant tone. When the novel is examined for rhetoric, knowledge of ethos, logos, and pathos is gained because of Golding’s ability to deliver a message through visual imagery, vivid character descriptions and the underlying messages in his
In William Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies, and Kendra Cherry’s article, “The Milgram Obedience Experiment”, the comparable fear factor, and naive mindset of individuals put under dire circumstances leads to the corruption of society and rise of evil in humans. Fear factors are an influential resource, and useful tactic leaders use to instil dominant power in their citizens, if this power is abused, evil and chaos occurs. For example, in Lord of the Flies, when Samneric get captured by Jack, Jack terrorizes them, snapping, “What d’you mean coming here with spears? What d’you mean by not joining my tribe?” the twins try to escape but fear takes over their morals and they, “...lay looking up in quiet terror” (Golding 182). As Jack threatens
Fear is something me can’t control, it is naturally in us which cause humans to act on their instinct. The beast in the Lord of the Flies by William Golding is represented by fear from the very beginning when the boys first ended up on the island until they were saved by the naval officer. Putting a group of English boys on an island when the last thing they can remember is enjoying their flight on the plane, would instantly cause a sense of unplanned fear. Other concepts like war and innate human evil are based of and caused by fear itself. War begins when two opposing forces fear one another’s power. For example, the constant power struggle between Ralph and Jack because of their fear of each other and what the other was capable of. Innate human evil is the natural evil inside of every human, fear can control your want to oppose to a certain person or idea. The beast in the Lord of the Flies is fear because fear is the cause and drive of the boys basic struggle for survival.
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.
“There is nothing to fear but fear itself” (Roosevelt). “Fear is a chain reaction in the brain that starts with a stressful stimulus and ends with the release of chemicals that cause a racing heart, fast breathing and energized muscles, among other things, also known as the fight-or-flight response” (Layton). Fear affects the brain and can help people or make them in a worse situation than they were in the first place. Fear most motivates/influences people during times of crisis by clouding judgement and becoming a weapon of power.
Jack fails to realize that the boys need security, stability, and order on the island Jack was a leader of the choir before the boys landed on the island. These boys, who were in the choir, still want to follow Jack; however, they have no discipline at all. The only thing that is on Jack’s mind is hunting. He doesn’t care about anything else, except capturing and kill the pigs for some food.
A distressing emotion aroused by impending evil and pain, whether the threat is real or imagined is described as fear. Fear is what William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies encompasses. By taking three major examples from the novel, fear will be considered on different levels: Simon’s having no instance of fear, Ralph’s fear of isolation on the island, and Jack’s fear of being powerless. Fear can make people behave in ways that are foreign to them, whether their fear is real or imagined. In response to fear, people may act defensively by attacking, fear can either stop one from doing something, or it can make one behave in an irrational erratic manner.
Lord of the Flies, a novel based on a group of school boys trapped on a deserted island after a plane crash, displays how corrupt one can be. When the boys try to work together to form a society in order to survive and hopefully get back home, the fight for dominance and authority splits the individuals from what should be their priorities. The individuals drift off from balancing their three main priorities: maintaining a fire, finding food, and creating shelter. Lord of The
Sammy Luong Edson English 2 H 22 February 2017 LOF Essay Can society and civilization be easily destroyed? In Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, a group of british schoolboys are stranded on an island. In an island without adults or rules, they are forced to create their own rules and follow their own laws and order. However, two boys face each other in struggle for power to become leader, which creates separation among the boys and the death of one of the most intelligent boys, Piggy. In the end, the boys get rescued by a naval officer and revert back to little boys.
Society The novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding is about a group of boys that were in a plane crash in the 1940’s during a nuclear War. The plane is shot down and lands on a tropical island. Some boys try to function as a whole group, but see obstacles as time goes on. The novel is about civilization and social order.