It’s one of the most famous stories to ever exist, the story of how two people changed what defines us as humans. It’s the story of Adam, Eve, a serpent, and the unbecoming of mankind, the Fall of Man. This iconic account has been the premise for many works over the centuries. Today, Lord of the Flies by William Golding is considered one of the most influential novels of our time, not only for its adventurous story of stranded boys on a lost island, but also because of its allegorical tale of the true fault in man’s soul. William Golding leans heavily upon the Biblical account of the Fall of Man to highlight man’s depravity in his novel, Lord of the Flies. To begin with, Lord of the Flies is set on an untouched, what is perceived as holy, island. This is a parallel to the Garden of Eden which was paradise to Adam and Eve. In the beginning, Adam and Eve are enjoying Eden and taking in all its pure beauty, much like the boys in the novel. Ralph perceives the island as a sort of utopia, as Golding wrote “…he sat back and looked at the water with bright, excited eyes.”. The Garden of Eden was perfect and no evil was in the world at this time, which is also how the island was at the beginning. Again relating to the perfection of the island, Golding says “They accepted the pleasures of morning, the bright sun, the whelming sea and sweet air...” It’s also important to note that Golding when speaking of Ralph says “He undid the snake-clasp of his belt …and stood there naked, looking at the dazzling beach and the water.” This could be an allusion to how Adam and Eve felt no shame in the state of bareness in their pure society. The Garden of Eden was a place of innocence, despite the evil located at its roots. When Adam and Eve were faced ... ... middle of paper ... ... or rebel and ally with evil? There were simple rules in Eden and on the island. When those few rules were broken, evil took control. Order was collapsed in both societies, and from then on, man became savage. All in all, Golding’s lean towards the Fall of Man is evident in Lord of the Flies. Adam and Eve’s purity was corrupted by man’s consuming desire, like the boys in the novel. In the end, evil conquered. "Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness in man's heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy.” So why has this novel and the story of Genesis strived through the years? Simply, we, as imperfect humans, can sadly relate to it. We lose our child-like purity, like Ralph. We persecute people who are different than us like Piggy. But most of all, we give into our inner darkness, like Jack. We are the Fall of Man itself.
Throughout the novel, Lord of the Flies the major theme shown throughout is innocence. For the duration of the novel the young boys progress from innocent, well behaved children longing fir rescue to bloodthirsty savages who eventually lose desire to return to civilisation. The painted bloodthirsty savages towards the end of the novel, who have tortured and killed animals and even their friends are a far cry from the sincere children portrayed at the beginning of the novel. Golding portrays this loss of innocence as a result of their naturally increasing opened to the innate evil that exists within all human beings. “There isn’t anyone to help you. Only me. And I’m the Beast. . . . Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill! . . . You knew, didn’t you? I’m par...
William Golding’s Lord of the Flies offers an in depth exploration of the mind in terms of savagery and civilization. The Bible’s story of the Garden of Eden shows just how easily people can be deceived. Golding’s novel uses religious allegory from the Biblical story. In terms of imagery, characterization, and the overall themes, the novel and the Biblical story can easily be compared, and Lord of the Flies can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning for the Garden.
In the novel The Lord of the flies, William Golding illustrates the decline from innocence to savagery through a group of young boys. In the early chapters of The Lord of the Flies, the boys strive to maintain order. Throughout the book however, the organized civilization Ralph, Piggy, and Simon work diligently towards rapidly crumbles into pure, unadulterated, savagery. The book emphasized the idea that all humans have the potential for savagery, even the seemingly pure children of the book. The decline of all civilized behavior in these boys represents how easily all order can dissolve into chaos. The book’s antagonist, Jack, is the epitome of the evil present in us all. Conversely, the book’s protagonist, Ralph, and his only true ally, Piggy, both struggle to stifle their inner
As much as everyone would like to believe that all people are inherently good, the illusion of innocence that is often presumed throughout childhood makes the revelation of human nature especially hard to bear. Arthur Koestler said, “Nothing is more sad than the death of an illusion”, and this one is certainly a very hard reality to cope with. In the novel Lord of the Flies, the author William Golding tells the story of a group of British schoolboys who crash land on an uninhabited island in the midst of a world war, and how they regress from civilization to savagery. By conveying Ralph’s reactions to the deaths of Simon and Piggy, providing detailed, symbolic imagery of the cliffs and the lagoon, and showing Ralph’s despair at his new understanding
And on the first day, God created evil. Golding’s intricately crafted Lord of the Flies on the outset may appear to be a novel about a group of boys marooned on an island and their struggle to survive; however, it also serves as a religious allegory drawing references from the bible. The island on which the boys are stranded represents an anti- Eden, a place that is devastated by evils of man. Simon, the blue-eyed sensitive boy exemplifies Jesus; however, unlike Jesus, Simon is unable to convey his message that the true beast is mankind. Jack and Ralph, the protagonist and antagonist are reminiscent of Cain and Able as Jack becomes jealous of Ralph and tries to murder him. In Lord of the Flies, Golding uses striking biblical references such as the story of Cain and Able and the Garden of Eden to express the inherit evils of mankind and their will to do evil.
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.
The novel “Lord of the Flies” was written by William Golding to demonstrate the problems of society and the sinful nature of man.
Lord of the Flies provides one with a clear understanding of Golding's view of human nature. Whether this view is right or wrong is a point to be debated. This image Golding paints for the reader, that of humans being inherently bad, is a perspective not all people share. Lord of the Flies is but an abstract tool of Golding's to construct the idea of the inherent evil of human nature in the minds of his readers. To construct this idea of the inherent evil, Golding employs the symbolism of Simon, Ralph, the hunt and the island.
Despite the Garden of Eden’s reputation of purity and freedom, it is the setting of the ultimate act of evil. This is true in “The Lord of the Flies”, with the acts of killing and savage tendencies the boys demonstrate. At what first appears to be a paradise, the conclusion of both stories is unfortunate.
William Golding’s Lord of the Flies portrays the lives of young British boys whose plane crashed on a deserted island and their struggle for survival. The task of survival was challenging for such young boys, while maintaining the civilized orders and humanity they were so accustomed too. These extremely difficult circumstances and the need for survival turned these innocent boys into the most primitive and savaged mankind could imagine. William Golding illustrates man’s capacity for evil, which is revealed in man’s inherent nature. Golding uses characterization, symbolism and style of writing to show man’s inhumanity and evil towards one another.
Throughout the novel several different characters are introduced to the reader, such as Ralph, Jack, Simon and Piggy. With all these characters presented to the reader, one can get to see into their minds-eye, which allows the reader to analyze their character. In this case one could examine their basic morals and distinguish between the person’s natural instinct to rely on civilization or savagery to solve their problems. The author of the novel, William Golding, had a “first-hand experience of battle line action during World War II” which caused him to realize, “[that] The war alone was not what appalled him, but what he had learnt of the natural - and original- sinfulness of mankind did. It was the evil seen daily as commonplace and repeated by events it was possible to read in any newspaper which, he asserted, were the matter of Lord of the Flies” (Foster, 7-10). This being said by Golding leads one to the central problem in the novel the Lord of the Flies, which can be regarded as the distinction between civility and savagery. This can be seen through the characters that are presented in the novel, and how these boys go from a disciplined lifestyle, to now having to adapt to an unstructured and barbaric one in the jungle.
The Lord of the Flies by William Golding is tale of a group of young boys who become stranded on a deserted island after their plane crashes. Intertwined in this classic novel are many themes, most that relate to the inherent evil that exists in all human beings and the malicious nature of mankind. In The Lord of the Flies, Golding shows the boys' gradual transformation from being civilized, well-mannered people to savage, ritualistic beasts.
The novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding used a group of British boys beached on a deserted island to illustrate the malicious nature in mankind. Lord of the Flies dealt with the changes the boys underwent as they gradually adapted to the freedom from their society. William Golding's basic philosophy that man was inherently evil was expressed in such instances as the death of Simon, the beast within the boys, and the way Ralph was fervently hunted.
“I think that’s the real loss of innocence: the first time you glimpse the boundaries that will limit your potential” (Steve Toltz). In the previous quote, Steve Toltz discusses the transition from innocence to corruption. William Golding’s Lord of the Flies illustrates the loss of innocence through various characters: Jack, who struggles with pride and a thirst for power; Roger, who revels in the pain of others and uses fear to control the boys; Simon, who represents the demise of purity when humans are at their most savage; Ralph, who illustrates the struggle people endure when attempting to be civilized near the savage; and Piggy, who suffers because he has the only technology necessary to survive. Golding enforces the theory that true innocence will often pay the price to sustain true evil by arranging the characters' personalities and actions in a way that correlates to the effects of Darwin's evolution theory, "survival of the fittest" (). Jack is a good example of this as he exerts power over the weak and uses his skills in hunting to survive. The thirst to prove his masculinity overrides his innate purity, effectively corrupting him. Jack’s loss of innocence begins a domino effect that begins to influence the others.
Failure of individual ethics is firmly portrayed in the novel where the author says “The theme is an attempt to trace the defects of society back to the defects of human nature. The moral is that, the shape of society must depend on the ethical nature of the individual and not on any political system however apparently logical and respectable.” The predominant theme of “Lord of the Flies” is civilization vs savagery. Throughout the novel Golding argues that people are essentially savage, attracted towards violence, however humans have been able to create civilizations as the years passed by. The clash between Ralph and Jack represents civilizations vs savagery. This is expressed through the boys’ attitude towards authority, where Ralph uses his authority to create rules, safeguard the group and implement the moral and ethical values, while Jack wants to satisfy his desires through power. When Jack creates his own tribe, he wants all the boys to not only help him but worship him. This is similar to how Hitler was during WW2, his desire for power made him think that he is the most superior and he went to an extent of killing the Jews without any valid reason claiming that they are not the right race. This suggests that Golding has been able bring out Hitler through Jacks actions. When Jack doesn’t identify the importance of society and disobeys Ralph’s authority, his true character emerges. Through this Golding brings out that savagery is an unavoidable fact of humans, civilization can help alleviate its growth. The Lord of the Flies is an annals of civilization leading to savagery in human nature, the boys who are shaped by the civilized British society become savages through apprehension, superstition and