Lord of the Flies is a novel written by William Golding in 1954. Golding’s participation in the Second World War, and especially in the invasion of Normandy, may have pessimistically affected his viewpoints and opinions regarding human nature and what a person is capable of doing. This can be seen in his novel, which observes the regression of human society into savagery, the abandonment of what is morally and socially acceptable for one’s primal instincts and desires. The beginning of Lord of the Flies introduces the main characters and the story’s setting. A group of boys are stranded on an isolated island and must find a way to survive until rescue comes. The protagonist, Ralph, as well as an overweight boy nicknamed “Piggy” come across a conch, which they use to find other survivors.
The rumors of its existence scare the smaller children, but also become the catalyst for Jack and his group to indulge their savageness, due to their desire to hunt it down and kill it. The boys are driven to madness because of it. This “beastie” is the titular Lord of the Flies, or Beelzebub, who in the New Testament is identified as the Devil – a symbol of evil. When one of the characters, Simon, stumbles across the beastie, it is revealed that it is a pig’s head on a stick. The pig was brutally stabbed by Jack and his hunters in a frenzy, as the pig squealed in pain. This act of savagery solidifies the loss of innocence and the embrace of evil. Simon hallucinates the head, talking to him. “You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you, right? Close, close, close, close! I’m the reason why it’s no go. Why things are what they are?” (Golding 158) The Lord of the Flies suggests that his presence is the reason for the boys’ descent into savagery and madness, beginning with the children’s fear of the beast’s existence, followed by Jack’s brutality when killing the pig as well as his transformation into a savage, finally culminating in the frenzied murder of Simon at the hands of the children who mistake him for the beast. While they are beating Simon to death, they are also chanting "Kill the beast!" Cut his throat. Spill his blood. (Golding 168) and dancing around him, similarly to a tribe of savages. The killing of a fellow human being is the biggest sign that evil has enveloped the hearts of the children.
Title Sir William Golding has constantly been a man who sees nothing good in anything. He examined the world to be a dreadful place due to the people who has populated the Earth. In order to display how he observes the world which was around the period of the second world war, he came to the decision of producing a novel. His novel was titled “Lord of the flies”. In the novel, William Golding familiarized his audience with three groups of boys; the hunters, the younger children and the gentle boys.
Simon, the wisest, calmest, and maturest of all the boys, is off by himself “talking” to a pig, perhaps going crazy. All others are sitting around the fire relaxing, ignoring the fact that one of the the wisest men of all has himself begun to lose sanity, possibly symbolic of the condition of people on the island. Of course, readers know, by the description of the bulging clouds, that the sky will soon break and, symbolically, something terrible within the plot will soon happen. Indeed, the entire novel has built to this point, as readers have observed the downward spiral of morality amidst the moral characters and increased savagery. Simon has observed this, and perhaps because he tends to take in everything inwardly, his depression over the gradual decline in the children on the island has caused him to become somewhat senile. Simon continues his “conversation” with the pig whom he calls “the lord of the flies” (“Beelzebub” in Hebrew, meaning “the devil”), and it is as if he is being tempted by the devil, or corrupt immorality that has taken over the other children on the island. However, he is able to be triumphant over the temptations, and staggers back down to the island to inform the other children that the beast on the island is
This is symbolised through the fire that the boys light as the fire represents the boys’ connection to civilisation seeing as the fire gets dimmer their will to get back to civilisation decreases and their true instincts come out the more they are exposed to nature. "Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!" The repetition of this quote many times demonstrates the primal and evil diction that Golding utilizes through each character's speech. aggressive verbal expression conveys the harshness of their wicked and blood thirsty intent. Additionally, the diction of the boys is immature and unsophisticated which aids in portraying and reinforcing the youthfulness of the characters. The pig's head on a stick is also symbolism for the metaphorical Lord of the Flies, which is ultimately the demon found to be within each of the boy's hearts and minds. This can be interpreted as the inner voice of evil. "You knew, didn't you? I'm part of you? Close, close, close! I'm the reason why it's no go? Why things are what they are?" This certifies that the beast is indeed within Simon as well as all of the boys. In truth, when the Lord of the Flies is talking to Simon, it is really Simon hallucinating as he hears the voices of the boys as a whole in his own
Simon’s death was not an act out of savagery, it was caused by the carelessness of Jack and his influence over his group. Jack’s statement “Do our dance! Come on! Dance! (Golding, Lord of the Flies 151)” caused the young and naive boys to get focused on killing which led to Simon’s death. Jack from the start tried to influence the children towards negativity
The lord of the flies is a book about a group of boys stranded on a tropical island to illustrate the evil characters of mankind. Lord of the Flies dealt with changes that the boys go through as they gradually got use to the stranded freedom from the outside world. Three main characters pictured different effects on the other boys. Jack Merridew began as the bossy and arrogant leader of a choir. The freedom of the island allowed him to further develop the darker side of his personality as the Chief of a savage tribe. Ralph started as a self-assured boy whose confidence in him came from the approval of the others. He was kind as he was willing to listen to Piggy. He became increasingly dependent on Piggy's wisdom and became lost in the confusion around him. Towards the end of the story when he was kicked out of the savage boys he was forced to live without Piggy and live by himself. Piggy was an educated boy that was more mature than the others, that was used to being picked on. His experiences on the island were a reality check of how extreme people can be with their words.
The nature of Simon’s death by the members of the group thinking that he is the beast, who is going to attack them, becomes very prominent with foreshadowing throughout the novel because it implies that he is going to get defeated by acts of savage displaying his death. A scene that foreshadows this defeat of Simon takes place when he is hallucinating to "The Lord of the Flies" in the jungle." You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you?.....We are going to have fun on the island! So don't try it on, my poor misguided boy, or else"(158). "Lord of the Flies" declares that Simon will never have the ability to escape him due to him being within all the humans. This enhances that there is no beast, and that the beast on the island is actually the boys themselves. This foreshadowing approaches when "Lord of the Flies" promises to have some “fun” with Simon, which results in him getting hurt by the ‘beast’ (also known
In the novel, Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, a group of British schoolboys are stranded on an island, and soon find that fending for themselves and staying civilized is not as easy as they thought it would be. Although they start off with an organized society, through interactions with each other and objects around them, they become completely savage over time. Golding employs the symbolism of Jack, the conch shell, and the beast to serve the purpose of the allegory of the inherent evil of the human race.
The novel, Lord of the Flies, was written by William Golding. William Golding was born on September 19, 1911. His literary ambitions began at the young age of seven. He received his Bachelor of Arts from Oxford University in 1935. His novels explore characters and situations. In Lord of the Flies, it is a time of war. A group of English schoolboys are on a plane, when they are attacked and they have to evacuate their aircraft. They find themselves on a remote island, somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, without any adult supervision. A boy named Ralph takes charge and forms a crude society, with a democratic type of government. Then, a boy named Jack decides to break off and form his own society, with him being the leader, governing with a dictatorship type of government, causing Ralph’s society to crumble and fall apart. William Golding believed that the defects of a society could be traced back to the flaws of the human nature. These societies were very different from each other because the individuals were very different.
“The Lord of the Flies” is a skillfully crafted novel about the struggle for power when there is a lack of authority. Author William Golding weaves an elaborate story about a group of children struggling to survive on a remote island with no adults. As the characters are developed and the plot is progressed, the manners and customs from society that the boys had grown up with slowly fades from their lifestyle. As the time the boys spend on the island increases, their decline towards savagery becomes increasingly evident. As a direct result of the lack of adult supervision on the island, the children decline into savagery and the customs of civilization are slowly eroded.
Lord of the Flies was written in the early 1950’s by William Golding. Golding wrote this allegorical novel in England when World War II was happening and Stalinism in Russia was at its peak. Lord of the Flies attracted a cult of followers, especially among the youth of the post- World War II generation (“Golding”). People thought that his book was too harsh, but what they didn’t realize was the true essence of how the war was really like. The war showed the good and evil side of everyone and it made people turn against one another and were no longer in a civilized manner. “What are we? Humans? Or animals? Or savages?” he wondered due to the experiences that he had encountered as a British naval officer during this time. This effected that the worst in humanity would prevail, and that many so called decent minded people would be easily and willingly influenced to act in terrible ways towards one another causing conflict between civilization and savagery.
Lord Of The Flies is many things other than in the bookshelves of libraries, but it is also other things like a religious allegory. A religious allegory with rape and mutilation, the loss of civilization and the rise of savagery. 12-year-old savages couldn’t do THAT much harm except for commit arson, murder and several felonies. These actions just described may all be influenced by the devil, just like the Devil’s role in the bible.
In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, Simon and Piggy are among a group of boys who become stranded on a deserted island. Left without any adults, the boys attempt to create an orderly society. However, as the novel progresses, the boys struggle to sustain civility. Slowly, Jack and his hunters begin to lose sight of being rescued and start to act more savagely, especially as fears about a beast on the island spread. As the conflict progresses, Jack and Ralph battle for power. The boys’ struggle with the physical obstacles of the island leads them to face a new unexpected challenge: human nature. One of the boys, Simon, soon discovers that the “beast” appears not to be something physical, but a flaw within all humans
People are not born savage, they are born cival, it is the experiences and setting they are put in that make them savage. This is shown in the book The Lord Of The Flies when the boys start with order and have discipline and change toward the end of a group being broken and resulting to savagery, in the movie Mad Max, and the article The Thresholds Of Violence when it discusses how not all shooting suspects come from a bad homelife but how some people just snap.
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 The Lord of the Flies by William Golding has a theme of savagery versus civilization. “Golding imputes that the fallen nature of man is related to his temptation by the subtle serpent in mythical Eden” (Fitzgerald, Kayser 16). After a plane is shot down and crashes on a deserted island, a group of British schoolboys is stranded during an unnamed war. “Ballantyne shipwrecks his three boys—Jack, eighteen; Ralph, the narrator, aged fifteen; and Peterkin Gay, a comic sort of boy, aged thirteen— somewhere in the South Seas on an uninhabited coral island” (Henningfeld 193). Golding shows us the conflict between the two main characters, Jack and Ralph. “Golding's view is a much bleaker one: the evil on the island is internal, not external”