Critique on Society: Lord of the Flies, and I Only Came to Use the Phone

In the modern day world, society is an important part of our everyday lives. However, oftentimes, society can be detrimental to moral values. In both Lord of the Flies and I Only Came to Use the Phone, the authors offer criticism on society and point out its faults. To demonstrate these faults, the authors use characters, on both sides of the power struggle, to shed criticisms on their book’s societies. Furthermore, by utilizing symbolism, the authors are able to make criticisms parallel to people as a whole. Which in turn, allows the authors shine a light on the many faults of mankind.

To start, one can analyze characters that are harmed by society. In I Only Came to Use the Phone, by Garcia Marquez, criticisms are shown through the character Maria’s imprisonment. Maria is seen as helpless throughout the short story, as shown when she “realized there was nothing in the world she would not do to escape that hell” but still could not find a way to escape (86). In a quote, on page 73, a matron says, “Stop, I said!” and then the text later says, “Maria looked out from under the blanket and saw a pair of icy eye and an inescapable forefinger pointing her into the line”. The quotes show the lack of freedom she was given, and how impossible it was to go against the society’s wishes. The longer she was trapped in the sanatorium’s society the more it started to take a toll on her sanity. The quote, “That night, in an attack of rage, Maria pulled down the lithograph of the Generalissimo in the refectory, crashed with all her strength into the stained glass window that led to the garden, and threw herself to the floor, covered in blood,” shows to what extent the society has damaged her sanity (86). Marquez uses Maria’s suffering to demonstr...

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...ery citizen around the world, as all societies try to get people to conform to their law and by criticizing the corrupt society of the sanatorium in I Only Came to Use the Phone Marquez is able to relate these criticisms to overbearing societies of today.

In conclusion, both the authors of Lord of the Flies and I Only Came to Use the Phone support the notion that society can have negative consequences. They created solid criticisms of societies in their respective works through the damaging effects they have on the characters and the abusiveness of characters. Then, by expanding their criticisms, through symbolism, they are able to apply them to mankind, and show the faulty natures of society.

Works Cited

Golding, William. Lord of the flies. New York: Coward-McCann, 1962. Print.

Marquez, Gabriel. Strange Pilgrims: Twelve Stories. New York: Knopf, 1993. Print.