Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “What lies behind us and what lies before us, is nothing compared to what lies within in.” At first glance, this quotation is positive and inspiring. But inside of every man is the ability to create terror and suffering. When this darker side emerges, individuals are irreparably altered. Two great works of literature show this point: William Golding’s Lord of the Flies disturbingly illustrates the deterioration of a group of marooned British schoolboys from civilized to savage, and John Knowles’ A Separate Peace is the haunting story of a teenager’s inability to confess the truth to his best friend as they grapple with World War II. In Lord of the Flies and A Separate Peace, the protagonists, Ralph and Gene, both commit major transgressions that shift their perceptions of themselves and eventually lead them to discover the evil within mankind.
Ralph and Gene had different motivations in execute their respective misdeeds--partaking in the killing of Simon and the resulting cover-up, and intentionally breaking Finny’s leg--but they were equally destructive. Jack and his hunters invite Ralph and Piggy to their beach, which further reinforces the recent separation between the ‘savages’ and Ralph’s little band. Uncomfortable among those who had previously rejected his authority, Ralph allowed himself to succumb to peer pressure out of fear of being ridiculed. While at the beach, “Piggy and Ralph, under the threat of the sky, found themselves eager to take a place in this demented but partly secure society,” (Golding 152). Simple hunger drove the boys to Jack and his roasted pig, but it was fear that kept Ralph and Piggy from revealing what happened in the demented society when the Beast emerged and was...
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...bility to create an enemy out of nothing. He acknowledges that he himself did this, because, “[Finny] had never been jealous of [him] for a second. Now [Gene] knew that there never was and never could have been any rivalry between us. [Gene] was not of the same quality as [Finny],” (Knowles 59). Gene is forced to confront the fact that he created the scenario that ended his friend’s life: from this experience, Gene emerges as a wiser and more mature individual.
Like the Emerson quote, Ralph and Gene are stunned by the power of their wicked sides. It takes only a single basic action for both boys to discover what they’re able to do, and their self-awareness is shifted as well. Lord of the Flies and A Separate Peace illustrate the terrible actions humans are capable of.
Works Cited
A Separate Peace, by John Knowles
Lord of the Flies, by William Golding
William Golding, the author of the novel The Lord of the Flies, lived through the global conflicts of both world wars. World War II shifted his point of view on humanity, making him realize its inclination toward evilness. His response to the ongoing struggle between faith and denial became Lord of the Flies, in which English schoolboys are left to survive on their own on an uninhabited island after a plane crash. Just like Golding, these boys underwent the trauma of war on a psychological level. Ralph, one of the older boys, stands out as the “chief,” leading the other victims of war in a new world. Without the constraints of government and society, the boys created a culture of their own influenced by their previous background of England.
Savagery is brought out in a person when they lose everything else. Lord of the Flies by William Golding shows us that when there is a lack of societal boundaries, animalistic behavior is what will follow. Humanity is destroyed with lack of guidelines or rules.
When Ralph is confronted with adversity his character develops. He loses his sense of civilization and the savagery within him grows after killing his friend Simon. Ralph faces the inevitable loss of innocence on the island when discovering what was humanity is capable of. This novel will forever remain popular as it shows human nature in its truest form.
William Golding’s book Lord of the Flies is a novel based on a group of schoolboys that were flying on a plane to escape World War II and were shot down. They were shot down over a deserted tropical island in Britain. The boys suffered a large fire that burned the island, little food, and a boy that is out to kill everyone by the end of the book.
Knowles’ moving novel, A Separate Peace, reveals many alarming features of adolescence, and human nature. Knowles shows that humans will naturally develop an enemy, and will fight them. The main character Gene develops a resentful hatred, which leads to his friend Finny’s untimely death. A liberal humanistic critique reveals that the novel has a self contained meaning, expresses the enhancement of life, and shows that human nature is unchanging.
What is human nature? How does William Golding use it in such a simple story of English boys to precisely illustrate how truly destructive humans can be? Golding was in World War Two, he saw how destructive humans can be, and how a normal person can go from a civilized human beign into savages. In Lord of the Flies, William Golding uses the theme of human nature to show how easily society can collapse, and how self-destructive human nature is. Throughout the story Golding conveys a theme of how twisted and sick human nature can lead us to be. Many different parts of human nature can all lead to the collapse of society. Some of the aspects of human nature Golding plugged into the book are; destruction, demoralization, hysteria and panic. These emotions all attribute to the collapse of society. Golding includes character, conflict, and as well as symbolism to portray that men are inherently evil.
For even Piggy and Ralph, under the threat of the sky, found themselves eager to take a place in this demented but partly secure society. They, with all the other boys, surged after [Simon], poured down the rock, leapt on, screamed, struck, bit, tore. There were no words, and no movements but the tearing of teeth and claws.
The author of this book, William Gerald Golding was born in Cornwall, England, in 1911. He graduated Oxford University. Also he had experience in teaching in school he could have been easy to set the character with young kids in the story. He had written many books before Lord of the Flies and he awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. William has an experience of being a Navy in World Wall Ⅱ, he could describe well in the story. In 1993 he ended up his life.
William Golding’s book, Lord of the flies, begins with the central character stuck in a jungle of which he knows little about. Ralph as we later find out his name, is the athletic, level-headed, leader of the boys on the island. He is the emotional leader of the group, and he has a major influence on all of the other characters. Ralph is used as a sort of reminder of the old world. He reminds the boys that there are laws and rules and everyone must abide for survival. When the boys realize that they are not at home anymore and they being to rely on their natural instincts they lose the society that man-kind has created. Ralph is trying hard to keep the boys together because he knows if they are not the chances of being rescued become lesser.
Civilization vs. savagery, reason vs. impulse, order vs. chaos, law vs. anarchy, or the broader heading of good vs. evil. This is a dilemma every single human being goes through on a daily basis. Weather we do what we know is right, live by rules, act peacefully, follow moral commands and proceed with the values we were grown up to respect or give in to our savage/ animal side, the instinct to gratify one’s immediate desires, enforce one’s will, and act violently to obtain supremacy over others. Throughout the book there are three main symbols: the conch, the signal fire, and the Lord of the Flies. These symbols help the reader to understand and capture the boys struggles to maintain civility and how they slowly graduate into what they finally become by the end of the novel: savages.
Circumstances which occur in particular are when Ralph mindlessly attacks Robert and foolishly joins into the dance. Having had a taste of meat, the pack of boys decide to hunt once again. As stated previously, things go awry as the group reenacts the hunting of the pig. Robert becomes the mock pig and the once noble Ralph is overcome with the “desire to squeeze and hurt” (Golding, 115). The boy appears eager to harm his fellow friend because it is a quality and want ingrained in him from birth. Subsequently, the celebratory dance turns into a cannibalistic murder. The seemingly innocent dance takes a dark spin as Simon enters the circle, unknowingly becoming the substitute pig. Ralph begins to feel the pull of evil once again, this time “thick, urgent, [and] blind” (Golding 152). The once pure boy has tainted his hands with the cruel ways of humanity and murdered. In brief, Golding has depicted a more accurate picture of mankind and given his audience a glimpse of their barbaric
In a world without law or order, fear can lead to savagery and bring out the worst of people. Such a world can destroy a person both physically and mentally. Humans would live in chaos and civilization would be lost. We see this portrayed in the William Golding's infamous novel, Lord of the Flies, when the horrendous crash of an airplane penetrates the island's serenity and disrupts the air with the crackling sounds of the blazing fire. William Golding uses the "beast" to return the boys of the island to their primal instincts, contributing to his commentary on human nature.
In Lord of the Flies, William Golding uses fire, a conch, a pair of glasses, and several other items to symbolize the journal from civility to savagery.
In William Golding's Lord of the Flies a group of English school boys crash land onto an uninhabited island somewhere in the Mid Atlantic ocean. Ralph, the protagonist and also the elected leader, tries to maintain peace and avoid any calamity on the island. However, Jack is neither willing to contribute nor listen because he is jealous of Ralph and has a sickening obsession with killing boars. Ralph has some good traits that help him maintain peace and balance for a period of time. He is charismatic and has natural leader attributes. Gradually though some of the other characters are killed due to the irresponsibility and savagery of Jack's actions. In this novel, the author conveys a messege through Freud's theroy of Id, Ego, and Superego. He uses Jack to represent an excess of Id and its dangers to oneself and others, Ralph to show how sometimes a good balanced amount of ego can be very helpful in a stressful situation, and Piggy to show how the effects of an excess superego can influence one's mentality and the others around.
Lord of the Flies by William Golding is a classic novel and portrays just how the society surrounding us can corrupt our once pure nature No one is born a killer, no one is born with an intense compulsion to kill, the island that the boys are stranded on has a very unusual, corrupting society; A society that erodes the boys innocence through the power struggle between Jack and Ralph, readers see the transfer from innocent to savagely through the hunting and Piggy’s death.