Annotated Bibliography
Baker, James R. "The Meaning of the Beast” (1997): 75-82. Greenhaven Press. Print.
Baker brings to the table the reasoning for the boys moral failure- that they failed to look within themselves for the beast. He notes at the end of the story even Ralph was unable to figure out how the boys had gone to complete savagery and Baker signifies Maurice explains with doubt that he doesn’t believe in the beast and they don’t know for certain either. As the novel proceeds, only the “three blind mice” are left by Jack’s tribe for rationality, and Ralph asks for a sign from the world from which they came, but it’s only another sign of what the beast truly is. When Simon heads up the mountain to see the “Lord of the Flies,” he sees
The problem is the boys are resorting to the simplification that there is a beast, an animal, but the problem is the within them-us. The narcissistic ways the human mind can resort to when we lose our individuality when joining a new group results in an action that is human, and not animal at all. McClean explains the way critics prevent most thinking inside or about it at all, but he explains how psychoanalytic thinking is important before plugging in the logistics of the novel into the equation. He explains the significance of the first littleun who is the one who spoils everyone’s illusions of perfection, that there is a beast on the island, but nobody knew what or who it was. As the boys realize there are no grown ups, they realize nobody has complete control, and back home nobody will know where they are. These actions release their inner id which returns them to a primitive-like state in which the civilized restraints are broken. As the naval officer finds them on the island, they boys start to cry, which shows the horror and realization that they are now aware of what happened and what was lost during their time
He compares the fall of the island to the fall of man in realistic terms as dictatorship makes democracy accept defeat as evil is victorious over the good. Sen compares the island to a laboratory-like state where restraints have been removed and the boys are Golding’s guinea pigs to experiment with as he will. With no supervision the schoolboys act as they would in a natural human state. Golding writes this novel post-World War II and it is easily identified he is frustrated with the way in which humans degrade to savagery to kill one another. Sen focuses on Golding’s in-depth analysis of the human and its’ society where this island could be interpreted in many different ways, but the laboratory is his preference in which we all are inside. Someone has created this laboratory of a world where we all live in, but who is outside is up to the author, artist, painter, or Christian or Greek God to most religious people. Sen signifies the psychoanalytic critics of this novel and how they’ve discovered and put into terms the main problem of the modern thoughts of the human race- the Lord of the
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
When the boys initially land on the island, they have tons of fun and are completely carefree. Only a couple of days later though, the “little ‘uns” begin to have dreams about beasts attacking them at night.
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.
All of the boys but Simon are becoming the beast at that moment. In Lord of the Flies, Golding proves that fear draws out man’s inner evil and barbarism. Within the novel, Golding uses characterization of the boys and symbolism of the beast to show the gradual change from their initial civility to savagery and inhumanity. Learned civility, order and humanity become ultimately futile in the face of fear. The author teaches that without logic, fear consumes us endlessly.
While the boys stranded on the island begin with the basis of a plan to keep order, as time progresses, they are faced with conflicts that ultimately brings an end to their civilized ways. Initially, Ralph, the assumed leader, ran a democratic-like process on the island; however, later in the story, Jack, one of the boys, realizes that there are no longer any consequences to their wrongdoings for the reason that there was no control. This ties in with the ideal that moral behavior is forced upon individuals by civilization and when they are left on their own, they return to their fundamental instinct of savagery. Furthermore, there is a differentiation in beliefs that result in chaos due to the fact that some favored an uncultivated manner of life over an ordered structure. Opposing ideas are commonly known t...
On the dystopian island of Lord of the Flies, authored by William Golding, one can observe the boy's’ descent into madness. When a group of young children were abandoned on an island without adult supervision, chaos rampaged. This loss civility is most clearly demonstrated by Jack and his effect on others. The text illustrates how quickly he succumbed to the savagery, the way his thirst for power and his dire situation brought him to barbarity, and how the boys followed suit, losing all their humanity.
Another of the most important symbols used to present the theme of the novel is the beast. In the imaginations of many of the boys, the beast is a tangible source of evil on the island. However, in reality, it represents the evil naturally present within everyone, which is causing life on the island to deteriorate. Simon begins to realize this even before his encounter with the Lord of the Flies, and during one argument over the existence of a beast, he attempts to share his insight with the others.
William Golding’s novel ‘The Lord of The flies’ presents us with a group of English boys who are isolated on a desert island, left to try and retain a civilised society. In this novel Golding manages to display the boys slow descent into savagery as democracy on the island diminishes.
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
When the children become stranded on the island, the rules of society no longer apply to them. Without the supervision of their parents or of the law, the primitive nature of the boys surfaces, and their lives begin to fall apart. The downfall starts with their refusal to gather things for survival. The initial reaction of the boys is to swim, run, jump, and play. They do not wish to build shelters, gather food, or keep a signal fire going. Consequently, the boys live without luxury that could have been obtained had they maintained a society on the island. Instead, these young boys take advantage of their freedom and life as they knew it deteriorates.
On contrary from all the other boys on the island Simon, a Christ like figure in the novel, did not fear the ‘beastie’ or the unknown. “Maybe there is a beast....maybe it's only us” Simon explained. (p. 97) The fear of the unknown in the novel contributes to the boys’ terror of the beast, the beast is an imaginary figure which lays in all of the boys’ minds and haunts them. Golding uses the beast as a symbol of the evil that exists in every creature. "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 the way they are?" The sow head announced to Simon to be the “lord of the flies”. The “lord of the flies” is a figure of the devil, and brings out all the evil and fear in people. It wants you to fear it, but if you don’t believe in the “lord of the flies” nothing can happen to you. Therefore Simon didn’t fall into the trap, but the beast killed him, meaning the other boys on the island did. Simon discovered that the beast is in fact just a dead parachute man before he died and ran down to tell the boys about his finding. When Sim...
This paper will explore the three elements of innate evil within William Golding's, Lord of the Flies, the change from civilization to savagery, the beast, and the battle on the island. Golding represents evil through his character's, their actions, and symbolism. The island becomes the biggest representation of evil because it's where the entire novel takes place. The change from civilization to savagery is another representation of how easily people can change from good to evil under unusual circumstances. Golding also explores the evil within all humans though the beast, because it's their only chance for survival and survival instinct takes over. In doing so, this paper will prove that Lord of the Flies exemplifies the innate evil that exists within all humans.
In Herman Melville’s Moby Dick and Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea we are introduced to two individuals who share different opinions on nature and the marvelous creatures that make up the world around them. In this paper, I will explore the differences between Captain Ahab and Santiago. In Moby Dick, we are introduced to Captain Ahab and his personal quest to avenge the personal loss he suffered at the jaws of what he considered to “evil” while Ishmael recounts “ Ahab did not fall down and worship it like them; but deliriously transferring its idea to the abhorred white whale, he pitted himself, all mutilated, against it. All that most maddens and torments; all that stirs up the lees of things; all truth with malice in it; all that cracks the sinews and cakes the brain; all the subtle demonisms of life and throught; all evil, to crazy Ahab, were visibly personified and made practically assailable in Moby Dick” (Melville pg 156.) In this, he describes how Ahab’s previous encounter with the whale has tainted his opinion on the traditional values of “white” representing purity and righteousness and replaced it with the notion of the color representing evil and cruelty as though Ahab believed Moby Dick had a personal vendetta against him instead of nature simply protecting itself against a great threat.
William Golding’s Lord of the Flies shows man’s inhumanity to man. This novel shows readers good vs. evil through children. It uses their way of coping with being stranded on an island to show us how corrupt humans really are.
The little kids, or littles as they are referred to in the book, believe there is a monster on the island, and as the book progresses some of the big kids believe the monster is real after a few kids mistake a dead man for the monster. Jack splits off from the group because he does not agree with Ralph's obsession with keeping the signal fire burning at all times and would rather be hunting than tending to it. The majority of the group goes with him except for Ralph, Piggy, Simon, Sam, and Eric. After one of the new groups hunts, they cut off a sows head and put it on a spear, and stuck it in the ground as an offering to the beast. Simon sees the dead man for what it really is and when he sees the pigs head it talks to him and tells him that his theory that the beast is actually just the boys fear of the unknown and it reveals itself to be the Lord of the Flies.