In the novel, Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, Simon is
the most powerful character. Although he is peaceful and
shy, Simon closely resembles the role of Christ in many of
his ways. He tries to show the boys there is no monster on
the island except the fears that the boys have created in their
minds. During a meeting, Simon shares what he believes is
the truth by saying the beast, "Is only us." When he makes
this announcement, he is ridiculed by the boys, "The laughter
beat him cruelly and he shrank away defenseless to his seat."
This is an uncanny parallel to the misunderstanding that
Christ had to deal with. Later in the story the savage hunters
are chasing a pig. Once they kill the pig, they put its head on
a stick and Simon experiences an epiphany in which he
comes to understand the truth of his theory. As Simon
rushes to the campfire, "Stumbling through the thick sand,"
to tell his discovery to the boys, he is hit in the side with a
spear, his prophecy rejected and the word he wished to
spread ignored. Simon falls to the ground and dies. The
description of his death, the manner in which he died, and
the cause for which he died are remarkably similar to the
circumstances of Christ’s life and ultimate demise. The major
difference is that Christ died on the cross, while Simon was
speared. However, a reader familiar with the Bible may
recall that Christ was stabbed in the side with a spear before
his crucifixion.
A Link to the Outside World
In the novel, Lord of the Flies written by William Golding, a
large spiral shaped sea shell, known as a conch shell,
became crucial for society developed by the surviving boys.
Similarly, in Greek mythology Triton, the son of Neptune,
uses the conch shell to stir or calm the seas. Here, Ralph,
following the instructions of Piggy, uses the shell to subdue
and control the animal spirits of the boys. Living on a small,
unnamed island, with no adult figures, the conch shell
became their symbol of authority. The influence of the conch
kept the children’s hopes of being rescued going, for it
reminded them of the order there was in the world where
they had come from. It seemed to be the only link to the
world of order and civilization. Events that went along with
the finding of the conch shell started with Ralph being named
the chief of the island because he was the first boy to blow
Bonaparte was born in 1769 on the island of Corsica just as France conquered it. At age ten, Napoleon was sent to military school outside Paris. At sixteen, he graduated and became a lieutenant in the artillery. When the French revolution broke out, Napoleon sided with the new government. Along with the help of his army, he dissolved the revolutionary government and made himself emperor. Saying he was saving the Revolution, Napoleon established a new government that stressed equality. Through his prowess, Napoleon greatly enlarged the French Empire. Though he ran...
There were some moral problems that Mill ran into with his principle. One of the first problems was that actions are right to promote happiness, but wrong as they sometimes tend to produce unhappiness. By moving a victim from a mangled car would be the noble thing to do but what if pulling him from the wreck meant killing him. He intended to produce a happy outcome, but in the end he created an unhappy situation. Utilitarianism declares that men can live just as well without happiness. Mill says yes, but men do not conduct their lives, always seeking happiness. Happiness does not always mean total bliss.
The novel Lord of the Flies was full of challenges that the boys overcame in order to survive. Conflicts within themselves, with nature and with each other constantly test the children’s ability to endure. Struggles against the natural elements of the island, rival groups or fear of the unknown continually appear throughout the story. Some of the boys on the island did not survive the quarrels that they faced. They perished because they were lacking something that the surviving boys did not. The survivors had a natural primal instinct or a physical or mental advantage over the boys who did not make it. ‘Only the strong survive’ is an important element that runs through the novel Lord of the Flies because in order to survive the boys must turn to their primitive instincts of physical strength and savagery.
Utilitarianism, a book written by John Stuart Mill during mid 19th century in England, encompasses Mill’s major viewpoints about the constructs of pleasure and pain for human beings; as well as utility in itself as a way of promoting political and social goals. As Mill quotes, “A cultivated mind, that is any mind to which the fountains of knowledge have been opened and which have been taught to exercises its faculties-find sources of inexhaustible interest in all that surrounds it; in nature, art, poetry, history, and the ways of man of past and their prospects for the future” (Mill, Utilitarianism, p. 372). This passage directly connects to Mill’s interpretation of Utilitarianism which is ultimately achieving happiness, or least one of his
In 1952, Golding wrote a classic novel, Lord of the Flies and shows people are born evil. In this novel William Golding proves his point in writing this novel, while Jean Jacques Rousseau thinks the opposite of Golding. Rousseau thinks that people are born naturally good and pure, but society is what makes and turns some into evil. The novel Lord of the Flies starts out with a planes crashing and young boys being the only ones to survive. They are to start their own “government and rules” and the boys need to make their own society and survive until someone comes to rescue them. For a while they all behave, but then it becomes chaos and stop their society and do not follow their own rules. In my opinion, I would have to agree with Rousseau, because he thinks man is naturally good and pure and that society corrupts man.
In utilitarianism, all moral actions promote the greatest happiness in the greatest amount of people. This is done indiscriminitley, meaning that every person counts as one unit and nobody 's happiness is placed over another 's. Indeed, Mill believes that all humans are seeking, as an ultimate end, happiness, and all other pursuits are simply means to that end. He defends this view by raising other possible ends and showing that they are all a part of happiness, rather than a separate puruit. He also shows why, once we have attained a higher sense of intelect and other faculties, no human, save for extreme circumstances, would ever choose to revert to a simpler state of mind, despite the fact that these simpler people may be more satisfied with their lot than those of higher faculties. He believes this a general principle, although sometimes a lack of willpower can cause a person to seak a lower principle. Mill solidifies this sentiment with the statement: better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied"
There are two types of people in this world, good and evil. Some people think that evil comes to us from the surrounding society, others believe it is inside us and we are born with it. William Golding in the novel Lord of the Flies believes that all people are born with evil inside which needs to be restrained by a civilized society. In the novel, there is a stark contrast between the two societies set up by Ralph and Jack. Ralph is restrained by a civilized society, yet Jack is not restrained so his evil comes out at a faster rate. This shows through the personalities and the roles of each leader, in the different qualities in the second in command, Piggy and Roger. Most of all it is noticeable in Jack’s and Ralph’s values.
Napoleon Bonaparte was born in Corsica on August 15th, 1769 (Kishlansky, Geary, and O'Brien). Napoleon was a complex man who served in the revolutionary war working his way up in rank and ultimately using his military successes to gain political popularity and power (Kishlansky, Geary, and O'Brien). In 1799, Napoleon became the First Consul by overthrowing the directory and he would control France, eventually, making himself Emperor (Kishlansky, Geary, and O'Brien). This essay is going to expand on domestic and military accomplishments of Napoleon, as well as his greatest success and failure.
Humans are intricate. They have built civilizations and invented the concept of society, moving accordingly from savage primal instincts to disciplined behaviour. William Golding, however, does not praise humanity in his pessimistic novel, Lord of The Flies, which tells the story of a group of British schoolboys who are stranded on an uninhabited tropical island without any adults – a dystopia. Golding evidently expresses three views of humanity in this novel. He suggests that, without the rules and restrictions on which societies and civilizations are built, humans are intrinsically selfish, impulsive and violent.
...ry. Some may reject it and have the objection that utilitarianism does not provide an effective way of life. Those who object may say that this moral theory is not good or specific enough, lacks a mention of full human potential and capabilities, and fails to address the special moral values of humans. Mill provides an effective response to those who doubt utilitarianism, and states that there is only one end (happiness) that humans aim for and that humans and humans alone are the only ones who can judge and experience all pleasures and qualities of life.
John Stuart Mill claims that people often misinterpret utility as the test for right and wrong. This definition of utility restricts the term and denounces its meaning to being opposed to pleasure. Mill defines utility as units of happiness caused by an action without the unhappiness caused by an action. He calls this the Greatest Happiness Principle or the Principle of Utility. Mill’s principle states that actions are right when they tend to promote happiness and are wrong when they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. Happiness is defined as intended pleasure and the absence of pain while unhappiness is defined as pain and the lack of pleasure. Therefore, Mill claims, pleasure and happiness are the only things desirable and good. Mill’s definition of utilitarianism claims that act...
In John Stuart Mill’s literature (575-580), he describes a system of ethics which he dubs as Utilitarianism. Mill’s Utilitarianism is unique because it is a Consequentialist theory – it focuses on the consequences of things, rather than individual processes involved. In other words, Mill argues that, for an action to be morally correct, it must solely contribute towards benefitting the greater good and maximizing humanity’s happiness. I argue that this ethical theory is flawed and cannot be used as a standard to gauge the morality of our actions because, since Utilitarianism is so entrenched on the outcomes that are produced, it has the potential to sanction clearly wrong actions, so long as they promote the general welfare. In this critique,
In Chapter 2, What Utilitarianism is, Mill presents the aforesaid definition of Utilitarianism as the criterion of an action to be right or wrong. We have seen that Utilitarianism puts great emphasis on happiness. »By happiness is intended pleasure and the absence of pain; by unhappiness, pain, and the privation of pleasure.«3 The fact that pleasure is the only good for Mill makes his Utilitarianism a form of Hedonism which is most associated with the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus who claims that »Pleasure is our first and kindred good.«4 The difference to Epicurus’ Hedonism, however, is that »the happiness which forms the utilitarian standard of what is right in conduct, is not the agent’s own happiness, but that of all concerned.«5
Consequences of intervention can include the loss of lives from an otherwise uninvolved country, the spread of violence, and the possibility of inciting conflict over new problems, just to name a few (Lecture, 11/15/16). For example, John Mueller considers the potential negative consequences of intervention prove that they are insignificant to the cause of humanitarian intervention as a whole. Moreover, with intervention into ethnic conflicts, the outcome, no matter how positive, is overshadowed by a gross exaggeration of negative consequences (Mueller). In both Yugoslavia and Rwanda the solution, to Mueller appeared simple, a well ordered and structured militarized presence was all that was required to end the conflict (Mueller). If this is the case, when discussing whether or not intervention is necessary the political elite must not over-exaggerate the difficulty.
The post-Cold war world is one that has been riddled with conflict, suffering and war. In the face of such times, the issue of humanitarian intervention and about who, when and how it should be employed, has become hotly debated. While some critics declare this kind of intervention to be a violation of national sovereignty, others believe that relief efforts aimed at ending human suffering are perfectly justifiable. (7) The key question here is, if internal wars cause unacceptable human suffering, should the international community develop collective mechanisms for preventing or alleviating it?(5) This essay will attempt to address such a question, by outlining the arguments for and against humanitarian intervention in the context of the Bosnian crisis of 1991. In light of the evidence, it will be proven that although humanitarian intervention does have flaws, it is a vital tool in alleviating the human suffering that so plagues contemporary society.