Lord Of The Flies Analysis Essay

Golding’s Adroit Techniques: An In-Depth Analysis of Lord of the Flies

The novel, Lord of the Flies, written by William Golding certainly is a masterful work of literature. The novel commences when a group of British schoolboys becomes stranded on a deserted island after their plane crashes into the sea. In due time, they become accustomed to the island life thanks to the leadership of the novel’s main character Ralph. As the plot progresses, these boys slowly but surely lose their sanity and the order they originally created transforms into a grim state of chaos. From How To Read Literature Like a Professor, a work by Thomas C. Foster, one can clearly classify that Golding’s novel

Foster’s book, How To Read Literature Like a Professor, that serves great significance to Lord of the Flies, is Chapter 19, “Geography Matters… .” In Lord of the Flies, William Golding certainly paints a vivid setting: a deserted tropical island embodying a pristine, white beach, a temperate lagoon, a dense jungle, a towering mountain and a massive mound of rocks located on the far end of the isle. All in all, each of these places was purposefully created for a test, a test to see how a group of schoolboys would perform in an environment without adult authority. For instance, the jungle was most likely created to instill fear into the boys, but some of them in fact perceived it as a savage’s playground. One such group who perceived it as a savage’s playground was Jack and his squadron of hunters, who despite the dangers possibly lurking in the jungle hunted to their heart’s content and finally slaughtered a sow. In fact, Jack euphorically mentions to Ralph that in Chapter 4, “Painted Faces and Long Hair,” that he and his hunters could “go hunting every day” and him and his hunters ominously chant “Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Spill her blood,” which both foreshadow that because they were so immersed in the wildness of the jungle, they’ll eventually turn to savagery (pgs. 69-70). Therefore, since William Golding included a hostile place such as a jungle in his setting, it caused some of the boys to awaken their sense of savagery inside them.

Foster’s book, How To Read Literature Like a Professor is chapter 11, “...More Than It’s Gonna Hurt You: Concerning Violence.” In Lord of the Flies, the literary device of violence can be discovered in small traces throughout the course of the plot, but only when the story finally reaches its climax, does it vividly showcase its vicious form. Authors, in some cases, will include this in order to develop the plot or the theme of a literary work, so that they can leave a lasting impression on the reader. For instance, consider the violent actions displayed by Jack, the antagonist of the novel, and his savage hunters near the end of the story. One night, when he and his hunters have persuaded some of the boys to join his “tribe,” their delirious dance and savage fever awaken a wave of violence that takes the life of the shy and sensitive Simon, a character who is mistaken as a “beast” the boys are unbearably afraid of. In fact, Golding describes his death as barbaric as the boys “surged after [him], leapt on to the beast, screamed, struck, bit, tore,” which all in all, advances the plot and develops the theme that over time, the order in one’s heart may become corrupted and that corruption may provoke the cruel nature in one’s heart (chapter 9, “A View to a Death” page 153). Another example is the relentless hunt for Ralph near the very end of the story. Although there is no clear explanation as to why Ralph