Lord of the Flies by William Golding and Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
`Lord of the Flies`, by William Golding was written in 1954 almost a
century after Charles Dickens wrote `Great Expectations`, in 1860.
Both of the novels are considered as being classics and have been made
into films and the books while seeming completely different do have
similarities although they are in different social, historical and
cultural settings.
The frameworks of the books are completely different, `Lord of the
Flies` starts as a traditional boy's adventure story like `Coral
Island`, by R.M. Ballantyne, however it is subverted to a dark,
menacing story about how people behave when the constraints of society
are removed. The island is a microcosm of society, and in the book we
see examples of hierarchy, the social divide, human nature, and how
the boys, with no adults, start to rely on their basic savage
instincts. `Great Expectations` is mainly about the divides between
the rich and the poor, a popular theme in the Victorian times as the
industrial revolution had broadened and highlighted the divide,
however both books do reflect on society, and the weakness of human
nature. Both the books, while having a traditional framework, have an
original element. Not many memoirs are as strange and varied as Pip's,
and not many boy's adventure stories turn as dark and menacing as
Golding's novel.
In the opening chapters the settings of the books are contrasting, in
`Lord of the Flies`, the boys are in tropical splendor, (the pool)
"It was clear to the bottom and bright with the efflorescence of
tropical weed and coral" (pg 17), while in `Great Expectations` the
opening chapter is set in a graveyard, which is dank a...
... middle of paper ...
...agwitch in his
torn, coarse and disheveled state,
"A fearful man, all in coarse grey, with a great iron on his leg. A
man with no hat, and with broken shoes, and with an old rag tied round
his head. A man who had been soaked in water, and smothered in mud,
and lamed by stones, and cut by flints, and stung by nettles, and torn
by briars; who limped".
From this the reader can see that, although the opening chapters of
both novels seem completely unrelated, in fact when the reader looks
more closely, many parallels can be seen. For example though the
settings are very diverse, one being a wind swept moor, and the other
being a tropical island, both are menacing. Although these books were
written almost a century apart, and at first seem to be on different
topics, many of the key features are the same, and many of the
characters posses similar qualities.
His outside actions of touching the wall and looking at all the names are causing him to react internally. He is remembering the past and is attempting to suppress the emotions that are rising within him. The first two lines of the poem set the mood of fear and gloom which is constant throughout the remainder of the poem. The word choice of "black" to describe the speaker's face can convey several messages (502). The most obvious meaning ... ...
The time period this work takes place in is a very gloomy and frightening time. He wakes up in a dark place by himself and in fear, which makes things worse. A common theme we can relate this dark place to is when we fall off of the path of God. Since God represents all things good, the dark is the exact opposite. Since everything is not so clear in the wood he his describing, the path back to God is even more difficult to attain.
Equiano carefully crafts his words to show rational fear forming an argument instead of a horror story. He makes it clear that he is only afraid due to the brutality the men show, not because he is to work, or because he is frightened of the men themselves. QUOTES. In this sentence, Equiano both continues to refute the notion of Africans as savages and demonstrates their work ethic. This sentence appeals himself and his argument to the audience.
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.
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.
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.
"O, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown!/ The courtier's, soldier's scholar's eye, tongue, sword;/ The expectancy and rose of the fair state,/ The glass of fashion and the mold of form,/ The observ'd of all observers, quite, quite down!
The individual “in a ghastly suit of grey” presented by the persona has “lost his colour very far from here, poured it down shell-holes till the veins ran dry” after the war. This means a loss of blood, but symbolically “a loss of color” could mean a loss of personality and flair, as well as all the colors that make up himself leaving him only grey. His colors are lost ‘very far from here’ suggesting the his true and previous self is distant, lost on the grounds of war, or trapped deep inside of himself. If he has been lost far away it also makes him separated and distant from society because his colors are stranded in a depressing, forlorn world. The loss could also shows how he has been torn away and ruined both mentally and
“Yet when we was finally permitted entry all my attention were taken not by the blazing fire but by a huge red jowled creature the Englishman who sat behind the desk. I knew not his name only that he were the most powerful man I ever saw and he might destroy my mother if he so desired. Approach says he as if he was an altar.”
Lord of the Flies by William Golding Through his writing in the book Lord of the Flies, William Golding's view on. nature is not as in the plant and tree kind of nature, but in the nature of man at a young age of life. Golding is trying to portray what instincts and desires are like at an early time in a man's life when there are no adults around to help shape those. feelings to fit in with the mainstream society that people live in everyday. The nature of man is any and all of the instincts and desires of a person or animal.
Charles Dickens utilizes his life for inspiration for the protagonist Pip in his novel Great Expectations. They both struggle with their social standing. Dickens loved plays and theatre and therefore incorporated them into Pip’s life. Dickens died happy in the middle class and Pip died happy in the middle class. The connection Dickens makes with his life to Pip’s life is undeniable. If readers understand Dickens and his upbringing then readers can understand how and why he created Pip’s upbringing. Charles Dickens’ life, full of highs and lows, mirrors that of Pip’s life. Their lives began the same and ended the same. To understand the difficulty of Dickens’ childhood is to understand why his writing focuses on the English social structure. Dickens’ life revolved around social standing. He was born in the lower class but wasn’t miserable. After his father fell into tremendous debt he was forced into work at a young age. He had to work his way to a higher social standing. Because of Dicken’s constant fighting of class the English social structure is buried beneath the surface in nearly all of his writings. In Great Expectations Pip’s life mirrors Dickens’ in the start of low class and the rise to a comfortable life. Fortunately for Dickens, he does not fall again as Pip does. However, Pip and Dickens both end up in a stable social standing.
I noticed how white and well-shaped his own hands were. They looked calm, somehow, and skilled. His eyes were melancholy, and were set back deep under his brow. His face was ruggedly formed, but it looked like ashes – like something from which all the warmth and light had dried out. Everything about this old man was in keeping with his dignified manner (24)
The story of “Life in the Iron Mills” enters around Hugh Wolfe, a mill hand whose difference from his faceless, machine-like colleagues is established even before Hugh himself makes an appearance. The main narrative begins, not with Hugh, but with his cousin Deborah; the third-person point of view allows the reader to see Deborah in an apparently objective light as she stumbles tiredly home from work in the cotton mills at eleven at night. The description of this woman reveals that she does not drink as her fellow cotton pickers do, and conjectures that “perhaps the weak, flaccid wretch had some stimulant in her pale life to keep her up, some love or hope, it might be, or urgent need” (5). Deborah is described as “flaccid,” a word that connotes both limpness and impotence, suggesting that she is not only worn out, but also powerless to change her situation; meanwhile, her life is “pale” and without the vivid moments we all desire. Yet even this “wretch” has something to sti...
New hat and old jerkin; a pair of old breeches thrice turned; a pair of boots that have been candle-cases, one buckled another laced; an old rusty sworde…with a broken hilt and chapeless; his horse hipped…with an old mothy saddle
The consistent pattern of metrical stresses in this stanza, along with the orderly rhyme scheme, and standard verse structure, reflect the mood of serenity, of humankind in harmony with Nature. It is a fine, hot day, `clear as fire', when the speaker comes to drink at the creek. Birdsong punctuates the still air, like the tinkling of broken glass. However, the term `frail' also suggests vulnerability in the presence of danger, and there are other intimations in this stanza of the drama that is about to unfold. Slithery sibilants, as in the words `glass', `grass' and `moss', hint at the existence of a Serpent in the Garden of Eden. As in a Greek tragedy, the intensity of expression in the poem invokes a proleptic tenseness, as yet unexplained.