True Portrayal of Children in Lord of the Flies

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True Portrayal of Children in Lord of the Flies

In the novel The Lord of the Flies, by

William Golding, one can see how children react to certain situations.

Children, when given the opportunity, would choose to play and have fun

rather than to do boring, hard work. Also, when children have no other

adults to look up to they turn to other children for leadership. Finally,

children stray towards savagery when they are without adult authority.

Therefore, Golding succeeds in effectively portraying the interests and

attitudes of young children in this novel.

When children are given the opportunity, they would rather envelop

themselves in pleasure and play than in the stresses of work. The boys

show enmity towards building the shelters, even though this work is

important, to engage in trivial activities. Af ter one of the shelters

collapses while only Simon and Ralph are building it, Ralph clamours, "All

day I've been working with Simon. No one else. They're off bathing or

eating, or playing." (55). Ralph and Simon, though only children, are

more mature a nd adult like and stray to work on the shelters, while the

other children aimlessly run off and play. The other boys avidly choose

to play, eat, etc. than to continue to work with Ralph which is very

boring and uninteresting. The boys act typically of m ost children their

age by being more interested in having fun than working. Secondly, all

the boys leave Ralph's hard-working group to join Jack's group who just

want to have fun. The day after the death of Simon when Piggy ! and Ralph

are bathing, Piggy points beyond the platform and says, "That's where

they're gone. Jack's party. Just for some meat. And for hunting and for

pretending to be a tribe and putting on war-paint."(163). Piggy realizes

exactly why the boys have gone to Jack's, which would be for fun and

excitement. The need to play and have fun in Jack's group, even though

the boys risk the tribe's brutality and the chance of not being rescued,

outweighs doing work with Ralph's group which increase their chance s of

being rescued. Young children need to satisfy their amusement by playing

games instead of doing work. In conclusion, children are more interested

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