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Analytical essay of lord of the flies
Society analysis in lord of the flies
Society analysis in lord of the flies
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Recommended: Analytical essay of lord of the flies
Lord of the Flies was written by William Golding, and the topic of this essay is to show how Golding suggests that the boys on the island gradually move from their civilized behavior to total anarchy. In the book, Lord of the Flies, an undefined number of boys are stranded on a desert island, and a leader is chosen. From the start, there is a power struggle between the chosen leader, Ralph, and the leader of a boys choir,Jack. There is also a gradual descent into anarchy as the boys spend more time on the island alone. In the end, they are rescued by a navy ship, but not before atleast two children are dead, namely Piggy and Simon, both murdered. In this essay it will be shown that the boys on the island move from civilization to total anarchy, through the examples of their use of face paint, the death of Simon and the destruction of the conch.
In Lord of the Flies, an example of their move from civilization to anarchy lies the use of face paint among the boys on the island. Some of the boys, like Ralph and Piggy, never wear face paint. This shows that they stay civilized throughout the story, while the other kids do not. Early in the story, when the hunters chase after a pig, they all where mud, clay, and charcoal as face paint to be 'like things trying to look like something else-'; (Lord of the Flies, William Golding, p. 66). Later, when Jack forms his own tribe they go hunting with masks of pig blood on their faces, as masks. Golding suggests that the children are able to disguise themselves behind these masks, and escape any punishment, therefore freeing them to do as they please. This shows that Golding wanted the reader to think that while the children are afraid of punishment (when they have just arrived on the island), they are civilized in their behaviour, but when they wear their masks, and are able to rid themselves of the responsibility of their actions they begin to act more savage-like.
Another example of how the children on the island moved from civilization to anarchy is the progression of the dance they perform. In the beginning, when they dance they all gather in a circle and one child is in the middle, acting as the beast. The children would then proceed to pretend to beat the child, but instead leave him unharmed.
There are signs and symbols in both novels that show the beginning of barbarism and brutality. In Lord of the Flies, the boys portray inhumane characteristics in painting their faces. Jack, being the archetypal savage, paints his face the symbolic colors of red and black. "For example, when Jack first paints his face to his satisfaction, he suddenly becomes a new, savage person. "He began to dance and his laughter became a bloodthirsty snarling." (Al-Saidi, “Savagery and the Heart of Darkness in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies”). Jack’s transformation into a savage character results in his animalistic behavior. Likewise, Gene’s downfall into a wicked state results in his change of character. He ultimately acts as an archetype of brutality and jealousy. Similarly, “the scornful force of his tone turned the word into a curse” (Knowles) showing that once peaceful words have turned into barbarian, savage-like ones. Overall, the boys barbarian actions resulted in the degeneration of man and the archetypal character of a savage.
William Golding’s novel ‘The Lord of The Flies’ tells the story of a group of English boys isolated on a desert island, left to attempt to retain civilisation. In the novel, Golding shows one of the boys, Jack, to change significantly. At the beginning of the book, Jack’s character desires power and although he does not immediately get it, he retains the values of civilized behaviour. However, as the story proceeds, his character becomes more savage, leaving behind the values of society. Jack uses fear of the beast to control the other boys and he changes to become the book’s representation of savagery, violence and domination. He is first taken over with an obsession to hunt, which leads to a change in his physical appearance This change of character is significant as he leads the other boys into savagery, representing Golding’s views of there being a bad and unforgiving nature to every human.
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.
An assembly of young men are marooned on an island after their plane crashes. Without grown-up survivors, they make their own "micro-social order". Ralph is chosen "chief", and he orders asylum and fire. Jack, the leader of the choir, takes his young men and chases nourishment (wild pigs). A bitter competition heightens between Jack and Ralph as both need to be in control. The "hunters" come to be savage and primal, under Jack's standard, while Ralph tries to keep his assembly enlightened. The developing danger between them prompts a wicked and alarming peak. Lord of the Flies likewise investigates the dim side of humanity, the viciousness that underlies even the most acculturated human beings. Golding arranged this novel as a catastrophic satire of children trill stories, showing mankind's natural noxious nature. He gives the reader a series of events leading an assembly of adolescent men from ambition to tragedy as they attempt to survive their savage, unsupervised, separated environment until protected. Throughout the novel book lovers witness what Lord of the Flies educates about the reason for government and human nature.
William Golding explores the vulnerability of society in a way that can be read on many different levels. A less detailed look at the book, Lord of the Flies, is a simple fable about boys stranded on an island. Another way to comprehend the book is as a statement about mans inner savage and reverting to a primitive state without societies boundaries. By examining the Lord of the Flies further, it is revealed that many themes portray Golding’s views, including a religious persecution theme.
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.
Lord of the Flies is a novel written by William Golding in 1954 about a group of young British boys who have been stranded alone together on an island with no adults. During the novel the diverse group of boys struggle to create structure within a society that they constructed by themselves. Golding uses many unique literary devices including characterization, imagery, symbolism and many more. The three main characters, Ralph, Piggy, and Jack are each representative of the three main literary devices, ethos, logos, and pathos. Beyond the characterization the novel stands out because of Golding’s dramatic use of objective symbolism, throughout the novel he uses symbols like the conch, fire, and Piggy’s glasses to represent how power has evolved and to show how civilized or uncivilized the boys are acting. It is almost inarguable that the entire novel is one big allegory in itself, the way that Golding portrays the development of savagery among the boys is a clear representation of how society was changing during the time the novel was published. Golding is writing during
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.
After being marooned on an unknown, uninhabited island and desperate to survive, the characters in William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies are pushed to the limits of their humanity, and no one is safe from the atrocities from within, not even the seemingly innocent littluns. In an environment where civilization does not exist, the boys of the story attempt to form a society among themselves. Among the group of boys is a young boy who stands out from the rest. Jack Merridew, the leader of the choir boys, strives to take the role of leader of the boys, and he appears to be completely competent. In the beginning, Jack seems to be innocent and civilized. Jack is the cultured leader of the boys’ choir. Although the reader’s first impression of Jack Merridew may be one of an innocent leader eager to be rescued, his true, truculent nature manifests with the development of the novel, and the reader is gripped by Jack’s true schismatic, belligerent, and iconoclastic nature.
The boys spark the onset of tragedy when the pig hunt evolves as more than just an activity. Jack and his band of hunters love the thrill of the chase. They spend much of their day searching the pig runs enjoying the brutality they cause on other living beings. This amusement is taken too far when Jack introduces face paint into the game. The face paint takes away the identities of the boys and transforms them into nameless savages. They hide behind the paint “liberated from shame and self-consciousness” (Golding 64). Jack’s mask overpowers the rest of the boys and they go off to hunt despite some discontent. Eventually, the painted warriors ready a fortress at one end of the island.
“Well we won't be painted because we aren't savages (172)”. As Ralph said this he was telling the others that savages wear paints and the civilized wear clothes. Even though prior to Ralph deciding on wearing clothes as an act of civilization, he once removed them and experienced the feeling of savagery. In William Golding’s Lord Of the Flies, he shows that clothing is a breaking point between uncivilized and civilized life. Throughout the book he demonstrates the beginning, the deterioration, and the loss of clothing and civilized life.
In Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, we find a group of British boys stranded on a tropical island while the rest of the world is at war. Their plane has been shot down and they find themselves without adults to tell them how to act. As they struggle to survive, they encounter conflicts that mirror the decayed society from which they have come. We see Golding's theme come about as we watch the boys begin to lose their innocence and let their natural evil overwhelm their otherwise civilized manner. While formulating the theme of the story, Golding utilizes much symbolism, one of these symbols being the masks, or painted faces, that the boys wear. The masks, and painted faces, became a producer of evil circumstances, give a sense of anonymity, and represented the defiance of social structure.
Red, brown, green, blue, colors that surround us everyday, yet somehow the human fascination of applying them to their face makes them seem all the more fun, and interesting. This newfound interest could even leak through to the mind beneath, giving way to a whole new person. In his 1954 novel, Lord of the Flies, William Golding illustrated this idea in a way that captured the hearts of many and led the story to fame, concocting a reality that had since resided only in the nightmares of children. Inventing a world in which masks of paint were not a fun thing you got at a fair, but a living horror and uncontrollable enemy. Masks are common in our world. They are worn on holidays and to parties. Nearly everyone can recognize at least on super hero or villain who hid behind a mask. These allow people to act as something they are not, producing a faux freedom. Freedom that once the mask is applied, can allow one to do whatever they please. William Golding uses the mask for the same purpose, in creating freedom. To him the mask induces freedom from responsibility, appropriate behavior and ordinary human kindness.
In his novel Lord of the Flies, William Golding shows a story of boys who are trapped on an island, and must figure out how to survive. The story represents the fall of mankind, as symbolism is present throughout the entire novel. It is best seen through a historical perspective. Golding uses events from his own lifetime, the Operation Pied Paper, and Hitler’s ruling to compare it to the major events, the beginning of the story, and Jack’s personality.
Throughout Lord of the Flies is a display of humankind’s thirst for power. Most of the boys, for example, transition to savagery and animalistic behaviors to free themselves from powerless lives. Jack, the leader of the hunters, becomes the first of the boys to paint a mask on his face. “Jack planned his new face. He made one cheek and one eye-socket white, then he rubbed over the other half of his face and slashed a black bar of charcoal across from right ear to left jaw…Beside the pool his sinewy body held up a mask that drew their eyes and appalled them. He began to dance and his laughter became a bloodthirsty snarling, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-consciousness,” (63-64). Under his mask, Jack feels no shame, and therefore is free to indulge in power as he desires. In fact, later in the book, Jack and a few other boys commit one of the ultimate crimes of violence and power—rape (although only metaphorically.) Jack...