preview

1984 And Lord Of The Flies Analysis

Good Essays

George Orwell’s novel, “Nineteen Eighty-Four” and William Golding’s “Lord of the Flies” exhibit a particular range of literary techniques to explore comparable ideas within their dystopian texts. Nineteen Eighty-Four creates a world of systematic abuse taken to the fullest extent: omnipresent government surveillance, public manipulation and the illegality of individualism. Lord of the Flies takes a more brutal approach, as a group of young boys find themselves stranded on an uninhabited island and attempt to govern themselves. They soon turn to savagery: hallucinating visions of a beast and killing one another. Psychological manipulation is a consistent theme within both novels, and is maintained between these mediums with the incorporation of key symbols. Freedom and oppression are important themes throughout, and are similarly communicated to the reader with the further use of symbols. Expendability is an underlying theme within both communities of the texts, and is explored with the use of characterisation.

The authors of Nineteen Eighty-Four and Lord of the Flies similarly employ symbolism to incorporate their theme of freedom. Throughout his novel, Orwell connects Winston’s diary with the idea of free speech and individualism. The governmental power of Airstrip One habitually “rectif[ies]” history to cast their leaders in a charitable light, claiming that “who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past”. As even the simpler

Get Access