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Archetypes Lord Of The Flies Essay

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During a nuclear war, a group of young boys plane crashes on a hot deserted island in the middle of nowhere with little possibilities to be rescued and no alive adults. For months the boys have to manage to feed themselves, regulate the island, create rules, and assign roles, all the while trying to get rescued any way they can. As a result, they progressively become more savage and forget the rules that modern day civilization has set. In the novel, Lord of the Flies, William Golding shows the character archetypes the shadow and the stern parent through the characters Roger and Ralph and uses them to develop the theme of all people are inherently evil. Roger becomes the role of the shadow when he destroys the littluns’ sandcastles,…show more content…
Maurice continues with the original plan and goes swimming, but Roger hides in the forest and starts to throw rocks at Henry. His intent is not to hit him, but rather to scare him and feed into the fear of the beast. This evil act is significant to Henry and the rest of the impressionable littluns, because in their eyes it is another offense from the beast which is the embodiment of all the boys fears and insecurities. Even though Roger obviously takes pleasure in hurting other people, he is still “conditioned by a civilization that knew nothing of him and was in ruins” (82) and therefore decides to only throw the rocks in his general direction. Roger’s behavior at the beach demonstrates an overall negative presence which is Golding’s way of portraying Roger as the shadow archetype. This furthers the theme of all people are inherently evil by describing how the only reason Roger does not throw the rocks directly at Henry is because he has not forgotten all of the rules modern society has set. The rules most of society follow are to never hurt anyone unjust and to be respectful and kind. In this situation Roger is not fully savage and still has societies basic rules lingering in the back of his head when he only throws the rocks near Henry and not directly at him. Although, Roger was more civilized, he becomes full savage and forgets all of the rules of civilization when he malevolently kills Piggy. After Jack and the
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