Comparing Voltaire's Essay On Crime And Punishment

In Lord of the Flies by William Golding the different views and beliefs of Ralph and Jack and the need for power in both boys’ segregates the group and

As the French philosopher Baron de Montesquieu believed, a system of checks and balances of power are necessary to have a society. William Golding had written the Lord of the Flies, a book about a group of young boys stranded on a island needing to find ways of survival. His book portrays how Montesquieu's idea of checks and balances are needed to make an ideal community. On the island, Jack and Ralph were the two boys that seemed most fit to be leaders among these stranded boys and at first the island was a safe place for living, until Jack gains more and more control where the levels of authority are not equal. With Jack having most of the control, there is an absence of balance and this absence of balance between powers on the island causes the boys turn to savagery and chaos. Golding writes of the boys failing to have a mindset of surviving together by living their life on the island with an imbalance of power to govern themselves and by having this imbalance, the boys kill each other and destroy the island to rise in dominance, which is what Montesquieu predicted would happen if there was no checks of power and balance between sides.

In Voltaires?s Candide, the main character, Candide, fails to live happily because he is looking outside of himself and his circumstances to do it. Voltaire says through Candide's ultimate discovery that happiness in many ways depends on a person's attitude. Voltaire's philosophy expressed through Candide's final realization is that "We must cultivate our garden," which is the key to happiness(p.585). By cultivating our garden, Voltaire means that we must make the best of our situation in the present moment. We accept what we are given in life and work to make the best of it. It all has to do with our perspective on life. We do not find happiness somewhere else or by philosophizing about it, we open our eyes to the

In the novel Lord of the Flies, the author, William Golding, portrays a story about children that are stranded on an island with no adults to take charge and leadership; therefore, the children have to create their own system of government so they can survive. Throughout the story, there is a development of characters and each character represents various personalities and specific aspects of philosophies. Jack, Simon, and Ralph are the main focus throughout the book and their way of thinking is quite different from one another resulting in constant arguments.

The human mind is made of up two instincts that constantly have conflict: the instinct to live by society’s rules and the instinct to live by your own rules. Our civilized will has been to live morally by law and order, and our savage will has been to act out for our own selfish needs. We each choose to live by one or the other depending on how we feel is the correct way to live. In this allegorical novel, William Golding represents the transformation from civilization to savagery in the conflict between two of the main characters: Ralph who represents law and order and Jack who represents savagery and violence. Lord of the Flies has remained a very controversial novel to this day with its startling, brutal, and truthful picture of the

For example, following Ralph’s election as chief, he sought to distribute power, “Ralph looked at him [Jack], eager to offer something… ‘Jack’s in charge of the choir. They can be一 what do you want them to be?’” (Golding 23). As Ralph comes to power, he immediately delegates some of the power to his opposing candidate to create a literal democratic structured government on the island. This decision shows that a democratic government in the real world, contains structure and a distribution of power to seek the will of the majority. In addition, Samuel Hynes, in his Several Interpretations of “Lord of the Flies”, comments that, “He tries to establish and preserve an orderly, rational society; he takes as his totem the conch, making it the symbol of rational, orderly discussion,” (Hynes 59). Possessing an “orderly, rational society”, remains one of the key elements in any democratic governing body in the real world. The rational and orderliness allows for equality among voices and presents everyone the opportunity to speak, one of the fundamental qualities of democracy, as seen with the conch. In a like manner, Ralph establishes the freedom of speech in assembly on the island early in his, “I’ll give the conch to the next person to speak. He can hold it when he’s speaking,” (Golding 53). Wisely, Ralph establishes a system that allows anyone to speak their mind, they only need the conch and everybody else must listen. Although different from a conventional free speech policy, Ralph’s method still works, giving everybody the chance to voice themselves, regardless of whether Ralph or anyone else agrees or disagrees with them. Much like a real democracy, any can voice their opinion, indirectly with large populations, creating the defining principle of successful

The story “lord of the flies’’ by William Golding, the novel correlates to the philosophical views of John Locke and Thomas Hobbes. John Locke was an English philosopher that surmised man's natural moral compass would point towards good, Locke's philosophical writings stated “ that individuals in a state of nature would have stronger moral limits on their actions. Essentially, Locke thought that our human nature was characterized by reason and tolerance. People, Locke believed, were basically good’’ ( Locke and Hobbes Overview 2). John Locke thought if people were given no rules they would make a paradise, flourishing in law, order, and structure, Thomas Hobbes believed people were naturally cruel and chaotic, with a need of a strong ruler to make decisions. Hobbes stated, “Who felt that mankind was inherently evil and required a strong central authority to ward off this inclination toward an immoral behavior, Locke believed that human nature allowed men to be selfish’’( Locke and Hobbes Overview 2 ). Thomas Hobbes believed a strong iron-fisted ruler was needed for the safety and well being of a society. The ideals of man in a natural state, follow Thomas Hobbes philosophical view represented through Jack's brutish and monarch like attitude which lead to them living in a dystopian society.

“I do not agree with what you have to say, but I’ll defend to death your right to say it,” were the famous words of Fracois Marie Arouet, more commonly known under the pen name of Voltaire. He was known for being very outspoken and rebellious, which got him into trouble with the authorities for most of his life. Voltaire advocated the French bourgeoisie as being ineffective, the aristocracy as being corrupt, and the commoners as being too superstitious. Voltaire’s beliefs on freedom and reason is what ultimately led to the French Revolution, the United States Bill of Rights, and the decrease in the power of the Catholic Church, which have all affected modern western society.

In the novel the lord of the Flies, Golding uses Ralph’s responsibility and Jack’s persuasiveness and authority to argue that effective governments must be both fair and able to keep peace in a country.

In many parts of the world, humans live in a civilized society where law and order are organized and enforced. But within a lawless society, savagery surfaces in an ungoverned setting of bloodshed and harm. In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, Civility and Savagery are differentiated with Ralph and Jack, Ralph establishes a community compared to Jack who damage and divide civilization. Because of how Jack and Ralph use their democratic and dictatorial authority, through the examples of the declined civilization, the increase of savagery and the different ways of power by Ralph and Jack.

In order to determine what the law was in the Elizabethan Age for crime and punishment, you must research crime and punishment in that age, the laws and the acts. In the Elizabethan Age there were many different crimes. Each of those crimes had their own punishment or punishments. They were very strict about what they could and could not do in this age. If you have ever thought about planning a crime, you would have to really think about the punishment you would receive.

Lord of the Flies is an extraordinarily well-written novel that teaches one how to live life. When asked about the philosophy of the book, the author, William Golding, replied, "The theme is an attempt to trace the defects of society back to the defects of human nature. The moral is that the shape of a society must depend on the ethical nature of the individual and not on any political system however apparently logical or respectful." This completely exemplifies the theme of the novel. Lord of the Flies truly shows that it is not the government that determines survival, it is the sheer human nature in all of us that proves whether a society can function. A person's personality will always trump another person's because of difference

On November 21, 1694, Francois-Marie Arouet, otherwise known as Voltaire, was born in Paris. The youngest of five, son to Francois and Marie Arouet, Voltaire grew

Order in a society creates a structural environment for individuals to thrive. Lord of the Flies depicts how madness occurs once the decimation of order begins. Ralph reflects on how the civilization of the island degrades as savagery overwhelms the children: “the world, that understandable and lawful world, was slipping away” (Golding 91). Golding describes how without order, a group of individuals can fall into anarchy. He urges a world where leaders enforce reasonable laws and maintain control because it provides people with a structure to build their lives upon. Consequently, a world that lacks this organization can produce savagery among individuals.

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky and The Stranger by Albert Camus both explore changes in a man as he goes through stages of his life, including committing a crime. These authors explore what defines a man; the crimes he commits and the punishments that result take their toll on him. What determines their decency? Dostoevsky and Camus pour their own histories into their work to examine the souls of mankind, and find that love is the deciding factor in a man’s morality and gives him his source of life.