Dialectical Journal For Lord Of The Flies

The need for civilization, innocence and loss of power is shown through the impaled pig's head. In order for the group to survive, animals must be killed in order for the boys to eat. Jack takes on the role of hunter because he enjoys killing living things, as seen when he states, “Kill the pig! Cut his throat! Kill the pig! Bash him in!” (104) Ralph is a more calm person and does not enjoy killing as much as Jack, although he takes a small part in killing the pig. However, in the end, Jack gains all the power because everyone looks up to him as leader because he attempts to hunt the pig throughout the novel and is successful in the end. “We’ll take the meat along the beach.” “Pick up the pig,” Jack said. (150) Meanwhile, Ralph doubts Jack's abilities to kill the pig, and constantly mocks him about being successful. “He tried to convey the compulsion to track down and kill that was swallowing him up.”(51) Jack proves Ralph wrong and kills the pig. “Jack begins to dance and his laughter became a bloodthirsty snarling."(58) He celebrates

No one would think kids could turn to cruelty, but in this book, you can see how human nature turns people against each other. Not all the boys turned to savages, but there were times when there actions were questionable. Take Ralph for example, he was probably one of the least barbaric of them all, yet he still joined in on the murder of Simon. While most boys were oblivious to their descent into savagery, people like Ralph realized this ongoing turn, “I’m frightened. Of us. I want to go home, Oh God, I want to go home” (Golding 157). The boys change into savagery was not gradual, and even some of the boys, such as Ralph or Simon, noticed this trend, and as young boys it frightened them to realize the fact that they were altering towards inhumanity. As well, the book represents that evil is in all of us. The Beast, which was the main source of evil in the book, was not real. It was only a figment of the boys’ imaginations. While the Beast wasn’t a physical thing it represented

Jack’s interaction with the piglet shows he is indecisive. Right when the Ralph, Simon and Jack come across the piglet, Jack right away draws his knife with force. However, while he is standing there about to kill the piglet there is an unexpected pause. Jack was being very hesitant and before he knew it the piglet was freed from the vines and got away. After Ralph was confused as to why Jack did not kill the piglet, Golding states, “They knew very well why he hadn’t: because of the enormity of the knife descending and cutting into living flesh; because of the unbearable blood” (Golding 31). This quote shows that not only Jack knew that he was being hesitant, but the others did as well. Jack was very anxious at first to be the chief and

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was right in saying that the “only thing we have to fear is fear itself”. Jack Merridew’s evil ways are evident as he uses fear to control the boys on the island. In the beginning of the book, his presence itself at the election of chief instills the first of the fears within each of the boys. Jack uses his personality as a menace to the boys on the island. Although Jack garners support from the majority of the group, they assist him only through fear of what he is capable of doing to them if they do not do as he commands. As one can see multiple times throughout the book, Jack deems it necessary to hunt down pigs on the island, but why? Jack carries a demon inside of him that allows him to do such acts. If things are not done as he wishes, his fury is unleashed on everyone around him. While the others find hunting as a chance for adventure, Jack practices it as if it were a ritual. This ritual extends beyond the pig caught between the “creepers”; pigs are eventually replaced with human flesh. The boys’ fear keep them in the circle of dancing for they are afraid that one of them will be the next in the center of the dance. This outlook on violence is what drives the fear inside them. Later on, Jack uses the belief of the beast to further enlarge the terror of the schoolboys. The idea of the beast was originally brought up by a “littlun” but Jack uses the little boy’s fear to his advantage. The sacrifices made, the spears, and the face

Hook: In the wake of WWII William Golding reminded us that though we were horrified by what the Nazis had done in the Holocaust, “every single one of us could be Nazis.”

The “beast” in this novel represents the wickedness of human nature. Throughout the novel, the boys become more violent and disconnected with reality because of their situation. In chapter three, Jack has so much of a urge to kill a pig on the island that “He was down like a sprinter, his nose only a few winches from the humid earth”. Jack hunted for hours to try to find a pig and he was so desperate he got on his knees in the dirt to look for tracks. He eventually found a pig in chapter four with Samneric. The group chanted “Kill the Pig, Cut her throat, spill her blood” in a ominous tone. This chant starts the beginning of a new blood lust for the boys and Jack. Jack is also very proud when he tells Ralph and he twitches

By sharpening a stick at both ends, Roger means to put one end into the ground, while the other sharpened end would hold Ralph’s severed head. Roger regards Ralph in the same way he regards the pig; as a sacrificial murder victim for the fictional beast, who represents the savagery inside every individual on the island and is feared by Jack’s tribe. Roger believes that with Ralph gone, the island will be ruled by Jack and himself, and the small amount of civilization left will be dissipated. By reducing Ralph to a pig and a sacrifice for the supposed beast that lives within them, the boys on the island have reached complete savagery that will be very difficult to

When Ralph goes to confront Jack, he as well as the other boys find out Jack and his gang of hunters have made their first kill and are so excited that they totally disregard the fact that they just lost a chance at being rescued to instead do a demonstration of how they killed the pig. Jack was too wrapped up in his mind which “was crowded with memories; memories of the knowledge that had come to them when they closed in on the struggling pig, knowledge that they had outwitted a living thing, imposed their will upon it, taken away its life like a long satisfying drink” (Golding 70). After his incident, Jack proclaims himself the leader and impales the pig’s head on a stick to assert his dominance. This shows the moment humanity ceased to matter on the island. Ralph realizes this and laments to himself, “The world, tat understandable and lawful world, was slipping away…” (Golding

This quote is important because it shows Jack’s pride and satisfaction after violently killing a living animal, proving his intentions were evil instead of good. This part of the text is proving the barbaric evils of humans nature because of Jack’s kill for his amusement instead of an actual need for pig meat. The conflicting theme of civilization vs savagery can be seen well through a moral

This quote relates to Jack in the novel because Jack has his own tribe and gains power over the boys because he frightens them. He punishes people for his own good and evil purposes and he uses the beastie to scare the boys to a greater extent. He makes it seem like he can protect the boys from the beastie which makes the boys stay with him more. This is really when evil enters society and they go from a society with rules to an uncivilized society. The boys were always told and trained to be good at school at first because they were controlled by adults but when they got to the island, they were alone with no adults so they got to act how they want because there were no rules.

The existence of evil is something heavily questioned in the modern day. However, in 1954, a novel was already questioning this- The Lord of the Flies. Some of this deeper meaning couldn’t have been understood without the application of literary criticism. The Lord of The Flies can be understood more thoroughly through the use of formalist, biographical, and psychological criticism.

Savagery and civilization are complete opposites, but in reality they’re separated by a blurred line. In Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, you explore the mindset of young boys transitioning from civilized children to savage hunters while trying to survive on a deserted island. Throughout the novel, Golding incorporates many symbols representing the death of innocence and the birth of animals. A symbol seen from the first chapters to the last is the beast. The image of the beast changes throughout the novel like the boys. As they become more savage they also become more animalistic. The boys never realize what the beast is because they failed to see themselves for what they became.

Through the creation of the beast, it produces an essential theme about the wickedness and evil that embedded in the heart of humans. During the assembly meeting, Simon claimed that “ ‘...there’s a beast. What I mean is...maybe it’s only us’ ”(89). He was able to figure out the truth of the beast as a psychological being that doesn’t exist in the real world. The beast was the darkness ingrained into the hearts of humans from the day they were born. When Simon introduces the idea of evil existing in themselves, the group denied it and humiliated Simon for suggesting such an appalling notion.

While the Id is the instinctual side of the human psyche, the Ego remains the more organized and realistic side of the human psyche. William Golding demonstrates this idea in his book, Lord of the Flies, by using his protagonists, Jack and Ralph, as the incarnations of the Id and Ego. While Jack embodies the Id, Ralph embodies the Ego. Golding explains that because these two aspects of the human psyche lie on two opposite sides of the spectrum, they cannot coexist. In Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, Jack and Ralph’s contrasting personalities cause conflict and heavy tension between the two characters over time.

“Lord of the Flies” is an outstanding, unique, and captivating novel written by the memorable William Golding. The novel is well written and eye-opening despite being relatively short and easily understandable. Golding provides a new perspective on the true nature within every person that will shock readers and leave them wondering the truth. The descriptive and gloomy diction within “Lord of the Flies” keeps readers intrigued and never bored.