As Jim Morrison said “The most important kind of freedom is to be what you really are. You trade in your reality for a role. You give up your ability to feel, and in exchange, put on a mask.” He was the lead singer in the rock band The Doors. He was talking about how when a person puts on a mask, either real or figurative, they become someone or something that they are not. Jim Morrison was a performer, a singer, and was most likely talking about going on stage and being transformed by the bright lights and the crowds. Such is the case in The Lord of the Flies by William Golding, when Jack was called upon to become a leader, he put on a mask of his own. In The Lord of the Flies, Golding uses Jack and his band of savages to show that when man …show more content…
They do this because they don’t have that authority figure who is supposed to basically knock some sense into the boys when they're getting out of hand. Without an authority figure such as a parent or teacher to teach them right from wrong, these boys slowly transform into the savages that they are at the end of the book, and they use the masks to hide and play games, when Ralph and Piggy both know that it’s really not. That their lives are at stake because of Jack’s game of “war”. In the real world, police officers and other men and women who serve our country put on masks everyday to protect themselves. Their masks are the uniforms that they must wear. In the article, “Cops’ deadly identity problem: How police officers’ military uniforms affect their mental state,” the example of Michael Brown’s killing, and the riots in Ferguson that followed. The author points out that “When police wear soldiers’ clothing, and hold soldiers’ weapons, it primes them to think and act like soldiers. Furthermore, clothing that conceals their identity-such as the helmets, gas masks, goggles, body armor and riot shields that are now standard use for police …show more content…
Piggy and Ralph go off to Castle Rock to confront Jack and his masked band of savages after they steal Piggy’s glasses in the middle of the night. As Jack and Ralph fight over the glasses, Piggy asks them "'Which is better -- to be a pack of painted Indians like [Jack’s savages are], or to be sensible like Ralph is....Which is better -- to have laws and agree, or to hunt and kill?'" (Golding 164). Here, a voice of reason (Piggy) is directly speaking to the corrupt mind behind a painted mask. He puts on display how terrible and malignant Jack's tyranny of fear is. One reason that Jack’s band of savages are acting the way that they are is because once they join Jack’s tribe, they are pressured into acting the same way as the tribe. It’s like the social pressure that girls have to be pretty and skinny, and that boys must be rugged and muscular. With a mask on, man can peel away from that social pressure and do what he wants without repercussions for others. As McRuer states in their article, “Anonymity reduces the extent to which people are concerned with what psychologists call “social desirability.” Social desirability is the urge [people] all have to behave in ways that make other people think positively of [them]. When people can’t
“Maybe,” Simon said hesitantly, “maybe there is a beast… What I mean is… maybe it’s only us.” In the midst of the second world war, a plane evacuating a group of English adolescents, has crashed on an uninhabited island located in the Pacific Ocean. Lord of the Flies tells the harrowing account. As the boys allot more and more time isolated on the island, they admit to recognizing an unidentifiable figure dwelling within the area, this “beast” however, isn’t the typical lion, tiger, or bear; This mysterious entity is portrayed to have various alternating elements throughout the documents in an attempt to establish a definite identity to this phenomenon conceiving the the question, what is the “beast”?
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest takes place at a mental hospital in Oregon state hospital in in Salem. This book follows the day to day life of a group of patients of how the go from acting like machines to becoming their own person. The author uses machinery to show that everyone is the same and has to be a perfect robot. When they are able to fit in and just go with the crowd, they are not humans. As the book moves on with McMurphy, the machinery quotes goes down and it shows how people are being there own person. "The ward is a factory for the combine. It's for fixing up mistakes made in the neighborhood in the schools and in the churches, the hospital is. "(Kesey 40).
The power-hungry will often feel the need for absolute control, hardly ever getting what they desire, they will often be portrayed as crazy and vicious. The same can be said for Jack; all he wants is to be the leader and make the decisions, but Ralph is the one in control. Jack’s desire for power is ruining his own image, and the well being of the other boys. Without the supervision of adults his morals and values took a turn for the worst.
Symbol: The long hair represents how long they have been on the island. The “painted faces and long hair” symbolize savagery. Jack paints his face and it makes him feel as if he is one with nature to symbolize his savagery.
In the both texts One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, the plots illustrate that an outsider can reveal the properties of a society. Although both texts confer on this idea, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s reveals this idea to the characters, which causes drastic change. While Brave New World reveals this idea through the struggles of the main characters, causing little change.
Ralph had stopped smiling and was pointing into the lagoon. Something creamy lay among the ferny weeds. “A stone.” “No. A shell.”
Ralph: We need an assembly. Not for fun. Not for laughing and falling off the log.
The mask is Jack’s camouflage for when he hunts in order to hunt better, but it truly represents Jack’s turn to savagery for the mask does not hide his true identity, it brings out his inner savagery. Masks are used to hide people’s identity or to let them become someone or something else. If no one can recognize who a person is, then that person cannot be blamed for their actions. Therefore, Jack is freed from his morality and therefore the is no longer any consequences for his actions as well as all the boys eventually becoming unrecognizable; they are no longer individuals and cannot be distinguished from savages. This is the case when Ralph and Piggy go to Castle Rock a when the boys who joined Jack’s group appeared, “savages appeared, painted out of recognition, edging round the ledge to the neck” (175).
“The thing is - fear can’t hurt you anymore than a dream.”(Golding, 116). Ralph’s point of view on fear is declared within the quote. Ralph is the protagonist derived from William Golding’s esteemed bestseller, Lord of the Flies. In the renowned novel written by Golding, young boys in a plane have crashed and descended upon an uninhabited island with more than sufficient vegetation. On the first chapter of the fictional writing, many of the boys are very enthusiastic and exhilarated about being on an island without any parental supervision. At first, order and tranquility was established by the children and there was more civilization on the island compared to savagery. However, as the novel advanced, the readers could identify the kids were
Golding shows us in the Lord of the Flies the evil within everyone. This is shown on the island through the savagery, the corrupted government, the constant need to fight for power, and through the murders. This evil within us is shown today through terrorist acts, shootings, wars between countries for political power, and through corrupted hierarchies. Mankind is inherently evil and this is what leads to the chaos shown on the island.
A mask applied upon a human will act as if it is a magnifying glass into their true selves. With this in mind the readers can see who these boys really are in Lord of the Flies with Jack being a leading example of what society expects of him in who he really is. He shows hesitation when first being introduced to violence, to blood, to being fully involved and engaged towards it with a smile painted behind the mask. When Jack shows fear of disobeying the society he has grown around with the additional fear of gore and blood he fails to kill a pig for meat “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 30). When such events are placed upon boys such as Jack, they are likely to fail the task as they are taught of society and how to adapt to civilization rather than
“There isn’t anyone to help you. Only me. And I’m the Beast--Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill! Said the head. You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you? Close, close, close! I’m the reason why it’s a no go? Why things are the way they are?” (page 206)
Everyone uses masks to free them to do, say or act in a manner that they normally wouldn’t. People use them all the time, whether it is just changing to treat someone a certain way or just needing to be a different way to make a situation better, but can also be used in harmful ways that can be used to compel violence. Masks manipulate us to hide from our true selves, they will make the one who wears one inferior to all others. In the story, The Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the world is in the middle of the biggest war ever, the power of masks and anonymity throughout this time period establish the terror. They put on these masks to give them the freedom to commit terrorizing acts and have no shame, alike with how William Golding allowed his characters have their power over the others. Golding had his characters apply paint to their faces which then altered the boy's mindset to act in a detrimental way. The mindset these boys obtain leads to many cruel parts in the story, including the killing of other boys on the island. This demonstrates the effect and power of being anonymous that is provided to these blood-thirsty boys. Before Jack and the boys used their masks to release their inner-savage, they were civilized, but having anonymity enables them to kill, not only pigs but other boys.
Clothing is a societal norm which has long been a symbol of status and self-expression. Uniforms are used in many orderly institutions such as schools, militaries, and workplaces. Often, the leader of a uniformed group is clearly identifiable. Jack, one of the story’s antagonists, is cloaked in the black of his robes, leading a choir of similarly cloaked boys. A gold badge on his chest shines in the afternoon and stands out against the rest of the choirs silver badges. We see the darkness in him early on, the boys were easily “Intimidated by his uniformed superiority”(21), and the darkness only seems to grow as the story progresses. In Chapter 12, the last in the book, Jack is described as “A little boy who wore the extraordinary remains of a black cap on his red hair”. Letting go of the instincts society had drilled into not only him, but all of the boys on the island (Excluding Ralph, Piggy, and Simon)
The book stated on page 64, “The mask compelled them.” This means that when the boys put on this mask they were not afraid anymore, and they hunted and killed a pig. At first, before the masks, Jack was scared of what will happen when he killed the pig. After killing the pig Jack was no longer scared and became uncivilized.