Lord Of The Flies Critical Analysis

“In a 2005 survey about gay bullying statistics, teens reported that the number two reason they are bullied is because of their actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender expression”, according to bullyingstatistics.org. It has also been shown that those who are bullied themselves often go on to bully others because it is all they know, or that bullying covers up their own shames. The character Jack Merridew in Lord of the Flies is not evil like many would argue, but rather is ashamed of the fact that he is gay and closeted. This is supported by the hunter’s casting off of religion and government, Jack’s inability to hunt unless in front of other boys, and the beast as a symbol.

Later, Jack and his hunters display another example of human evil with the gruesome slaughtering of a pig. They don’t just stab it to death and get it over with, but carry on deranged acts like taking a stick sharpened at both ends, with one side in the ground and the other for the pig to be impaled on. They take joy in the blood of the pig and show odd sexual hunger when they sodomize the pig with a stick.

“When you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice–you may know that your society is doomed”(Rand). This was stated by Russian-American novelist Ayn Rand; the extract relates to the novel William Golding wrote called Lord of the Flies. Golding wrote about a group of schoolboys trapped on an island from a plane crash. The boys had to figure out how to survive without grownups. Trying to survive was difficult because they had to have common sense and order. They lose those traits throughout the book which resulted in selfishness and corrupt behaviors.

By disobeying Ralph’s rules, Jack is trying to weaken the rules. Jack still has an effect on the boys, and his breaking of rules weakens the their will to follow them. In a later meeting, Jack claims that Ralph “isn’t a proper chief” and that “[he’s] going off by [himself].” Jack’s departure weakens Ralph’s tribe, since the choir has been with Jack before the crash on the island, and showed loyalty to him on the island. This results in a majority of the boys abandon Ralph for Jack. Some of the non-choir boys go off with Jack’s tribe, because of the beast they want protection from. They believe his hunters will supply that. Jack is no longer under control, but is now in control. Jack’s department of the tribe, and weakening of the boy’s opinion on Ralph leads to his desire for power being satisfied.

What went wrong in the Lord of the Flies? Some may say Jack and some may say Roger, but what are the real reasons for the downfall of the boys? They are, the loss of hope, the loss of order, and the passing of time.

“We all have a social mask, right? We put it on, we go out, put our best foot forward, our best image. But behind that social mask is a personal truth, what we really, really believe about who we are and what we 're capable of” (Phil McGraw) one once said. In Lord of the Flies the characters wear a social mask that opposes their true feelings. Written by William Golding, the story revolves around a group of boys who become stranded on an island and must depend on themselves to survive. They elect a chief, a boy named Ralph. However, as the story progresses, the group become influenced by Jack, an arrogant choir chapter boy. Intriguingly, although they desire to be with Jack and join his tribe, the boys remain with Ralph for most of the story. The rhetorical triangle, which analyzes a speaker or writer based on three ideas- ethos, pathos, and logos-, helps many to better understand the children’s actions and mentality; ethos focuses on the credibility and ethics of the speaker while pathos concerns how the speaker appeals to the emotions of the audience and logos is about the speaker’s use of evidence to appeal to the audience’s sense of reason. The boys stay with Ralph because of Ralph’s use of ethos but prefer to be with Jack because of Jack’s use of pathos and ethos which shows Golding’s message- humans were masks.

Humans develop in societies with rules, order and government, but humans are not perfect, they have many deficiencies so do the societies they live in. When a group of schoolboys land on a tropical island, Ralph takes on the role of leader by bringing all of the boys together and organizing them. He first explains “There aren’t any grownups. We shall have to look after ourselves.”(p.33), this brings up the question if the boys will have prosperity or will they succumb to the evil on the island. At first the young boys start being successful and civilized, but chaos soon overruns them and evil starts to lurk over the island.The fictional story of the group of British schoolboys stranded on an island and the decisions they make, relates back

Lord of the Flies is a novel written by William Golding. It is about british schoolboys who are stranded on an island after their plane is shot down. They are on the island with no adult supervision. Their group is civilized but turns to savagery. In Lord of the Flies, Golding uses the characters of Ralph, Jack, and Roger to symbolize that there are violence, evil, savagery, and good that exist in every society.

Although many things are stated outright in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, the book is rich with symbolism and subtext. The story starts with British school boys being stranded on an island after escaping a threat of nuclear war. The boys elect fair-haired Ralph as their leader, but Jack, a fiery choirmaster of some of the boys, is jealous and the story quickly goes downhill from there, leading to aggression, mayhem, and murder. Throughout the novel, there is also a mysterious and imaginary beast that haunts the minds of the younger boys. Lord of the Flies has many details, many of which are symbols or have implied meaning. One of the most important examples of subtext is Simon, the strange, ethereal boy who aligns himself with

Jack foreshadows his eventual savagery in the beginning when he was still part of Ralph’s tribe. However, because Ralph was chief Jack was forced to obey him. When he was still with Ralph, Jack did not focus on being rescued. Instead he would rather take advantage of the fact that they don’t have adults on the island and used violence by hunting pigs. This caused Ralph and Jack to fight and during one of their disagreements, Jack shouts to Ralph, “‘Bollocks to the rules! We’re strong-- we hunt. If there’s a beast, we’ll hunt it down! We’ll close in and beat and beat and beat’” (Golding 91). Jack’s desire to hunt is shown when he forgets what his priorities are and says, “‘Bollocks to the rules!’” Both Ralph and Jack have different priorities on the island. Ralph’s focus is on the fire signal so that they could be rescued, however, Jack just wants to hunt for the thrill of it. When Jack kept repeating, “beat and beat and beat” it emphasized his thirst for killing. This crave for violence Jack has shows that he is headed towards savagery. Jack’s mutiny of hunters against Ralph also demonstrates that humans have a dark side of them. When Jack finally left Ralph’s tribe he let go of the last piece of civilization he had and turned into a violent and selfish person. He allowed his savage thoughts to take over his actions. Jack shows that he is no longer innocent when he, “Viciously, with full intention, he hurled his spear at Ralph. The pint tore the skin and flesh over Ralph's ribs, then sheared off and fell in the water. Ralph stumbled, feeling not pain but panic, and the tribe, screaming now like the chief, began to advance” (Golding 181). When Jack “with full intention” attempted to kill Ralph he committed a crime that would land him in jail in society. His action show that he had already forgotten about what society has taught him as well as the

Hidden meaning can be found in many different places. They can be in poems, novels, murals, paintings, and even in everyday life. Hidden meanings are there to challenge the reader, to make them think and really analyze the work. In the case of the novel “The Lord of The Flies,” by William Golding, the hidden meaning comes to us in the form many of his characters. One of them is Jack. Jack started off like everyone else equal with power or a share of the things on the island. Later on he takes a group of the kids. Now there are two groups of the kids. Showing that sooner or later a group may later split into two groups and people will have to chose a side. Jack lead his

Many themes are expressed in the novel, Lord of the Flies, by William Golding because the novel conveys many ideas toward society. Lord of the Flies is about order in society turning to chaos and the evil side of a group of boys stranded on an island. Critics feel that Golding conveys that there is no hope for humankind and evil is an inborn trait of people because of many events that play out on the island.

In the novel, “Lord of the Flies,” the author William Golding develops the theme of conflict between having a civilized society and humans savage instincts. This is shown through, the conflicts between Jack and Ralph, the destruction of the conch shell and the murder of murder of Piggy.

To start, Jack’s actions show his truly ruthless and disgusting ways, “Jack held up the head and jammed the soft throat down on the pointed end of the stick which pierced through into the mouth” (136-137). The killing and ritual involving the pig's head shows that Jack and his comrades have fallen into atrocious and cruel acts, displaying the descent into savagery. The killing ritual is reminiscent of executions from societies in revolutions, both showing how far some will go. Next, the group does unforgivable things to one of their own, “At once the crowd surged after it, poured down the rock, leapt onto the beast, screamed, struck, bit, tore. There were no words, and non movements but the tearing of teeth and claws...Simon’s dead body moved out toward the open sea” (153-154). The savagery reaches one of its highest points as the group murders Simon after mistaking him as the evil Beast they have been hunting. The total lack of thinking and acting on violent action is similar to the brutal attacks individuals and terrorists commit on innocent human beings all over the world. The descent into savagery completes the basic truth that all humans have the capacity to commit evil acts over

“Isolation is a dream killer” (Barbara Sher). In the novel Lord of the Flies written by William Golding, kids stranded on an island must figure out how to survive. By hunting pigs and building shelters the kids tried to subsist on the island. Through the process of hunting, the kids became cruel, evolving to the point of being barbaric. Thus, through the barbaric actions of the boys and the outside world, Golding shows that savagery exists in all people.