Microcosm In Lord Of The Flies Essay

In Lord of the Flies by John Steinback a group of young boys are stranded on an island. To survive the boys decided to vote who should be their leader, Ralph or Jack. Piggy is a smart, fat boy who is not respected by the boys. Ralph is the face of leadership but not the best for the job compared to Piggy. Piggy is the brains behind Ralph who gives the essential idea to further progress the island.

The novel Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, explores the conflict between civilization and savagery. The novel follows a group of boys stranded on an island, depicting the collapse of established order and the boys’ descent into barbarism. The group’s leaders, named Ralph and Jack, embody the conflicting ideals of organized society and anarchy, respectively. A rivalry develops between Ralph and Jack due to alienating differences in their personalities and values. Ralph and Jack’s differing relationships with a boy called Piggy create conflict between them. Furthermore, their disputes regarding the importance of democracy and rules divide them. The disparities between Ralph and Jack provide insight into their rivalry.

William Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies, contributes many pessimistic events that overrule the good, but there are some optimistic inputs that are added to the story. Ralph, Jack and all the other boys have been trapped on an island with very little resources, and are basically doomed from the beginning, but they all have hope including Ralph. Golding has included hope into bad situations such as Ralphs defiance to Jack’s tribe, Sam and Eric's refusal to betray Ralph, and Ralph's rescue. The boys spend some time on the island, and eventually forget how to act civilized and start acting like wild savages. Many readers say that Golding's writing is all pessimistic, but there is good in all his writing

“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.

“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.

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.

Children all fear the dark because of what it may contain as darkness the the manifestation of the unknown. Many people fear the unknown rather than embrace it because fearing the unknown provides them with a sense of control regardless of whether or not it is an illusion. This is shown in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, with Jack who uses the concept of the Beast to gain support from the littluns and eventually rises to power within the group of boys.

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.

A microcosm is a small society that represents a much larger one. In a basic household family, the father takes the role of a president, the mother takes the role of a vice president, and the children represent the normal public; this home classification is a microcosm of the real world. Golding, the author of Lord of The Flies, included the smaller version of things that happen in the real world, on the island where the boys lived, to represent the microcosm of the world as a whole in the form of an island. The island included boys that were civilized and uncivilized, just like the real world, and most of the time people tend to choose violence when things do not work out; leaders are chosen in the wrong way, which is also a major problem

William Golding’s, Lord of the Flies, analyzes the nature of man and the root of evil within humans. The plot involves a plane full of British boys, shot down over a deserted island. The boys are left alone without adult supervision and as time advances, their humane manners start to fade away. The cruel and shocking imagery in Lord of the Flies invokes a pale mood, stressing the violent, animal-like behavior of the boys. William Golding’s novel demonstrates the loss of the so-called humane man, posing an ironic statement against the elite class in that man in whatever society will be savages.

A saying that is used throughout the Norton Marching Band is “everybody all of the time,” which is to say if one person messes up once that causes more problems than just their own one mistake. If one was to miss one day of rehearsal there would be a hole and another individual would miss their dots because they had no one to guide off of. Golding believed that “everybody all of the time” was true in the sense of society. In his novel Lord Of The Flies Piggy, Ralph, and Jack have failures during the novel that cause other mistakes to be more significant. Proving that society fails due to the failure of the individual.

Microcosm is a community, place, or situation regarded as encapsulating in miniature the characteristic qualities or features of something much larger. In other words, it simply means “small world”. The island in which the story, Lord of The Flies, took place is a perfect example of a Microcosm. The Author, William Golding, does a tremendous job of portraying microcosm by making connections through characters and creating a small island that is a mirror image of today’s adult society.

Human nature is like a stream. The people are the water and the direction of the stream is the evil that nature is leading humans towards. Throughout life, evil has always been present and sometimes we fall victim to these type of corruption if pushed to an extent. For example, in the Cold War, conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union had become so grand as to almost ensuing a mutual assured self destruction almost killing innocent people and destroying many nations. Evil is not born, but rather it is created from the situations you are facing. William Golding was part of this Cold War and in it he learned of the evil that men possessed

“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.