Lord Of The Flies Literary Analysis

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.

“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.

In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, Ralph and Jack’s power struggle is observed throughout the book. Ralph’s democratic leadership sharply contrasts Jack’s tyrannical and uncivilized rule. Ralph is stripped of everything and the line between him and Jack is blurred near the end because he gives in to savagery. Though all men will ultimately revert back to animalistic instinct and savagery in the absence of civilization, Ralph only succumbs to this when he loses his friends and when he is hunted; Jack succumbs all on his own.

In the novel Lord of the Flies, Jack Merridew has a thirst for control and power. Joseph McCarthy had a similar ambition during the Cold War. He had a series of unsuccessful careers until he was elected to the Wisconsin Senate seat. There, he had an interesting first term. He soon discovered the possibility of exploiting the fear in Americans to become a dominant figure in politics. Merridew took an almost identical route. In the novel, he was not elected the be the plane crashed boys’ leader. He soon discovered that he could take advantage of the fear in the boys regarding the beast. Joseph McCarthy and Jack Merridew sustained their power as leaders by amplifying fear in people thought their communities to create a mob mentality.

Through Ralph it shows that he is the most powerful boy on the island, despite his size. Ralph doesn't want to be in control of all the people, he just wants to find a way of the island. He is determined to create rules and follow them, and prioritizes the groups needs above his own selfish desires. For example, he builds the huts even though it isn't fun, compared to the boys who go off to play whenever instead of doing important tasks that aren't fun. Ralph symbolizes law, government and a civil society.

Society has been created to maintain structure and organization in human lives. Humans are able lead successful lives because of society. But deep down, their primitive ways of living and thinking are still there. When society is taken away, people are unable to keep their innocence because of the challenges they face in harsh circumstances. This is demonstrated in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. The novel addresses that when placed in environments free of laws and organization, people lose the desire to remain civilized. William Golding uses Piggy, a naive and trusting boy, to show that having order, laws, and structure is better than resorting to a primitive lifestyle.

American author and media theorist, Neil Postman, once said “argumentation is the soul of an education.” Argumentation is a key aspect of all literature because it not only allows the reader to analyze the work alone, but also to discuss analysis with others, broadening their knowledge about the topic at hand. Authors also construct arguments within their works which they help the audience to explore. Many authors in fiction and nonfiction alike, make arguments about a point portrayed in their writing through vivid imagery. Imagery can be a powerful tool in literature that increases the audience’s emotion toward the author’s writing.

Lord of the Flies is a novel describing the life of a few British boys that were involved in a plane crash and ended up on an island. It focuses on how the boys develop from being civilized to being savage monsters. It also focuses on how the boys survive and govern themselves on the uninhabited island. A character that I found remarkable in Lord of the Flies, by William Golding was a young, bright child called Ralph. Ralph is a fair-headed, twelve-year-old boy.

In the novel Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, a group of English boys in their adolescence are stranded on an island. They crash-land while being evacuated because of an atomic war, so the boys must learn to cooperate with each other in order to survive. The boys are civil at first, but the bonds of civilization unfold as the rapacity for power and immediate desires become more important than civility and rescue. The conflict between Ralph, the protagonist, and Jack, the antagonist, represents the conflict between the impulse to civilization and the impulse to savagery, respectively. In Lord of the Flies, Golding uses Ralph and Jack’s struggle for power to show that greed and lust for power can corrupt the best

William Golding’s intriguing novel, Lord of the Flies, is a tale like no other. It’s a story of perseverance, determination, survival, and emotion. Golding does a superb job displaying these traits and so many more throughout this story of fighting, not for your life, but to the death.

Literary Analysis In Lord of the Flies, Golding uses the symbol of the fire to develop the theme that fear can drive our decisions. In this book it starts out peaceful but the fire is one decision that may have been hard. These boys went from simple children to hunters and killers. This book is filled with fear and decision making.

Symbolism is a very important factor in many books. The use of symbolism in William Golding’s novel The Lord of the Flies is the most essential aspect to the function of the story. At first glance you may not think the symbols are very important, but with some in-depth thought you can see how it is necessary to explain the microcosm of an island.

Golding uses Jack in his novel to represent the evil in our human nature. During the brutal killing of the sow in chapter 8, Jack laughed and wiped the blood off his hands with no shame. Golding used this to emphasize how messed up we, as people can be. Jack was once a civilized manner choir boy, but was put in the wrong situation, and lost it. Also, Golding was showing how fast our human nature can change. This is show in the novel, because after a few days on the island, and few boys started to lose their civilization. After some time had passed, they used clay to paint their faces and their hair had grown out. This made them look like savages, and at this point all they had to do was act like one, which is exactly what they did.

“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.