Lord Of The Flies Literary Analysis

Task: Does William Golding present a realistic portrayal of how savage humankind can be? Or does he underestimate the goodness in people? Does Golding’s use of WWII as the backdrop have a significant impact on our understanding of human nature?

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

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.

The fire represents civilization and Piggy’s symbolize trust. In a society, people needs a leader who is willing to collaborate, be productive, and can establish rules in order to survive, but everything soon backfires once the fire went out. As the fire goes out, Golding starts to develop a “beastie” that began to rise inside the boys’ which symbolize the boys’ savage behavior while living on the island (Golding 35). This interpret that in the beginning of the story, Jack was slightly unconfident in his hunting skills, but at the book progress, Jack become more vicious and ambition for power, which lead the “beast” started to grow inside of him. For instance, in Chapter one, Jack was hesitant to the kill the pig, but in Chapter Four, after jack and hunters had executed the pig, Jack started to sing, “Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Spill her blood” (Golding 69). This exemplifies how the “beast” had grown and become uncivilized, in addition, it foreshadows the boys will attack each other since Jack had finally slaughtered the pig, and which Piggy will be the first to die. The mask that Jack had put on had many things to do with Ralph as being a leader because Ralph is not being stern with his rules which persuade the boys’ to think that Ralph is gullible. Furthermore, when

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

Piggy is Ralph’s side kick and believes in having a government and having a say in politics, rejects mistreatment and name calling from others, and keeps loyalty to Ralph which effects the novel negatively. Piggy believes in keeping order in the boys. Piggy’s character isn’t liked by other characters, but he doesn’t let that stop him. He found the conch and he made it very clear he wanted to choose somebody as a leader for this republic. He choose Ralph to be the

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

Civilization was created to contain social structure. However, in utmost circumstances, it is possible for instinct to triumph over civility. Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, is a plane evacuating a group of British schoolboys that crashes over a tropical deserted island. Once they crash on the island, they pick Ralph, the protagonist of the novel, to be their leader, and Ralph chooses Jack, the antagonist of the novel, to be the leader of the hunters, establishing somewhat of a civilization. Then when Jack comes upon a mother boar and kills it, that’s when their makeshift civilization slowly diminishes and the boys become savages. In addition, loss of social structure within a society can lead to the absolute destruction of the civilization. The author of Lord of the Flies, William Golding, uses man vs man and man vs nature conflicts to develop the theme of loss of social structure leads to savagery. Golding reveals this theme by exploring the conflicts of

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.

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.

The conch is a symbol of authority and power in Lord of the Flies. It was one of the only things that brought order and respect among the boys. The conch being destroyed caused chaos among the boys on the island because of its importance among leadership. Piggy’s glasses were a very ideal part of the story because they represent piggy’s intelligence and reasoning, he was the scientific genius of the group, and his glasses basically show his intelligence in the group. The fire has also been a significant part of the story because, ever since the beginning of the story Ralph has been determined to keep a signal fire going, in case a ship passed by and they could get rescued.

Piggy 's glasses are significant to the boys as they are the means with which the boys are able to get a fire started in chapter 1, Symbolically, the glasses are significant because they represent power and intellect within a civilized society, which Piggy clings to and refuses to adopt the new, less structured way of life. His physical weaknesses are preyed upon by the other boys, particularly Jack causing him to feel lonely as he is the only minority and therefore at risk of becoming an outcast. The breaking of the glasses represents the breaking of the last tie to humanity that the boys have.

In all grade eleven and twelve English academic classes at Académie catholique Mère-Teresa in Hamilton, the students must study a novel assigned by their teacher and then have to write an essay in comparison with another novel of their choice. In grade eleven, the assigned novel is Lord of the Flies, by William Golding. On a list of novels suitable for thematic comparison with Lord of the Flies, one would find such novels as American Psycho, by Bret Easton Ellis, A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess, Fight Club, by Chuck Palahniuk, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey. Many would observe that these are profane, inappropriate works that do not deserve their place in high school classes due to the profanity found in these novels. However, many of these are written to shock and surprise for a good reason, with a clear point in mind; because some words or situations that would be censored are period-appropriate and important to the plot, and because often, profanity is used to emphasize something and is not useless.

“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.