Lord Of The Flies Literary Analysis

Jack and his tribe show the true meaning of savagery creeping in when the rules of society are forgotten. Ever since the boys arrived on the island, Jack has wanted to be the only one in control. When the boys voted for Ralph over Jack he became angry. The boys separated, some decided to become hunters and the others desired rescue. Jack quotes “ who will join my tribe”, so now Jack does have the power he’s been wanting but only to the savages. Jack becomes obsessed with the thrill of killing pigs that he takes his killings to another level. Golding uses zoomorphism to describe jack and the people in his tribe; “Jack began to dance and his laughter became bloodthirsty snarling.” Golding would use this literary device to show the ptrue animals the savages are. The boys chant “‘kill the pig. Cut her throat. Bash her in’”, this indirectly shows the savagery that the boys have developed since stranded in an environment where there is no authority. After Jack achieves killing pigs he becomes even more bloodlust. Jack and the boys kill Simon with no couth then Jack allows Roger, another savage, kill Piggy. After the murders they all act like nothing has happened. Jack doesn’t show pure savagery because he uses a clay mask when he hunts, which hides his true personality. This savagery creeps in when all

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

“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.

In the novel the character of Jack represents the fastest reversion to savagery, and the human defect of evil and thirst for power. From the beginning of the novel, Jack’s main focus was hunting and finding meat. It is masked as the need for meat to survive, but it evolves into the driving force behind the bloodlust and allowance to revert from societal ways. “‘Rescue? Yes, of course! All the same, I'd like to catch a pig first-’ He snatched up his spear and dashed it into the ground. The opaque, mad look came into his eyes again.” Here it is shown that Jack has no real interest in returning to society, but wishes to pursue the regression into barbaric ways to fulfill his lust for blood. Not only does Jack regress himself, he lays his powerful influence over the group, eventually taking away Ralph’s tribe to create their own band of savages. Jack uses his evil to corrupt those around him, as the others see the ferocious behaviour, they are encouraged to demonstrate the same in order to survive and overcome the ‘beast’ of the island. In the final turn to true savagery, Jack paints his face, a representation of the evil taking full control of the human that once was there. The paint allows the boys to act barbarically without remorse, it " was a thing of its own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-consciousness" (4.34), as the

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

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

Golding’s uses the lack of any preset order or authority to his advantage and prompts the boys to create their own rules. Through the disturbing revelation of the boys’ innate savagery and the hidden immorality within, the inevitable downfall of their civilization is presented. Golding’s ability to imbed biblical allusions gives the story the seems like just an adventure story a deeper, idiosyncratic meaning behind it that leaves the sinister truth about the human mind. Through William Golding’s use of biblical allusions, it is evident that Simon is the Christ-like figure in Lord of the Flies. Simon has similar characteristics that make him take the role that Jesus Christ took in the Bible.

As days go by without any signs of being rescued many of the boys lose hope; Roger says, “I’ve been watching the sea. There hasn’t been a trace of a ship. Perhaps we will never be rescued.” (Golding 53). As a result the boys stop guarding the fire which makes it go out. By wearing the face paint the boys feel free from all responsibilities, and can almost become somebody else. This face paint leads to the boys leaving all of their morals behind, “They understood only too well the liberation into savagery that the concealing paint brought.” (Golding 191). Jack influenced the boys to kill the pig and put its head on a stake, which is a symbol of savagery and evil. The loss of innocence is obvious after the slaughtering of the pig; the church boys are gone and savages took their place. Ralph tells the boys that there is no beast, but Jack convinces them and puts false fear in their minds. This fear leads them to murdering Simon, who is one of the most civilized boys. In Lord of the Flies, the loss of innocence, the nature of evil, and the struggle for power convey the belief that humans need civilization. It is ironic that “Ralph is “saved” by a soldier of war, a soldier who cannot see that the boys have symbolically reenacted the plight of all persons who call themselves civilized and yet continue to destroy their fellow humans in

William Golding’s lord of the flies is powered by the ideal that savagery is imbedded within our human nature. Throughout the entirety of this novel Golding outlines the ways that savagery is an innate factor of the human condition, one that when given the opportunity, any human even the most innocent of little boys is forced to revert to. Simon’s death,Piggy’s death as well as the Lord of the Flies all display the unique ways in which the young boys descend into savagery.

The boys’ inability to kill a piglet shows they are still connected to civilization. While the boys were exploring the island, “they found a piglet caught in a curtain of creepers.” (31.) The animal is similar to the boys in that they are both innocent; therefore the boys do not have the heart or nature to kill the creature. Jack hesitates to kill the piglet and, “the pause was only long enough for them to understand what an enormity the downward stroke would be.” (31.) At the time, all the boys are too nervous to kill it even if it was only a piglet; they were still restrained by the limitations of society. After the animal escapes, Jack “[snatches] his knife out of the sheath and [slams] it into a tree trunk. Next time there [will] be no mercy.” (31.) Jack is ashamed of himself and his shame causes him to become committed to killing the next pig they see, he is willing to go to great depths to prove

However, Jack’s desire towards killing the pig subsided due to him not having the heart to take the life of a helpless creature. “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.” In the following quote, Jack had explained the incident in the forest to the boys where they question wherefore he did kill the pig, claiming as an excuse that he was choosing a spot to strike at. The excuse that Jack says to the other boys is understood merely as the remains of humanity and civilization within him. Consequently, the barrier that is set by Jack’s retained innocence appears to gradually diminish following the event where Jack paints his face.

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 believes is human nature and descending into savagery. This is clear through the chaos surrounding the island that follows not too far behind that of the adult world. On the island morals are quickly forgotten, dehumanizing those who have not held on to the last trace of humanity. Man turns to its primitive self and becomes lost in evil. Those who have held on to civilization are struggling to defeat this evil that is quickly spreading. This evil that is in human nature is visible within all boys on the island, however it is most prevalent through Jack, Roger, and the Lord of the flies himself.

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.

“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.