Masks In Lord Of The Flies

“I feel like the word ‘DIVERGENT’ is branded on my forehead, and if he looks at me long enough, he’ll be able to read it” (164). When Tris gets attacked by some of her fellow initiates, Four gives her advice to stay safe. “‘You think I have to pretend to be vulnerable?’ I ask, raising an eyebrow. ‘Yes, I do’“(285). Lord of the Flies shows that people hide behind masks to liberate themselves of shame. Jack is an excellent example for a character who uses masks to cover his true self. When Jack makes himself a mask made out of mud, he becomes a different person. “He looked in astonishment, no longer at himself but at an awesome stranger” (31). “He capered toward Bill, and the mask was a thing on its own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-consciousness” (33). When the boys kill the pig, they are all somewhat horrified that they did it, but Jack makes a joke out of it and puts on a mask. “He giggled and flecked them while the boys laughed at his reeking palms. Then Jack grabbed Maurice and rubbed the stuff over his cheeks” (195). Social media allows people to also use masks.

Having been stranded on a deserted island for so long with no one but a few children, he was hungry and mentally broken. Aware of his imperfections, He proceeded to put on a mask made of paint to act as a camouflage. It not only made him well-hidden from others, but it also hid him from his own guilt, mistakes, and regrets. “The mask was a thing on its own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-consciousness.” Jack was also described as slowly becoming more inhumane. Children near him described his laughing as becoming more of a “snarling.” The mask had taken control over Jack and made him into a monster. The mask blinded him from the significance of his actions. He later witnesses the deaths of two other children and feels no remorse. The mask had caused Jack to change as a character entirely and become something he originally

In the beginning of the novel, Jack’s mask represents hiding from himself and to hide from the responsibility of the real world. Jack is standing over the water when he begins to create the mask out of different colors of charcoal. Once he creates his mask, he sees himself in the reflection of the water, “he began to dance and his laughter became a bloodthirsty snarling. He capered toward Bill, and the mask was a thing on its own, behind which Jack hid liberated from shame and self-consciousness” (Golding 64). He becomes a different person and hides from his true self. A sense of anonymity arises to help relieve

Jack transforms from a proper, orderly schoolboy to a violent savage. The transformation does not happen immediately when Jack lands on the island, but eventually, as he discovers he loves to inhumanely hunt. One crucial moment of Jack's descent into savagery occurs when he paints his face for the first time, “He looked in astonishment, no longer at himself but at an awesome stranger.” (Golding 63). He is anonymous. He doesn’t recognize it as himself; being in a group makes some people lose touch with their personal moral beliefs, and his face is covered so that a stranger would not be able to tell if a bunch of the young boys were together they could most likely not be able to identify them because of their facepaints. That made Jack feel

Masks have held countless uses and meanings throughout history. Masks have been used in plays, like those of Shakespeare, traditional dances, social gatherings, even as a form of casual or corporal punishment. Although masks have several different uses in different cultural situations, the meaning of the masks is generally the same. Masks are used to conceal an appearance and assume the identity of another. Metaphorically, masks can be used to hide feelings, to protect oneself, and to block out the outside world. Many of these examples are shown in Art Speigelman 's Maus.

“There are too many people, and too few human beings.” (Robert Zend) Even though there are many people on this planet, there are very few civilized people. Most of them are naturally savaged. In the book, Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, boys are stranded on an island far away, with no connections to the adult world. These children, having no rules, or civilization, have their true nature exposed. Not surprisingly, these children’s nature happens to be savagery. Savagery can clearly be identified in humans when there are no rules, when the right situation arouses, and finally when there is no civilization around us.

Symbols in literature are like the Earth, there are multiple layers until you get to the core meaning. In the novel, The Lord of the Flies, William Golding, utilizes symbols in order to get his deeper meaning across. In a novel about boys isolated on an island during the time period of World War II, Golding shows the outcomes of what isolation can have on a group of people. While trying to get these messages across, the author uses symbols as an aid These symbols range from strength, hope, and fear. One of the most important symbols in the book is Jack’s mask. The mask starts out as a way to help Jack hunt and grows from there. Therefore, Jack’s mask begins as protection from Jack’s own identity, evolves to his strength, and

In the “Lord of the Flies,” William Golding uses ordinary items to symbolize bigger universal ideas. These symbols can be seen throughout the text and will evolve as the story progresses. In the beginning of the Lord of the Flies, one of the most frequent topic the boys discuss is hunting and their desire to have meat. However, not a single boy is able to hunt successfully as they are all afraid of killing another living thing. The boys only have a successful hunt when they use the mask. The mask in the Lord of the Flies is one of the many symbols used to communicate Golding’s universal ideas. When the mask is used in the Lord of the Flies the mask serves the purpose to hide the boys from the pigs when they hunt. However, when the text is examined in an allegorical means, the mask can be defined as hiding from oneself, strength, and savagery. The allegorical definition of the mask, proves how the mask does not only hide the boys from the pigs, but also hides the boy’s inner connections with their former selves. The mask in the Lord of the Flies initiates as hiding from oneself, evolves to strength, and ends a savagery.

Although there is controversy about the creation of human life, there is little to deny the primitive behavior exhibited by the earliest humans. Over time, humanity learned, changed, and developed into what it is today. Despite a change in appearance and education, humans have never lost their primal inclinations. Throughout his novel Lord of the Flies, William Golding reveals humanity’s barbaric roots through the gradual deterioration of the boys’ uniforms.

Lord of the Flies by William Golding highlights humans’ descent from civilization into savagery. Although savagery overcomes some of the boys so easily, it is not as easy for others to escape their conditioning from society and go completely savage. In the beginning, the majority of the boys try to bring order to the island while others show signs of savagery very early on. Eventually when hardship and tensions increases, there are still a few boys who keep resisting savagery. Also, even when the savagery and evil start to become prevalent in the boys’ actions, they continue to resist the rejection of social rules and guidelines. It is hard for the boys to abandon the only thing they know.

The mask was a thing on its own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-consciousness" (Golding 62). With the aid of the mask, Jack now transforms into a different

In the novel Lord of the Flies by William Goulding, body paint is used by the boys to not just appear as something else, but to completely transform into something else. “He began to dance and his laughter became a bloodthirsty snarling. He capered towards Bill and the mask was a thing of its own, behind which Jack his, liberated from shame and self-consciousness.” With Jacks face paint on, he leaves civilization and becomes savage. The mask hides his insecurities and gives him self-confidence and power. Without the mask, Jack would most likely not participate in these behaviors since he tends to be blushing underneath it, but since nobody sees how he reacts when the mask is on, he continues to act like this. The three colours that he used

As the book progresses on the conflict is still there seeing who maintain a better leader of the group. In chapter 4 Jack has had no success hunting the pigs he thinks this because they can see him, not smell him. He then had an idea to paint his face when Golding says, “...then he [rubs] red over the other half of his face and slashed a black bar of charcoal across from right ear to left jaw...the mask was a thing on its own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-consciousness.”(Golding 63) Jack painting his face with clay and dirt masks his identity from the others. When he is disguised he does not have to take account for his actions. When a person wears a mask no one knows who or what they are. Jack abuses his power by doing

William Golding’s Lord of the Flies is a gritty allegory of adolescence, innocence, and the unspoken side of human nature. Countless social issues are portrayed, however one of the most reoccurring is the nature of man. Throughout the novel there is an ever-present focus on the loss of innocence amongst the boys, shown by the deterioration of social skills and their retrogression into a barbaric form of society. Also portrayed is the juxtaposition of a cruel, evil main character and a more classically good counterpart, and their eternal rivalry for power and authority over their younger subjects. Does society or the lack thereof create evil in human nature, or simply magnify a pre-existing

The most immanent form of savagery is coded into human genetics. In 1954, when Lord of The Flies was released, Golding stated the theme of the story as, “an attempt to trace the defects of society back to the defects of human nature,”. This implicitly states how the defect of barbarism isn’t learned but rather innate in all beings. Simon also realizes this when discussing the true meaning of the beast. The novel states, “What I mean is… maybe it’s only us.” Simon became inarticulate in his effort to express mankind’s essential illness” (Golding, 96). This quote suggests that Simon is comprehending what is going on and foresees the consequences, which is the dominance of savagery. He refers to savagery as “mankind’s essential illness”. Although savagery is associated with negative aspects, the sole purpose in human genetics is for protection. However, as humans evolved and became civilized, this instinct was cut out from life. Despite this, savagery still exists within humans. In Lord of The Flies, a group of boys are stranded on a desolate island that forces them to behave abnormally and they