Lord of the Flies is about the hardships which young boys endure after their plane crashes on an island. The boys contemplate ways to survive and to seek help. The book has been viewed as controversial leading to the question, should this book be taught. Lord of the Flies should be taught firstly because the boys are becoming independent and making their own decisions. As sophomores, we are growing to become independent. We make decisions when we should study, if we should go out with our friends, and what time we go to bed. In Lord of the Flies, there is not one main adult character. The boys make decisions as to how to get food and start a fire. Lord of the Flies has two different groups with different goals. One group, which is run by Ralph, wants to …show more content…
Symbolism is used in the book with Piggy’s glasses. There is usually a stereotype in books and shows that glasses are a sign of intellect. The same goes with Piggy’s glasses because he knows how to use the conch and tries to be rational with Jack’s tribe. The use of symbolism creates a more in depth meaning and gives intrigue to the reader. The book brings a great lesson that power should be given to people who use it properly. Jack acts similarly to a dictator demanding full power over all the children. Jack uses his power to seek violence against anyone that doesn't follow him. Jack’s group kills Piggy because he won't join and don't care for his opinion. This should be taught because there are dictators in the world today in North Korea and Russia. People are being persecuted and killed because of their beliefs in these countries. As students, we should learn from this book and strive to never have a dictatorship. The book shows the worst of people through struggle. Jack’s tribe results in violence and authoritarian type of government. They murder Piggy and force almost all the boys to help him lead. While it isn't used very often in the real world, we can
This symbolized that piggy and the other kids would not get along what so ever and it also expressed his personality. He is also unsure about himself and respects what others people think about him the evidence behind this is because he yearns to be accepted by his peers. He has also lost all hope in people rescuing him. Unlike the other kids piggy is the only one who is still civilized and all the others turn into savages and bet each other up as the story states ‘’Samneric were savages like the rest; Piggy was dead, and the conch smashed to powder’’(Golden 268). But when Jacks tribe steals piggy’s glasses it renders him hopeless.
The book is filled with dark, gruesome moments. Moments that leave the reader with a destroyed faith in humanity. At surface value this is all true, but after looking deeper into the book many values are present. These value pertain to societal change and conformity. In the book, Piggy is the stereotypical fat boy with the glasses. The book portrays Piggy to be the victim of the society the boys have established on their small island. Despite what he has been through, Piggy makes an effort to contribute to the society the boys have built. The book says, “Piggy was … so full of pride in his contribution to the good of society … that he helped to fetch wood.” (Golding 186). The book also contains values of conformity for the better. The book tells of Jack who became upset with the tribe. He decides that he will break away from the tribe and invites everyone but Ralph to join him. One by one all the boys follow Jack to restart their society; leaving Ralph behind. The boys in the new tribe began to succeed more while Ralph begins to struggle. If Jack did not break away, then that success would have been
Thus, the conch, a direct proponent of equal representation and democracy, serves as the ultimate symbol of civilization. Furthermore, the usage and state of the conch itself mirrors the state of civilization on the island—and its eventual decay. The boys’ gradual dismissal of the conch’s authority parallels their steady descent into savagery—particularly the actions of Jack, who reveals to Ralph during a heated confrontation his belief that the conch is not only unnecessary, but useless: “ ‘We don’t need the conch any more. We know who ought to say things’ ” (102). Jack’s tirade does more than showcase the boys’ growing discontent with the conch’s cumbersome rules and the society they represent; its menacing and ominous tone, particularly the phrase “We know who ought to say things”, foreshadows Jack’s eventual desertion from Ralph’s group and his creation of a new, tyrannical tribe of his own, one in which Jack, through intimidation and violence, chooses “who ought to say things” rather than let the boys speak for themselves. Most important is the conch’s destruction alongside Piggy’s death. In committing murder, the ultimate act of moral depravity, the boys lose whatever sense of civilization they have left—a metaphorical loss represented by the conch’s literal obliteration as it “exploded into a thousand white
The antagonist in this novel, Jack, is the archetype of demon. Jack is described by Golding as “tall, thin, and bony; and his hair was red beneath the black cap. His face was crumpled and freckled, and ugly without silliness. Out of this face stared two light blue eyes, frustrated now, and turning, or ready to turn, to anger” (251). His eyes are always used in the novel to depict his emotions, as they are above. His appearance leaves a bad impression on our readers. He seems to be crazy in hunting pigs, which turns worse and worse in a situation far away from the civilized society. Gradually, he becomes an animal without reason, so that sometimes he will disguise himself by the mixture of red, white and black dirt, like a barbarian. “In the beginning of the story Jack, still conditioned by the previous society he had been a part of, could not bear to kill a pig that was caught in the brush. As the plot progresses he becomes less and less attached to any social norms” (Li Xin 104). As structure breaks down, Jack forms his own separate sect separating from Ralph and the rest of the group. In the end, he breaks Piggy’s glasses and leads the others towards Piggy’s murder. He brings the boys into mass hysteria and eventually hunts Ralph down like an animal. Not seeming to care about being rescued,
Ralph remains for human advancement and vote based system; Piggy speaks to wisdom and logic; Jack means viciousness and tyranny; Simon is the faith of goodness and righteousness. These effectively depict the nature of that society. At the beginning of the novel as the plane crashes which the only survivor is the boys. After the plane crash Piggy meets Ralph and then Piggy finds the conch on the shoreline.
(Golding, 61) What leadership method does Ralph use to lead his group? Was this an effective technique to use?
They represent civilization, a symbol and reminder of the intellectual side of humanity. His eyesight may be weak, but his insight is powerful. Piggy is bullied to the point where his glasses are taken away, and because of this he's made helpless and unable to handle the rigor of the island. Piggy in turn gains confidence by standing up for himself, but his character is unappreciated, his intelligence ignored and uncared for. His stand only makes matters worse.
While Ralph states “We can’t have everybody talking at once… I’ll give the conch to the next person to speak”(Golding 33). Ralph wants equality and he wants everyone to be
In Lord of the Flies, the boys are on the island without any adults, and they have a lot more freedom than they did while at home or at school. Golding shows through different situations that with more freedom, more responsibility is required. For example, in order to survive on the island for the time being, the boys have create their own fire to have food, light when it is night time, and to get rescued ( Golding 38). They have to be more responsible and provide for themselves. There are no grownups to handle everything like they would have if the boys were back home.
For example, Piggy’s glasses serve as a representation of logic, wisdom, and intelligence throughout the novel. When Piggy speaks out against Jack’s reckless behaviour, Jack “[smacks] Piggy’s head,”
Lord of the Flies is an examination into what constitutes authority as viewed through eyes of children. Separated from the constructs of civilized society, a group of school boys ranging in age from age six to twelve are left with with the task of forming their on social order. In doing so they must determine what distinguishes a leader. With no adult present, or fit offer guidance dependent on the telling, all sense of familiar has been stripped away.
When they first arrive at the island, Jack and the rest of the boys wears the same mask of innocence as every other human being, but it soon begins to slip. Throughout a massacre of pigs, Jack and the other boys releases their animal nature. Initially, the boys try to set up an island society that mimics the English society, with discipline and authority. The behavior of the boys is the same as they showed at school back home, but the need to be the survival of the fittest pushes the boys’ past their humanized nature. The children want to have familiar rules. Piggy says, “We’ll have rules!” he cried excitedly. “Lots of rules! Then when anyone breaks ‘em--” (Golding 25). Everyone follows the rules in the beginning, hoping that it will lead their rescue. But when their hopes dwindle, they soon fall out of order, becoming two independent and opposed groups. To become superior to the others, Jack kills pigs and humans and earns the place of a tribe leader. His actions show that humans act to
The novel starts by introducing the group of young, friendly looking kids. The group of kids collect themselves and wonder where authority is. “Aren’t there any grownups?” Jack Merridew, one of the boys, asks around (Golding 21). With no real authority figure, the boys decide to band together, increasing their ability to survive. In the first moments of the book, the boys are introducing themselves. Piggy, being overweight and wearing glasses, is bullied and tormented by the group. “A storm of laughter arose and even the tiniest child joined in. For the moment the boys were a closed circuit of sympathy with Piggy outside: he went very pink, bowed his head , and cleaned his glasses again” (Golding 21). After the boys have established that there is no real authoritarian figure supervising them, the tormenting and bullying for their own amusement begins. If there had been an authoritative figure their supervising them the group of boys would have
Through Piggy and the main factors that affected him in this novel, Golding is trying to teach young children how much their decisions and actions thrown towards others, could affect them. Because Piggy was so badly bullied he had a very difficult time surviving on the island with everyone else. The outcome of the actions made by individuals like Jack made the other boys on the island believe it was correct behavior to hurt Piggy and that led to his death. These situations can happen very often in the real world, making bullied individuals believe it would be fine if they no longer existed among the people who constantly criticize them. Though situations like today vary from situations in the 1950s, and situations in the 1950s vary from what happened to Piggy in the text, they are still strongly relatable.
A third character who was also woven into the tale early on is that of Jack Merridew. We see him at the novel’s onset as arrogant, and even a hint of ambition in his personality since he seems to desperately want the role of leader. A quality which becomes increasingly crucial as the chapters soar by. After losing the vote to Ralph, he insists on turning his uptight group of choir boys into a pack of hunters to catch one of the many pigs on the island, yet when faced with their first potential prey, Jack is unable to bring himself to kill it. This is a major piece of symbolism for this part of the novel since upon further analysis, we can use this as a metaphor of sorts for the constraints that civility still has on the boys at this point and the rules that bind him to virtue; also that Jack sees this whole situation as a fun game of sorts. Similar to Ralph, Jack is unable to see past the haze of innocence into the cruel pessimistic adult world which Piggy seems to live in. As of the first chapter Golding sets the stage for the boys to enjoy the island, yet Piggy’s realism shows us that there is more to come. In a way, Piggy’s ideals can be seen as a foreshadow to events to come with a major subconscious battle of the wits that will occur between our three main characters soon to come. Innocence and childhood wants to prevail for as long as possible, yet once the beast of savagery is unleashed, nothing can stand in it’s path. Although the boys are