Throughout William Goulding’s book, Lord of the Flies, many stereotypes about little boys in particular shadowed throughout the book. These stereotypes included violence and acts of savagery, immaturity shown through bullying, and wanting to be the dominant male or leader. The stereotype of boys being savages and violent is most commonly shown with Jack, where he is seen with a frantic obsession with hunting down animals (pigs), leading and committing homicide on Simon and Piggy, and leading a hunt to murder Ralph. Another stereotype we see is immaturity through bullying. We see Ralph and Jack influencing the crude and harsh words on one of the boys, Piggy, by calling him names and making fun of his medical condition, asthma. We also see
Racial stereotypes are things where a person talks about how the other person’s race is. It describes all the “nasty” things in another person’s race. It’s basically gossiping about someone else’s race and ethnicity. Back then, in that time period, there were high amounts of racism and stereotypes, so in that case, a lot of African American people were most likely convicted for doing something they didn’t do. Even though the court is supposed to equally convict or release people who have commited a crime whether it’s Black or White people.
A philosopher named Peter Singer once said, “All the arguments to prove man’s superiority cannot shatter this hard fact: in suffering animals are our equals.” Human beings always look for ways to make themselves feel superior to one another. Whether it be by looking down upon those whose come from different backgrounds, or feeling superior because they are part of a privileged group of people, it is natural for humans to disdain the inferior and place themselves on a higher social level. Children will often scorn others for things such as status, but how far can immature teasing lead them? This idea of power imbalance is exemplified in William Golding's novel, Lord of The Flies, where we see young boys look down upon each other based on their status before they were isolated from the rest of the world. Golding describes Jack, Ralph, and Piggy in a way that establishes that each boy represents some class in society, which affects their decisions and the overall outcome of their stay on the island.
Discrimination is the unfair treatment of one person or a group of people because of their identity (including race, religion, gender ability, culture, etc.). Discrimination is an action that can come from prejudice. Within the society the boys fixed on the island, Piggy wasn’t allowed to do certain jobs that the commoners were able to. He was seen as a pathetic, vile outcast to everyone but Ralph and Simon. The majority of the society turned against Piggy in order to prevent theirselves from being targeted by Jack and Roger. When Ralph demanded a fire to be made, most traditional methods failed, but Jack had the brilliant idea to use Piggy’s specs. Soon after, Ralp points out how the fire was worthless considering there was no smoke. After listening to Ralph’s scolding, Jack directly blames Piggy for not helping, “he just sat” (Golding 42). On the other hand, Simon shows that Piggy did take part in the creation of the fire; it was “his glasses...he helped that way” (Golding 42). This evidence provides support to the claim that Jack intentionally discriminates Piggy and forces others to join him in his cruel ways. Moreover, Piggy is seen as being less than human in the eyes of Jack, based on his inabilities. Granted that Jack later on becomes the system, every action is pre-approved by him, which includes everyone collectively targeting Piggy. Not only does Jack segregate Piggy from everyone else, but he also economically discriminates him. He discriminates him based on
Jack, an evil child from Lord of the Flies was put into power by false hope and intimidation. Even though jack promises food he does not have the best interest of the tribe in mind “we’ll hunt. I’m chief”(Golding 133). Jack shows his evil a bit by mentioning hunting, which is a normal thing to to to but the way jack hunts are brutal, savage, and almost inhuman. Jack uses his power to get the boys of his tribe to brutally kill a pig and nastily chant “kill the pig, cut her throat spill the blood” (Golding 69). He enjoys hurt the other boys on the island ”he felt the point of his spear with his thumb and grinned with amusement. Whoever they tried that on would be stuck squealing like a pig” (Golding 182).This psychopathic adolescent enjoys hurting others which a leader of any kind should not. Jack reacted with violence and aggression towards anyone who dared not
Lord of the flies is a novel which is inevitably pointing to a racist view of society on how that british boys from a private school will often depict to a savage type of society and resort to violence and barbaric manors in the way they do things - if left alone unattended on an island that is.
Lord of the Flies presented many changes that the boys underwent as they adapted to the island and freedom from society. The four main characters reacted differently on certain individuals under those circumstances. Jack begins as an arrogant leader of a choir. However, the freedom the island presented caused Jack to develop the dark side of his personality as the Chief of a group of savages. Ralph started as a very assured boy whose self-confidence was only a result of being well liked by his peers. When Ralph refuses to join the society of savage boys, Ralph is forced him to fend for himself. Piggy was a well-educated boy who had grown up as an outcast. Due to his academic childhood, he was more mature than the other boys and kept up his civilized behaviour for the majority of the novel. But his experiences on the island gave him a realistic understanding of just how cruel humans can be. Roger’s character traits become
In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, a group of young British boys are left stranded on an island after a fatal plane crash in the midst of a World War. With no communication to the outer world and no presence or influence of adults on the island, Ralph, Jack Merridew, and Piggy are forced to take initiative if the group of hopeless boys want to survive. The group of boys experience a drastic change throughout their time on the island, a change that no one would ever expect to occur to a young group of primed British boys. The leader of the stranded choirists on the island, Jack Merridew, shows such a change that he soon persuades other boys to follow his savage actions as the novel progresses. Though the changes to Jack’s mental and physical characteristics advance slowly at first, the final personality of Jack is instantly taken over at the climax of the novel to a dehumanized savage. Jack’s innocence is corrupted by his inability to withstand a society without rules proving man's good essential nature is altered by the evil within society.
Thesis Statement: The novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding portrays the theme that regardless of each person’s different background and characteristics, every individual has the ability to commit brutal acts. While this book depicts Ralph and Piggy as the most civilized characters, and Jack and his hunters as young English choir boys, their actions reveal that they all have the capability to act violently.
Christians often use the teachings of Jesus Christ as source of guidance. In the 20th century dystopian novels Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the authors use archetypes in reference to the protagonists and their societies, to warn against the dangers of self indulgence.
so he knows how to lead but although he has the confidence to lead he
In our society, people are often cruel to one another in the want for personal gain, but this is restrained to mere social interactions and online in our industrial world. However, when we are separated from civilized society and the pressures that it places upon us, we are quick to turn to savage, cruel behavior to survive. Golding understood this idea, that we are only civilized when others are watching, and showed the possibility for even the purest to become affected by societal pressures in his novel, the Lord of the Flies. In order to show the role of cruelty in shaping the novel Lord of the Flies, Golding uses character archetypes, the idea of cosmic irony, and extended symbolism to highlight the inherent flaws of human nature and the potential for even the purest individuals to turn to cruel ways due to societal pressures.
Society can influence many people to change their beliefs and the way they feel about themselves. This can lead to them being depressed, miserable, and having suicidal thoughts. A group of choir boys in the Lord of the Flies get stranded on an island from a plane crash and turn into blood-thirsty hunters, killing pigs in order to survive. Soon after it becomes challenging to survive, trying to find shelter, build a fire, and trying to leave trails of smoke so ships notice and rescue them.The boys are isolated by society because they don’t know what’s happening in other parts of the world, yet they still have their sense of style.In the book Lord of the Flies has many examples of societal influences that change the lives of the boys from going
William Golding’s book Lord of the Flies focuses mainly on a group of boys’ who have been stranded on an uninhabited island where they face many problems with themselves and others. One of the many dilemma’s within this story was the division of power between Ralph and Jack. They both had qualities of a leader, but they had different intentions with where they wanted to go; Jack was primarily the villain in this story showing savagery, while Ralph was civilized. So, why do the boys’ join someone who is cruel? Jack knows that he can manipulate their fears and use activities that are relatable to them because they are still little kids. Although it might seem devious, Jack is intelligent by using these tactics because they prove to be
Golding uses the characters from Lord of the Flies just as Shakespeare did to prove that man is turned to evil. The narrative illustrates a story about a group of British boys who get stranded on a deserted island without any adults. This lack of a stable society and presence of leadership forces the boys to create their own, and this works for the boys for a while. The boys turn themselves into savages and begin to do evil deeds which continue to get worse until they are rescued. In the time between their rescue, the society the boys create devolves and turns them into savages although this was not always the case. When the boys first arrived, Ralph, the fair haired boy, attempts to lead them in a civilized manner, but through the influence of Jack, many of the boys become evil. Jack mutants against Ralph saying, “ I'm not going to be a part of Ralph lot... I'm going off by myself. He can catch his own pigs. Anyone who wants to hunt when I do can come too,” (Golding 127) in saying this Jack has made most of the boys on the island betray their leader which proves both Jack and his followers to be evil. The society the boys created glorifies violence and death:“... the boys… found themselves eager to take part in this demented… society.” (Golding 152). Jack, the leader of the violent tribe, often takes his followers on gruesome hunts on which they graphicly disembowel the kill, and after the hunt, Jack leads a chant while the other boys stand
Golding effectively presents characters through symbolism, stereotypes and natural imagery. Golding wrote this book as he wanted to expose the readers to the real worlds death how people are treated in the world.