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The Lord Of The Flies Zeitgeism Essay

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A zeitgeist embodies the mood and spirit of a certain era in history. Although it isn’t fully understandable to the readers and the authors themselves, the set of ideals and beliefs that dominate the actions taken by the members of society provide a simple basis of understanding of a time period. Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, focuses on a post-apocalyptic WWll world, in which a group of British schoolboys is left stranded on a deserted island without any adult supervision. These innocent children, in time, turn to savagery as the absence of order shifts them towards a more primitive society. These turn of events, captured through the eyes of the adolescence, expresses Golding’s feelings of the evil nature of man and how even the purest …show more content…

All the boys within the novel except Simon begin to turn to savagery shortly after they realize that they would much rather have fun and play games than get their priorities straight, such as getting off the island. This can be supported by the fact that Simon, a holy figure, realizes the presence of a beast on the island, and how in time, it is to be revealed through Simon’s thoughts that “maybe it’s only us”(Golding 82). The concept of this novel serves as a counterpart to another novel called The Coral Island, written during the late 1850’s, almost a century before the publication of the Lord of the Flies (Text 2). Instead of boys turning to savagery, The Coral Island captures the essence of the innocence, and how the nature of unlawfulness is ineffective to their behavior. The Lord of the Flies, in response to its counterpart, captures the true meaning of a zeitgeist, and how it embodies the mood of certain eras within

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