The Lord of the Flies Essay

The Lord of the Flies is a story about a group of boys who are stranded on an island. There aren’t any adults with them because the plane they were on had crashed and the pilot died, he had been the only adult with them. That main character Ralph is elected chief of the boys and is supposed to be in charge, but finds it hard to keep control. Ralph believes the most important thing is to keep the fire going, so that if a ship passes by they can get rescued. As the story goes on dissent begins to form among the other boys. The leader of this dissent was Jack. He had wanted to have control from the beginning and was fed up with Ralph’s rules.

Symbols in a story allow readers to understand the main message and idea that the author attempts to convey within literature. Often, masks are used to perform, be disguises, and even act as protection. William Golding includes the use of masks in his book, Lord of the Flies. The mask is worn by the ferocious leader Jack Merridew. Jack creates the mask with materials that he found scattered around the island. On his face, he uses black, red, and white charcoal which creates a covering of his face. He uses the mask to become a different being which changes his attitude and changes his conscious. As the novel progresses, the mask terrorizes kids and eventually begins to terrorize the animals and nature that surround the boys. The symbol of the mask in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies begins as anonymity, becomes a protection from guilt, and concludes as savagery.

     When a group of children become stranded on a deserted island, the rules of society no longer apply to them. Without the supervision of their parents or of the law, the primitive nature of the boys surfaces. Consequently, the boys live without luxury that could have been obtained had they maintained a society on the island. Instead, these young boys take advantage of their freedom, and life as they knew it deteriorates. Lord of the Flies is influenced by the author's life and experiences. Golding's outlook on life changes, due to his heavy involvement in W.W.II, to his current philosophy that "The shape of society must depend on the ethical nature of the individual, and not on any political system

In the story “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding, he shows how the boys lost all innocence and civilization. The boys went from having innocent child minds to taking lives of other people, acting savage, and losing all civilization due to problems on the island. The boys had forgotten where they came from and became savage in order to survive; it was the need of survival that caused the loss of innocence among the boys.

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

While tension rises between Jack and Ralph at one of the assemblies, Jack uses his strength to lead the littluns and other boys. Jack replies to Piggy during the assembly, “we’re strong-we hunt! If there’s a beast we’ll hunt it down” (Golding 91). With paint on his face, Jack is capable of rallying the boys in a time of uncertainty and turning them to his side. Jack shows his strength and confidence in hunting by yelling at the boys that they are fully able to hunt the beast themselves. In the beginning of the book, Choir leader, Jack Merridew, would have never shown this kind of unorderly confidence. However, now that he has his personality changing mask, he is able to hunt and show his killer strength to the boys. Jack also convinces the other boys that the masks will make them stronger, so now the boys begin wearing masks to find the strength to hunt. The mask signifies a powerful sign of strength in the book, but by the end of the book the mask has a much darker connotation.

Finally, I am finished with middle school. Anxiously thinking about the first day of high school, I knew that it would be hectic and wild, but I was ecstatic. Of course, the night before I could not sleep. I lay awake dreaming about how my first day at John Paul II will go. How will it be meeting new people and seeing old friends from last year? Will high school be hard? Will I get lost? I kept thinking about the unknown and worst possible outcomes. My first day of high school was unexpected.

A leader uses techniques, which they have perfected over time to manipulate peoples minds to make them follow them. The smaller kids on the island are afraid of the beastie, which they also have nightmares about at night. Though, Jack doesn’t care about it all and uses their fear to turn it around and give them security by making them feel more powerful within a group. As everyone knows, one feels stronger and more secure inside a group. By for example yelling the hunting chant, the kids feel unity and they feel like they belong to a group. Furthermore, being the same as all others is also a symbol of integrity. In the book, the children wear a uniform, and later paint their faces in the same

Humans have a monster inside of them that is subdued by society, and if society is taken away, then that “monster” will consume them. This is true for most people, but not all humans are like that. One of the most notable humans to over come the “monster” is Simon, a character from the book “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding. The story is set on an island in the Pacific Ocean. A plane full of British schoolboys crash lands on an island and they’re stranded there with no adults, no society, and no rules. Simon is one of the few characters that stay sensible and good throughout the story. He has a sixth sense about things happening around him, he is kindhearted, and he faints a lot which give the appearance of him being weak.

When Ralph’s civilized self was cloaked due to the mask a savage much like Jack came to the surface, proving that even leaders can act cold-blooded. Golding wrote “ Ralph too was fighting to get near, to get a handful of that brown, vulnerable flesh. The desire to squeeze and hurt was over-mastering.” (Golding 115) Ralph the chief of the group and the one who was supposed to keep order soon too acting like a beast.

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.

Lord of the Flies, an allegorical novel by William Golding, holds truths about mankind’s true nature of existence. The novel explores the savagery in all men that lies dormant, yet when society’s rules cease to exist, the boy’s innocence perishes along with it. The boys attempt to band together and mock the society that they came from, but not understanding the complexity of the situation, results in their society falling into ruins. On the island the boys are returned to man’s primitive nature, without rules or discipline, and they slowly drift into anarchy. Without proper guidance, the boys resort to cloaking their innocence with body paint to survive. With the body paint coating their skin, the boys bury their old personas within and allow themselves to commit acts that society would frown upon. When Jack’s tribe uses the facade of body paint to dissociate themselves from civilization’s morals, they denote that hiding one’s true identity liberates them from the constraints of society.

Throughout the Lord of the Flies by William Golding, there are many symbols that provide a deeper and more meaningful understanding of the main themes in the novel. These symbols provide a more realistic and physical sense to something that may be intangible and abstract. Through the symbols of the fire, the masks and even the beast, the themes of the book are strengthened and enriched even further. The fire, among the most essential symbols of the novel, enrich the themes of civilization and hope.

“Is there worse evil than that which goes in the mask of good?” (Alexander) Evil and cruelty often conceal themselves behind the mask of polite civilization. When the mask is removed, the true savagery is revealed. In William Golding 's dark novel, Lord of the Flies, humanity’s true savage nature is covered by a mask of civility. The group of boys crash onto a deserted island. And in order to survive, the boys attempt to recreate civilization and designate the conch as a symbol of authority. However, when the natural instinct to survive seizes the boys, resulting in the removal of their civilized masks, the savagery inside the boys emerges. Throughout the boys’ adventure on the island, Jack loses his mask of innocence and civility,

Lord of the Flies Summer Essay William Golding's most prominent theme in Lord of the Flies, all humans are natural savages, presents itself through the representation of adolescence as a time of terror and tribulation using contrasting goals, deranged bloodshed, and the annihilation of the symbol of structure and order, the conch shell. Part of the group begins to lose sight of the original goal, escaping, and accept they cannot get off the island. Jack's separation from the community displays this," He laid the conch with great care in the grass at his feet. The humiliating tears were running from the corners of each eye", (Golding 127).