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What Is The Mood Of Chapter 9 Of Lord Of The Flies

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Lord of the Flies Chapter 9 Structural Analysis

In his novel Lord of the Flies, William Golding writes an unsettling story about the horrific reality of human nature and the battle one faces between humanity and savagery when civilization is taken away. Set during World War III, a group of boys aged six to twelve years old are stranded on an island with no resources except the ones they can acquire from the island. The boys create a civilization with rules for themselves in order to survive. As the novel progresses, the civilization unravels and the boys’ humanity lays on a fragile line, bordering on savagery. In his novel, Golding uses many structural elements to achieve a specific effect on the reader. One specific example is in the haunting passage in which the boys are overcome by bloodlust to kill the Beast and eventually murder one of their own, Simon. By using …show more content…

As the boys’ bloodlust increases, they chant, “Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!” The chanting continues as they pounce on Simon, ready for the kill. Golding intersperses repeated chanting throughout the passage as the boys got closer and closer to killing the “beast.” By doing this, Golding shows how determined the boys were on killing the beast. The repeated chant is a constant reminder of their final goal, to brutally kill the beast. This causes an unsettling feeling for the reader because the closer Simon’s murder gets, the more the boys’ bloodlust increases. The continuous chant about spilling the beast’s blood implies a horribly brutal and bloody death for Simon as the boys cannot recognize the difference between Simon and the Beast in their animal-like state, causing the reader to feel unsettled about the future and Simon’s fate. Thus, by repeating the chant of the boys, Golding emphasizes the increasing bloodlust as the boy’s pounce on their prey, Simon, creating an unsettling

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