William Golding Lord Of The Flies Identity Essay

These masks, which are used by Jacks followers called ‘the hunters,’ are made of clay paint. The evilness of the boys is clearly shown when they wear the masks. It is almost as if an infectious disease is spread upon them; they lose all sense of civilization. After Jack paints the mask on his face for the first time, it is clear what it does to him. “He began to dance and his laughter became a blood thirsty snarling. “He capered toward Bill, and the mask was a thing of its own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-consciousness.” (Golding 64). This not only shows the cruelty of the mask, but it also shows how it opens Jack into the world of being a savage. Also, Golding mentions the colors of Jack’s first mask as being Red, White, and Black. These colors symbolize “violence, terror, and evil.” (Golding).

The theme of masks is a significant theme throughout the book through the book. In all war people use

For example, in order to camouflage himself from the pigs, Jack decides to paint his face with clay and charcoal. His masked features are so appalling that it frightens Bill, Samneric, and Roger. “He [Jack] began to dance and his laughter became a bloodthirsty snarling. He capered toward Bill, and the mask was a thing of its own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-consciousness” (64). Jack is menacingly “capering” toward his hunters, incredibly excited by his ingenious idea. The mask is symbolic of Jack’s barbarity materializing, no longer lingering within him. Behind the mask, Jack is free from principled behaviour therefore he can act as ruthless as he wishes, without the fear of being reprimanded. Coincidentally, as Ralph and Piggy are discussing the causes of controversy on the island, Jack and four of his hunters appear suddenly, painted for war and naked. They have come to steal fire in order to cook the pig that they killed. “The forest near them burst into an uproar. Demoniac figures with faces of white and red and green rushed out howling, so that the littluns fled in terror” (140). Their ghastly appearance and savage-like shrieking is terrifying to the civilized boys. The “faces of white and red and green” symbolize Jack’s inhumanity spreading to more of his followers, gradually replacing their morality with disdain. With the masks on,

In the beginning of the novel the boys were portrayed as young and innocent children, curious and fond of their surroundings. As the story continues, we can witness the boys going through a survival phase, according to what they witness and feel they react accordingly. They become savage and give into the evil inside of themselves, and follow no of the rules that were set. The plot later reveals that the boy’s in fact are not innocent at all. They are not even close to being innocent. William Golding does a very good job when laying out the habits and the traits of the boys.

The main power of a mask is to change someone’s identity and to transform them into a new person. When Ralph sees Bill, he says that “this is not Bill (183).” The boy behind the mask is Bill, but the mask disguised him and created a new person, a new savage. The mask turns Bill from a normal British boy into a savage. The mask is what Bill uses to become a new person and to disguise himself. The mask gains power because it is removing the boy’s old personality and replacing it with a new, more savage one. When Ralph goes to visit the savages, he sees “Jack, painted and garlanded, sitting there like an idol (149).” Before painting himself, Jack was not chief, but after he masked himself, he is treated like royalty and idolized by all of the other boys. The paint that Jack uses to mask his identity does not change him, but rather creates a new person out of him. He is no longer Jack, but the leader of the group of savages. This is the goal of the mask, to remove civilization entirely. Without

As Ralph, Roger, and Jack rapidly descend the mountain after witnessing the gruesome sight of the beast, Jack saw the perfect opportunity to gain authority. When gathered around by the full pack of boys, Jack makes it clear he feels Ralph “isn’t a proper chief” (181), and that, “He’s a coward himself”. By making these claims, Jack sets forth a whole new point of view for the boys to consider and about how they should view their chief. Their newfound belief of what a chief should be is a well-grounded, brave, and confident leader. As it may seem, none of them saw Ralph as he once was, as a level-headed chief who thought only of the most important thing; being rescued.

In my opinion The mask is a bad influence to the boys. This how they were introduced to the savagery and all the evil. Which also in my opinion they didn't need any help with the bad influence the island , did enough damage. Their parents shouldn’t have let them go to any island that they didn’t know about. Let alone leave them at a island by their self .

“Now the painted group felt the otherness of Samneric, felt the power in their own hands. They felled the twins clumsily and excitedly” (Lee 257). This shows hows now that the other boys are painted they do not feel shame either so they get physical with Sam and Eric. The boys no longer see themselves as who they were due to the masks of paint; they do not feel bad for doing bad things. To summarize, in William Golding’s “The Lord of the Flies” it is shown that Jack and the other boys use painted masks to hide themselves, so they can act like

Everyone uses masks to free them to do, say or act in a manner that they normally wouldn’t. People use them all the time, whether it is just changing to treat someone a certain way or just needing to be a different way to make a situation better, but can also be used in harmful ways that can be used to compel violence. Masks manipulate us to hide from our true selves, they will make the one who wears one inferior to all others. In the story, The Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the world is in the middle of the biggest war ever, the power of masks and anonymity throughout this time period establish the terror. They put on these masks to give them the freedom to commit terrorizing acts and have no shame, alike with how William Golding allowed his characters have their power over the others. Golding had his characters apply paint to their faces which then altered the boy's mindset to act in a detrimental way. The mindset these boys obtain leads to many cruel parts in the story, including the killing of other boys on the island. This demonstrates the effect and power of being anonymous that is provided to these blood-thirsty boys. Before Jack and the boys used their masks to release their inner-savage, they were civilized, but having anonymity enables them to kill, not only pigs but other boys.

When wearing a police uniform that resembles a greater being, such as a soldier, they act as if they are one. The situation before them becomes one a soldier would deal with, not just a police officer. The power they already established through being an officer wasn’t enough for them it seemed, so they desired more authority through this new identity. This status seemed to justify their brutal actions simply because their original identity was being concealed through this uniform and taking on a different identification. This use of uniforms dictating identities for the police officers help Golding’s argument become clear with the use of the hunters in his novel the Lord of the Flies. The hunters choose to paint their faces with blood and dirt from the island to cover their faces. Alone on the island with camps splitting off into hunters and intellects, the boys proceed to paint each other before hunting around the island and “Eric made a detaining gesture, ‘But they’ll be painted! [the boys] know how it is.’ The others nodded. They understood only too well the liberation into savagery that the concealing paint brought,” (Golding 172). When a hunter is threatened with the reasoning from the civilization still left in Ralph, he

In We Wear the Mask, the author’s purpose is to push the reader to feel something about the way things were in his perspective.

The world is full of people wearing masks. These masks come in innumerable different shapes, sizes, and colors. A mask might be the happy face a little girl forces as she walks down the hall after being bullied, the bravery a small child pretends to have after the death of their Grandpa, or any number of different situations. This idea of masks is exemplified by the characters in Hamlet. Hamlet is the story of a young man after his father, the king, is found dead.

He tells himself “don’t scream” when being chased by Jack and the other savage boys, but ends up loosing control and screaming anyways (Golding 199). Throughout the book, Ralph is shown to be rational and always tried to think before acting; however, the stress of the scene pushes his instinctual side to go completely against his better judgement since ‘.... the experience of psychological threat triggers the defensive

Their masks hide the evil dwelling within their innocent souls, waiting to be set free. It emits human personalities and behaviors, allowing it to be impenetrable by visual perception. With these masks as a cover, Jack and his tribe members interact nicely; chaos rips through their society when they allowed their masks to fall off throughout many sequences of events.

He then has his misconception that he is the only boy who has the complexity to wear a mask. Instead, he comes to believe that their appearance and action perfectly conformed to what they really are. While his peers "could be their natural selves," he must put on a mask and "gain control over [his] consciousness." And thus he comes to realize that the difference that separates him from his peers, other than his sexual orientation, is the mask and the secret, "shameful portion of [his] mind" that hides behind it.