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William Shakespeare states, in one of his famous plays, Hamlet, that “We know what we are, but not what we maybe,” (4.5. ). The author suggests the idea of the human’s true self, hiding behind one’s mask, which further leads to the question of human identity. The question “Who am I?” becomes one of the most complex topics in literature and philosophy because no one yet finds the answer. This subject inspires different writers such as Phillip K. Dicks, Aldous Huxley, and William Golding to pursue people seek for the unknown. One of the dystopian novels, called Lord of the Flies by William Golding, tells the story of a group of children, on an uninhabited island in the Pacific Ocean during the atomic bomb war. By choosing the character between the ranges of ages 6 and 12, the author displays the idea that men return to their natural creatures without identity as the human nature. Identity allows humans to rise beyond other creatures by giving people the power of creating new identities, and reminding one about human’s state of evolution, as well as constructing one’s consciousness.
First of all, people tend to feel more powerful when they hide their true selves under masks, as like Jack Merridew does not fear other’s disapprovals under his painted mask, which furthers illustrates the connection between power and one’s identity. Jack Merridew, one of the oldest boys, becomes a savage because of his hunger of power. He explains “hunting” as the reason of the mask, however,
Similar to most literary classics, William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies contains allusions to the Christian Bible and character archetypes that convey universal ideas. Golding’s story focuses on a group of British schoolboys who are stranded on an island and ultimately succumb to their innate savage tendencies. Literary analysts often compare components of Lord of the Flies to various aspects in the Christian Bible. For instance, the setting in Lord of the Flies is often linked to the Garden of Eden, and some characters are thought to have religious-inspired names. Critics believe Simon’s name originates from Jesus Christ’s disciple, Peter, whose name was originally Simon. Biblical allusions exist throughout the novel associated with
Throughout the history of humanity, humans have different behaviors that change depending on what situations they are in. Psychologist Philip Zimbardo spent many years exploring human nature and has developed many theories about human behavior. One of Zimbardo’s ideas is about situational factors that states “one’s behavior is assumed to be dependent upon their current circumstances, situation or the environment that they are in.” He concluded the concept of situational factors after his Stanford Prison Experiment, in which he gave authority to regular people and observed any changes. The experiment proved that people’s behavior will change when they are in different situations. Zimbardo also believes that evilness is the exercise of power to harm people in anyway possible, so a five year old who teases others to Adolf Hitler would be classified as perpetrators of evil.
Literary devices are techniques often used by authors to portray in-depth analyses of major characters, storylines, and central themes, which take place in a story. These analyses help readers understand a message the author is trying to convey. In the novel Lord of the Flies, William Golding uses different literary devices in order to demonstrate the boys’ struggle against the lack of society and law on the island, as well as the consequences that have transpired due to this loss. This conflict is evident through the different instances of irony, foreshadowing, and symbolism that occurs throughout the novel.
Lord of the Flies by William Golding is a classic novel and portrays just how the society surrounding us can corrupt our once pure nature No one is born a killer, no one is born with an intense compulsion to kill, the island that the boys are stranded on has a very unusual, corrupting society; A society that erodes the boys innocence through the power struggle between Jack and Ralph, readers see the transfer from innocent to savagely through the hunting and Piggy’s death.
Many philosophers believe that a correct government can make a strong society. However, these philosophers do not agree on what form of government is the most “correct”. English philosopher John Locke believed that Man is inherently moral and that the purpose for government is to grant the fundamental rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to its people. Another philosopher, Thomas Hobbes, however, held the belief that mankind is naturally evil and that society needs an absolute central authority to contain this evilness and grant its people with the common protection. Hobbes believes that in a state of nature, when there are no rules and everyone is granted equal power, the inherent evil impulses of Man are exposed. One
In William Golding’s, Lord of the Flies, a few dozen boys are stranded on an island after a plane crash. The six to twelve year old kids turn to savages under the lead of the older males, and ultimately cause their own deaths. However, the smaller boys, such as Piggy and Sam and Eric, are the hope and reason of the group. Golding’s purpose of writing the book was to show that the defects in society originate at the defects in human nature. Golding allows the little ones to have no identities or personalities. This is symbolically showing that in society, the ignorant and innocent children are the only hope to a humane society. Innocence is purity, and the innocent children, in which are not corrupted by the bad people and things in the
English novelist and politician Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton, once said, “The pen is mightier than the sword.”. We,as humans, have always had the feeling of fear. No matter how many people say they don’t have that feeling, they have it somewhere within them. This fear has always thrived us to think in a radical way and has pushed us to make some good and bad choices in life. Because of this fear human beings have felt the need to protect themselves as much as possible and they believe that by having the most sizable, vigorous, and lavish weapons, they will be safe and protected from all harm and will keep order within society stable. But what Lytton wants us to realize in his quote is that you really don’t
“Every hand outside the choir except Piggy’s was raised immediately. Then Piggy, too, raised his hands grudgingly into the air” (Golding 23). This is the start of the first conflict between the two.
To be an effective society, itś important to have a few key qualities such as teamwork or cooperation and order. These make achieving goals much easier, and in the end, it leads to success by completing the tasks needed to get towards the goal, whether that be obtaining food or conquering an entire continent. In Golding 's Lord of the Flies, a lack of mutual respect between the leaders and followers as well as the failure to unite themselves to work together for the same goals, resulted in chaos, and ultimately, the division and failure of their society on the island.
“Civilization begins with order, grows with liberty, and dies with chaos.” -Will Durant. This is demonstrated when a new war begins, and a group of boys are left to fend for themselves on an abandoned island due to a plane crash. They must learn to live without adults, rules, or structure, however, as time goes on and conflict grows, this becomes increasingly difficult. William Golding 's Lord of The Flies explains how without order, unity, and rules a society will resort to chaos/savagery and becomes useless, as shown through the character archetypes of Learner, Ralph, and Shadow, Jack.
There are many factors that influence how people behave once on their own in an area without rules. The human race will fall apart without a set of rules that apply to them. When left on its own, and given an opportunity, human nature will revert back to the inherent savagery that lies within. In the book Lord of the Flies a British plane crashes on a deserted island in the middle of nowhere. The only survivors are a group of boys, and without any adults, the kids are left to fend and govern for themselves. Throughout the rest of the book, groups start to form and fight against each other. When the two groups fight for authority against each other things start to get out of hand.
William Golding’s 1950 novel Lord of the Flies, is generally thought to construct a microcosm of humanity. As soon as the boys scar the earth and find themselves on a deserted island, Golding begins his exploration of humanity and what happens when humans are reduced to their initial primal environment. After the plane full of boys hits the island, most of the boys naturally begin to gravitate towards stronger leaders. Two boys that emerge as superiors are Ralph and Jack. Golding uses Ralph as a more of a democratic leader who appeals to the others boys’ logic. Jack on the other hand, represents a more dogmatic leader who appeals to the other boys’ fears. As the novel progresses, readers begin to explore the idea that Golding is projecting
The beginning of the book, Lord of The Flies, started out very slow for me. It took a lot more time to really draw me in which was a little different than most books. What really took the most time for me was when the author, William Golding, was explaining the beach. It felt like he wrote out every detail of the beach he possibly could, which was, for me, really boring to read. However, throughout him explaining what the beach was like, I could connect to parts of it. When he was explaining the pool by the beach, it reminded me of this years beach trip. The tide left pools of water that you could float around in before actually getting into the waves. I also really liked the part when Ralph found the conch shell on page fifthteen. It reminded
In 1954, William Golding wrote his book Lord of The Flies in response to the book, The Coral Island. The story takes place in World War 2, and in the middle of a wartime evacuation of English schoolchildren, the plane crashes on an island of the Pacific ocean. The pilot dies, leaving the only survivors to be middle childhood or preadolescent boys. Two of the survivors, Ralph and Piggy, find a conch which Ralph uses to call the other survivors together. The group elects Ralph as chief, and they work together to survive. However, the group begins to fear a “beast” on the island and Jack, the leader of hunters in the group creates a power struggle with Ralph, the chief using the fear of the beast to gain influence over the rest of the boys. Later on, Jack creates his own tribe and leaves a severed pig’s head on a stick as an offering to the beast. One of the boys named Simon, walks alone and finds the severed pig’s head. He then envisions it has the “Lord of the Flies”, who tells him that the beast is actually inside themselves. Learning this, Simon runs to tell the boys the truth about the beast, at the same time Jack and his tribe are doing the dance. Simon then finds the tribe, but is ironically killed by the boys when they mistake him for the beast. Afterwards, Jack’s tribe attack what remains of Ralph’s group and takes Piggy’s glasses, the only means of lighting a fire on the island. Deserted by most of the group, Ralph, Piggy, twins Sam and Eric, goes to the tribe and
Lord of the flies is a noble prize winner that was written by William Goulding the novel is about four British school boys that where in a plane but the plane crash lands and get stranded on an island, the group of boys are on this island and there is conflict is seeming all the ways that Golding describes conflict though two of the main characters, Ralph leader of civilize and educated group, and Jack is leader of the savage group. In the book there’s a beast, all the boys saw this shadow in the air and they all thought it was a beast and they called it beastie. Jack made a decision to make a sacrifice for beastie so they went on a hunt, eventually they found a mother pig and jack had sharpened a stick both ends and stuck it into the ground and then cut off the pigs head and placed it on the tip on the sharp point and told the savage boys that the beast will not harm us.