William Golding 's Lord Of The Flies

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.

On the surface, laws are often viewed as restrictions that take away from personal freedom. Many see rules as a type of control and it’s easy to make sense of the idea that without laws, we would have absolute freedom. However, philosopher John Locke did not agree with this concept and stated, “For in all the states of created beings, capable of laws, where there is no law, there is no freedom.” This paradox claims just the opposite; that without law there is no freedom. Locke’s theory can be applied to William Golding’s Lord of the Flies through his characters’ actions in Chapters 4-6.

Lord of the Flies Essay A theme is used through a piece of literature by an author to tell the reader a message. In the “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding, he uses many different types of literary devices throughout the whole book, one of them being theme. There are many possible themes in the book, one of them would be that, everyone has evil within them. Throughout the book there are examples that can show or prove that everyone is born with evil by the boys’ physical appearance, their government, and their behavior/morals.

Is it a person’s genetic biological make up that affects their decision making or is it outside environmental influences that impact choices? I think that the internal factors have more of an impact on a person’s behavior. In the book Lord of the Flies, written by William Golding, both factors seem to take part in what caused the boys to turn into savages. Considering that not all the boys turned into savages it helps prove that the bad genes inside versus the good genes played more of a roll and not so much the external environment, in who turned wild and who tried to keep up with the rules of society they knew before they crash landed on the island. Jack and Roger seemed to be the real “bad seeds” and without adults they became leader of the cruel, savages behavior on the island. Whether it was the way they were raised or they were just bad genetics, all it took was for Jack not getting his way. When all the boys voted for chief and Jack was not chosen he starts falling into his role as the bad guy.

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.

Lord of the Flies is a novel written in 1954 by Nobel Prize winner William Golding. The novel is set in the midst of a nuclear war and it portrays the experience of a group of schoolboys stranded on an uninhabited island after a plane crash. While on the island, the boys' society quickly falls into disarray and the true violent and evil nature of mankind is exposed. William Golding views the nature of mankind as innately evil and portrays the constant internal struggle of right versus wrong with the exploration of the downfall of rules and structure of society, the desire to kill, as well as the abuse of power.