Essay about William Golding's Lord of the Flies

A recurring theme among leaders in many societies today is that “absolute power corrupts absolutely” (John Acton, a 1700’s English Catholic historian, politician, and writer). In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, this idea of leadership, power, and corruption is put in the spotlight. Jack, one of the boys on the island, forces his way into the leadership position without actually earning it. It is clear that Jack has become corrupt as he turns into a person who is intimidating, egotistical, and selfish. Ralph, on the other hand, is a quality leader under most conditions as he appeals to the boys’ sophisticated side and has a

wrote this after publishing Lord of the Flies. It is our world, in the form of a story. The two leaders in the story are Ralph and Jack. Ralph starts off a comfortable leader of the boys, but by the end of the book, Ralph and his companion Piggy are alone facing Jack and the rest of the boys. As the novel progresses and the society on the island starts to change, so does Ralph. He begins thinking he has all the answers, but comes to realize that without Piggy he would have never gotten this far. By the end of the book, Ralph and Jack are complete opposites. Jack is about savagery and fun while Ralph is holding on to society, rules, and civilization. Appearing to be a weak leader due to defection of his followers, Ralph is actually dedicated and insightful, only loosing his followers because he could not compete with one category that attracts nearly everyone in the world: fun.

It may have taken millions of years for humans to evolve enough to create the sprawling civilizations known today, but it only takes a few months for a group of civil, educated boys to regress back into savagery. In his novel Lord of the Flies, author William Golding depicts a group of young British boys getting stranded on a deserted island sans adults. The boys must look out for themselves, forming a basic governing system and trying to survive. But the challenge soon proves too much to handle, and order deteriorates. William Golding conveys the universal theme of civilization vs. savagery in his novel Lord of the Flies using the literary elements of plot, setting, and characterization.

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

Civilization can be destroyed as easily as it is created.  Without the walls of society, humans are capable of committing actions that they would have never thought possible.  Lord of the Flies focuses on a group of boys who are alone on an island without authority. The novel reveals what can become of humanity without the presence of authority.  In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the protagonist Ralph symbolizes leadership, civilization,  as well as the loss of innocence.  Ralph is the closest resemblance to authority that the boys have on the island.  His appearance plays an important role in him signifying authority, “You could see now that he might make a boxer, as far as width and heaviness of shoulders went, but there was a

Savagery is the condition of being primitive, uncivilized or the quality of being fierce or cruel (Google). It is something that comes easy to everyone at certain times in our life. People will learn it is harder to be good than bad. Being bad comes natural to everyone; people like the thrill of taking a chance. People are trained to be civil and polite from the time one grows up and it is not that hard because of the society everyone lives in. What would happen if the people’s democracy fell and everybody is left with nothing? How would the citizens react? Would they act like they were trained to do ever since they were born, or would they disregard all of it and do as they please because there is no definite

“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.

In William Golding's Lord of the Flies, the color pink is hard to overlook. Throughout the text there is pink mentioned at virtually every turn: The pink platform, cream-pink conch, pink mountain, pink faces of the children, pink pig, etc. This color represents a vast amount including, "This color represents compassion, nurturing and love. It relates to unconditional love and understanding, and the giving and receiving of nurturing." (Judy Scott Kennis, "The Color Pink") Pink further details, "Brighter pinks are youthful, fun, and exciting...” (Kate Smith, "All About the Color Pink") With so many meanings, however, the primary symbolism of this color lies with the utter youth of the children, the characters of Golding's novel; many of the

I thought, by myself…I thought I might kill.”. The reader can see from this that Jack’s vocabulary is composed of only monosyllabic words as he is preoccupied only with thoughts of slaughtering. We can also interpret that Jack feels as if he has to kill in order to gain respect for himself. Jack shows this pride when he does eventually kill a pig and he retells the story of the hunt to the rest of the boys. He and some of the boys re-enact the murder in a savage and primitive style. Therefore, we can see how his behaviour has been affected as a result of his compassion and need to hunt. This change in his behaviour is very significant as hunting is how Jack begins to establish his power over the group. Soon after the killing of the first pig, Jack is able to become more powerful and Ralph begins to realise this so he says, “I’m calling an assembly.”, as he feels in danger of losing control.

An emotion experienced by every human being is fear. Angst changes a person’s behavior, mind state, and actions. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, the boys are guided by fear. They do not unite together to overcome fearful situations and let their own worst impulses dominate.

In Lord of the Flies, William Golding highlights the story of Ralph a young boy who must overcome new societal obstacles to stay alive and be rescued from a deserted island along with a group of boys. Golding utilizes devices such as imagery and symbolism to depict Ralph’s journey to being rescued. In Lord of the Flies, William Golding employs a stable symbol of humanity in the form of the main character Ralph to magnify the importance of a parental role in the upbringing of children, ultimately revealing that without society’s nurturing yet guiding hand the barbaric and savage desires of humans will be revealed. Firstly, Golding’s use of symbolism plays a role in describing how Ralph worked towards his goal.

The book Lord of the Flies shows the side of savagery and marks the importance of civilized human beings. The author shows good and evil in this book, he describes this as a group of young boys an in isolated island with unsupervised adults and also uncivilized until they can be rescued. In the midpoint of a nuclear war, there were a group of British boys that find themselves in a stranded island without adults. The group started by dividing in groups one that was called littluns that was around the age six, and the biguns around the age of ten to twelve. They elect leader which is Ralph with the support from Piggy, who is the on intellectual person in the group Ralph strives to make housing rules and sanitation. Ralph also makes a signal fire

Lord of the Flies by William Golding is an allegorical novel in that it is about characters and objects that represent the novel’s themes and ideas. Lord of the Flies is about a group of boys whose plane crashes on an island. They were sent in an airplane to go to a better school because of their country's war and a nuclear war. On their was to the school the airplane gets broken or shut down and they end up crashing into the island.  The island represents the world and the characters represent the various ways that human beings behave throughout the world. William Golding wrote his novel after World War II, and his meaning was to comment on the ways in which people, and governments, can behave savagely. They tried to find a way, but they

Lord of the Flies, a classic novel written by William Golding in 1954, investigates the focal theory of human nature and its capability. Golding was encouraged to write this novel after his experiences in the concentration camps during World War 2, on reflecting how poorly the prisoners were treated by the Japanese and the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki led him to thinking how well educated people can portray evilness through such devastating acts. His study and the Lord of the flies examine that human kind has the potential for evil and what interrupts them from exposing their true evil colours is the law and the threat of penalty. Golding has successfully pictured the theme of social turmoil in his book through major themes like Good Vs Evil (the capacity for individuals to be evil), Lack of adults/authority (no control leaded to chaos) incorporating the loss of innocence/identity (to gain survival, how human beings can go to any state) which all link back to his context and his experiences of conflict and social turmoil in the mid twentieth century faced amongst the countries in world war 2.