Thesis Statement: In Lord of the Flies William Golding throughout the book is trying to show you that society should recognize man is evil.
In all history textbooks, you can always find a leader that has accomplished many feats, but how have they done that? Do you really think the way they accomplished their goals were “good”, or civil and just? In reality, the answer is most likely, “No”. Although their accomplishments have changed the world in many different ways, they almost always implicate the evils in men. Unfortunately, all humans have that aspect in them; a primal, savage instinct that drives them to complete their desires, often with the use of violence. Yet, all humans also have the aspect of “good” in them. This includes the peaceful, civilized, logical, and reasonable society that many people live in today. In the novel, Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, the
The use of symbolism is often used by authors to show a deeper meaning to an object within a story. These enhancements to the meaning of objects gives readers insight to what is really being represented. Although they may seem vague, they create a path to better understanding of characters and scenarios within a story. A proper use of this technique can be witnessed in Lord of the Flies. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, symbolism is used to depict a greater meaning within the objects that appear throughout the novel.
“All things truly wicked start from innocence,” Ernest Hemingway, (A Movable Feast.) The nature of evil lies within all human beings whether they realize it or not. Both Lord of the Flies and A Long Way Gone have main characters who struggle with the temptation of evil, and eventually give in to their dark side. Under harsh circumstances, the evil within all people comes out as an attempt to adapt to their environment.
Evil and savagery lives within and it can be brought out when you are forced to fight for something. We all have a dark side that may not show until faced with a challenging task. Lord of the Flies is about a group of young boys stuck on an island after their plane crashes. There are no adults and they are left to survive by themselves. They have to decide between right and wrong. The boys have an unjustified fear of the “beast”. In chapter nine specifically, Simon wakes up and realizes that the beast is actually just a dead man who had crashed on the island after his plane exploded. Simon goes to tell the others. They are in the middle of a feast and are filled with excitement and end up killing Simon. This is a turning point in the novel. The boys were pushed to this level of savagery by the need for power. In chapter nine of Lord of the Flies, William Golding employs symbolism, repetition, and animal imagery to convey the theme that the need for power can cause people to become savages.
This passage signifies the corrupted mind of a man. When Jack becomes the leader of his own tribe, he takes control and uses the power of the boys to get rid of all obstacles. Ralph was an obstacle since he was ready to take him down before Jack decided to kill him.
Good vs. evil. Reason vs. instinct. Civilization vs. savagery. These are all examples of internal battles that occur within oneself and which can lead to horrifying consequences. In William Golding’s, Lord of the Flies, a group of young boys find themselves stranded on an island, after a plane crash. Without any adult supervision or guidance, the boys are forced to systematically establish a firm set of rules and duties, in order to coexist on the island. At first everyone, is glad to be assigned their tasks and fulfill the needed requirements to survive. However, things soon turn for the worst, when one by one the boys begin to succumb to the evil within them. With the quick deterioration of societal rules, the boys turn on one another and participate in
Good and evil are often thought of as choices and humans think, “Which path will I choose?” In having these thoughts, they confuse themselves, for evil is an untamable force. The novel Lord of The Flies presents the idea that evil is instinctive and make humans weak in the wake of its power. The author of the book, William Golding, conveys these ideas to us through the actions of the characters he writes about. The majority of the characters are boys who are on a plane that crashes in an uncharted island where there are no adult survivors. They learn more about government structure, hierarchy, good and evil, and leadership. Keep in mind that there is also a war between nations in the book, so the boys don’t have much of a role model to look up to. There is a constant power struggle throughout the book between two boys, Ralph and Jack. Ralph’s main goal is to get
In Lord of the Flies, William Golding conveys using rhetorical devices that everyone has innate evil and when evoked, it overcomes one’s sense of civility and humanity. The author creates a scenario whereby he places a group of boys onto an uninhabited island and examines how the group are effected over time. Through the course of the novel there is a considerable change in mentality throughout the group. The change is due to the lack of a strict and functioning society and ultimately the boys have degenerated into primitivity. In addition, the boys are becoming more evil, embodying evil in their own ways. For example, Jack has enacted his evil by feeding his bloodlust and brutally murdering sows in the jungle. Furthermore, the evil within the entire group is prevalent in
In Lord of the Flies, William Golding’s portrayal of the stranded boys’ bloodlust shows a childhood filled with tribulation and terror. Golding showcases his belief that all men contain wicked desires when the boys abandon their attempts of democracy on the island. Their time spent on the island reveals that even childhood innocence turns dark without society enforcing justice.
We were all sitting around the lunch table, and then suddenly my two friends Briaden and Joel started fighting each other. I tried to see why they were fighting when I noticed a bag of chips between their clashing bodies. They were fighting for a bag of chips! Both of them looked like barbarics de-evolutionised back to their primal instincts to fulfill their one craving, hunger. The need to fulfill a hunger for something brings out the darkest in all of us. This correlation is what can cause a society to turn bad and against one another.
The novel, Lord Of The Flies, demonstrates that humans are essentially evil through the literary elements foreshadowing and symbolism, for that it is their nature when apart from civilization along with being in a state of fear, they will then unleash their true primitive selves.
Believe it or not, evil lies in every single human being. One sees this everyday when wars occur, homicides happen, and when robberies destroy homes. The novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding is an outstanding example of what really can take happen when human nature takes over. The character Simon in Lord of the Flies symbolizes the role of spirituality in society. William Golding uses the character Simon as a spiritual tool to reveal human’s inherent defect.
In Lord of the Flies, a novel by William Golding, there are several themes expressed through the boys from the beginning to the end. The main theme conveys that man is inherently evil. This can be understood from most aspects of the book. Golding conveys that man is inherently evil through the boys need to undermine each other and the loss of morality in their decent to chaos.
William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies does not simply describe the life of a group of children stranded on an island, but rather it is a representation of the qualities of human nature. As the novel progresses, the children grow deeper into savagery, performing actions that would be often criticised in society. The absence of law and order devolves even those that attempt to recreate it, like Ralph and Piggy. In this novel, Golding uses children to answer the question whether or not humans are born inanimately good or truly evil. Golding answers this question by symbolising the main characters and their descent into savagery. He uses Ralph and Piggy to describe the well-educated that attempt to grasp civilisation, but ultimately fail to deliver. His symbol of Roger as an ordinary person that breaks loose of the chains of society once disconnected from it. Finally, the nature of Jack is a depiction of the power hungry that will do anything to lead.