Lord Of The Flies: Character Analysis

In the Lord of the Flies, the boys face major problems on the island. They try to act civilized and have order, but with Jack and his group of hunters rebelling, this order slowly goes down the drain. To makes things worse, Jack begins to act cruel and evil to the boys and even the animals. This lead to facepainting which symbolizes savagery, the “Beastie” which eventually means the boy’s fear and cruelty, and the pigs head on the stick, which was the turning point of complete evil, and a sacrifice to the beastie, which means a whole lot more that it seems. The first symbol that was shown in the Lord of the Files is the face painting of the boys and the hunters.

The being that had blown that, had sat waiting for them on the platform with the delicate thing balanced on his knees, was set apart.” The sow’s head on the other hand, had a whole other meaning of power. It represented the power of evil and savagery. It symbolized all the evils and horrors of the world and frightened the boys a great deal. The conch gave them hope order and survival. The beast gave them anger, savagery, and death.

Usually, when the term “beast” is mentioned, negative connotations are developed. In Lord of the Flies, the meaning of the entire story is determined by the symbolic definition of the “beast”. Lord of the Flies surrounds a group of boys stranded on an island. The presumed idea of a beast materialized and spread amongst the group. Initially, the beast represented fear.

Even though the other boys who participated in killing the pig lost some of their innocence, so did Simon. He now understood that the real beasts were only the little boys he was stranded on the island with, including himself. This really affected him learning that they were not the little boys any more, they had to mature quickly and fend for themselves. As time goes on the their innocence is slipping away more and more. The final pages of the novel Lord of the Flies illustrate the impact of loss of innocence on the boys.

Since there was nothing civil about where they were, there was nothing for the boys to aspire to and to remind them of how they should act. In chapter 5 of Lord Of The Flies, Golding writes, “For now the littluns were no longer silent. They were reminded of their personal sorrow; and perhaps felt themselves to share in a sorrow that was universal.” (Golding 87) When Golding writes this, the boys, particularly the younger ones, are sad because of their previous life and what they miss. This directly shows that the boys have lost everything about society and civil living, and that it affects them, for they miss it. In the Stanford Prison Experiment, Shuttleworth states, “The prisoners became institutionalized very quickly and adapted to their roles.” When this happens in the experiment, the prisoners have everything stripped away from them that resembled a civil society and in return are treated like animals.

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.

In the words of David Gemmell, “there is evil is all of us, and it is the mark of a man how he defies the evil within.” The beast in the novel starts as a symbol of fear and something that was ignored but ends up creating chaos and representing evil. In William Golding 's, Lord of the Flies, the boys making fun of the little boy for being scared of the beastie and the boys doubting Sam and Eric, Simons hallucination, and Simon 's death are evidence that show the evil and ignorance in the boys. There are many signs of ignorance towards the beast in the novel. One example of ignorance towards the beast is when the boys made fun of the little boy for being scared of the beast. When the little boy brought up the beast the first time, the older boys, “laughed and cheered,” (Golding.

The signal fire became a test to the boys' connection with civilization. The “Beast” give the children frightens all the boys, this gives the readers a symbol for the instinct of savagery. As their savagery grows, their belief in the beast grows stronger “Beast” grows, "There was confusion in the darkness and the creature lifted its head, holding toward them the ruin of face. "1 As the boys begin making it sacrifices and treating it as their leader, the boys' behavior is what brings the beast into reality, so the more savage the boys become, the more real the beast seems to be. After Simon discovers, the severed pig’s head, Lord of the Flies, Simon believes that it is talking to him and telling him about how evil lies within every human heart.

There are many examples of savagery on the island that take place in the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding. The boys on the island display evil characteristics such as trying to kill each other, bullying and manipulation, and corruption. The savagery in the hearts of the boys on the island show the savage characteristics that can also displayed in today’s civil society. The savagery in Lord of the Flies contrasts to modern society in that the boys largely choose savagery over society. When the boys try to make a stable society, it instead turns into savagery.

Piggy's arms and legs twitched a bit, like a pig's after it has been killed.” As the conch explodes, and one of the main defenders of democracy dies, so does society. The boys have lost all sense of civilization and society and have turned completely “savage” in their minds. Now being controlled with fear by Jack, they have no choice but to follow his orders. Jack yells at the boys “I’m warning you. I’m going to get angry.