ipl-logo

Totalitarianism In Lord Of The Flies Essay

702 Words3 Pages

In William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies he uses how humans act to portray the main themes of the text. The boys progress from well mannered young boys to complete savage during the duration of the text to portray how men can go from being civilized to animals. Golding also uses the characters to show how inside some people have the ability to inflict pain and suffering upon others. The boys also portray the battle between democracy and totalitarianism/dictatorship and the positives and negatives of each. In Golding’s view when men are left to their own devices will turn evil. The boys crash land on an island in the middle of the pacific. The only people on the island are the boys ranging from six to twelve. Without adult supervision …show more content…

Jack is the polar opposite of how Ralph lead. Jack is a tyrannical dictator who assumes control not by vote but by taking control. Jack gives them a taste of what it is like to cats aside your humanity and to become a savage. He is what lies beneath civility and the supposed goodness in people. Jack can take control because every boy on the island including Ralph and Piggy have evil inside themselves. This is seen when they take part in the brutal murder of their friend Simon. Jack controls the boys by fear mongering. Jack had the ability to turn off morality and turn into a killer. When Ralph and Piggy are saying there is no monster Jack is yelling at the same time there is a beast and he will provide protection from it. For young boys whom some are no older than six protection from the big scary beast is very appealing. Even the boys who leave Ralph for Jack still feel guilty because they choose to not elect Jack they keep Ralph but then they slowly leave when Ralph doesn’t know. They know Jack is bad yet they still make the conscious decision to abandon Ralph’s leadership. This is point at which they go from boys to savages. Golding stops calling them by their names or the boys and instead calls them savages. Golding did this on purpose to show the boys had made the choice of their own

Show More
Related

  • Ralph And Jack's Leadership In Lord Of The Flies

    1111 Words  | 5 Pages

    While Jack is on the rise for power, he talks bad about Ralph to the boys in order to make himself stand out more as a leader by providing

    Read More

  • Piggy Journal Entry

    1907 Words  | 8 Pages

    Summary: Ralph along with a plane full of boys have just crashed on to this island, everyone is scattered, so initially Ralph and Piggy are the only two boys. The beach is very hot and the boys go for a swim in a lagoon. After there swim they find a seashell they can use as a horn. Slowly boys from all over begin to appear and all sit in front of Ralph as Piggy learns there names. A group of choir boys approach the group, with their leader being a boy named Merridew.

    Read More

  • A Symbolic Moment In Lord Of The Flies Quote Analysis

    636 Words  | 3 Pages

    The boys could have easily chosen Jack instead of Ralph, especially given the fact that Jack had previous experience as a leader; he is first seen surrounded by a group of faithful followers, his choir group, that continue to obey him on the island. Even Piggy, who showed support towards Ralph from the beginning, is intimidated by Jack's authoritative demeanor. However, Jack is missing that key characteristic that made Ralph so appealing: the symbol of power and strength. Any sense of leadership that Jack held was overshadowed by the image of Ralph standing confidently with the conch shell in hand. Ultimately, the young boys identified Ralph as their leader based on the power they believed he symbolized.

    Read More

  • William Goulding Lord Of The Flies Quote Analysis

    720 Words  | 3 Pages

    William Goulding develops Ralph as a very conservative character; Jack as an aggressive one. Ralph is conservative because of the way he handles his power; he handles it by being polite and just asking, developing himself as someone the boys can step all over. Nothing wrong with the way Jack is but he isn’t strict enough with the boys, he doesn’t give them an ‘if you do not do it then this will happen,” he just gives them the “hey let us do this.” Ralph does not need to be threatening to get the boys to help him and develop a society on the island, he just needs to tell them “if you help me and we get our work done correctly, there will be positive results.”

    Read More

  • Literary Devices Used In Lord Of The Flies Essay

    709 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, young boys get stranded on an island with no adults in the midst of a war. The boys were orderly and civilized in the beginning but then as they began killing pigs they slowly became savages and lost their civilization. The boys began turning on each other and the evil within them became present. Golding uses a variety of literary devices including personification, symbols, metaphors, and irony, to project the theme that pure and realistic people in the world can be unheard and destroyed by evil.

    Read More

  • William Golding Lord Of The Flies Quote Analysis

    901 Words  | 4 Pages

    Throughout William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, he proves that human nature is savage. In this novel, a group of young boys survive a plane crash and land on a deserted island where they attempt to create a society from scratch, but ultimately fall into chaos and barbarity. In Lord of the Flies, Golding portrays the theme that one’s primitive nature is revealed when civilization is destroyed through symbolism, diction, and characterization. The boys immediately recognized the conch’s significance when they found it.

    Read More

  • Lord Of The Flies Freedom Essay

    639 Words  | 3 Pages

    When government tries to limit these freedoms, it is destroyed. Golding is suggesting that humans misuse their freedoms in society, which can lead to chaos. This chaos is seen as it slowly evolves within the tribe of hunters. Eventually, it leads to the death of two of the kids on the

    Read More

  • Jack Corruption In Lord Of The Flies

    1093 Words  | 5 Pages

    Jack’s conflicts with humanity and himself heavily contributed to his corruption and the downfall of the society on the island. Throughout the time on the island Jack became motivated by jealousy and hatred. Ever since the very first day on the island, Jack has been jealous of Ralph. Jack’s resentment towards Ralph grew as the time on the island did.

    Read More

  • Why Is Jack Merridew Murder In Lord Of The Flies

    913 Words  | 4 Pages

    His direct involvement in Simon’s death and how he planned for Piggy’s and pre-meditated Ralph’s death. His savage rule and his blood-lust brought inhumane deaths, punishments, and behavior among the boys. His deisire for leadership and his fantasies of the perfect tribe nearly desroyed everyone on the island and burnt down half the island in the process, and why Jack is guilty of 1st degree

    Read More

  • How Is Jack Presented In Lord Of The Flies

    514 Words  | 3 Pages

    He has influenced the boys into believing what he wants and needs is more important than the boys. What happens if the boys find out the beast is fake? What happens if the boys no longer fear Jack and decide to rebel? What happens to Jacks pride, does civilization break? Ralph’s followers showed up at Jack’s camp, they encountered armed guards.

    Read More

  • Is Man Inherently Evil In Lord Of The Flies

    658 Words  | 3 Pages

    Man is Inherently Evil 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.

    Read More

  • Power And Manipulation In Lord Of The Flies By William Golding

    1702 Words  | 7 Pages

    Power and manipulation takes over people’s minds and turns us into egotistical people without even knowing and the sense of having control or authority can brainwash us into the people who we despise. William Golding fabricates his ideas around the time period 1933 after he received his English degree where he mostly wrote poems. Golding’s world consists of writing novels, pulling ideas from the real world into his own creative words on paper, this is where he developed his most famous book, Lord of the Flies, throughout 1954. The perspective of Lord of the Flies is through the eyes of the Second World War and since he was in this war, his point of view on violence changed and gave him a different outlook on society. In the Lord of the Flies

    Read More

  • Democracy In Lord Of The Flies Essay

    684 Words  | 3 Pages

    Jack uses the boy’s animalistic need to kill, and shapes it into a fear driven mob. Eventually Jack’s leadership eventually achieves what Ralph and Piggy had attempted to do since the start of the book. Get Rescued. “We saw your smoke. What have you been doing?

    Read More

  • Static And Dynamic Character Essay

    1205 Words  | 5 Pages

    The reason Ralph was added to the story as a dynamic character was to show how leaders can be affected when someone overtakes them. The author included Jack to show that change is not always a good thing. Jack shows how bad feelings like jealousy can lead to impulsive behavior and numerous negative consequences. Piggy’s purpose is to show how dynamic other characters are. Piggy is like the controlled variable in an experiment.

    Read More

  • Human Nature In Lord Of The Flies Research Paper

    715 Words  | 3 Pages

    Humans are complex creatures. Understanding human nature is difficult, but the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding helps to show what true human nature looks like. Humans are inherently evil, but that evil is hidden by societal dictates. Throughout the novel, the human societal mask is stripped away and true human nature can be seen. Society enforces rules and trends that people feel they must follow.

    Read More

More about Totalitarianism In Lord Of The Flies Essay

Open Document