Lord Of Flies Essay, Research Paper

This was one of the most interesting books I have ever read. It is very

addictive and very well written. Though I am a slow reader, it did not take long

for me to finish it. I spent four days reading this book and on weekends I put

it down during meals. Lord of the Flies kept my interest with very little slow

moving dialogue and lots of vivid description. The thing I probably liked the

most about Lord of the flies was the theme of the story. This topic was very

intriguing. It dealt with many flaws and desires of human nature, and how

devastating these factors van be to a culture with no directions or rules to

follow. I enjoyed how the story showed that even the youngest and most innocent

of humans strive for power over everything and will stop at nothing until he

achieves that power. The theme shows the greed that has been bred into all

humans. The characters were probably the second most interesting element in Lord

of the Flies. All British boys in this story portray a savagery and sadistic

nature to which all but a few succumb. The other boys are the only symbol of

sanity on the island. There is also a very interesting conflict between Ralph

and Jack. Actually I might say it was a struggle between good and evil. The

beginning of their struggle stems from the very start of the novel when Ralph is

elected chief over Jack. Jack and his hunters eventually form their own group

apart from the others. Uncivilized to say the least, his savages are totally

stripped of what society has impressed upon them. Ralph demands peace on the

island but to no avail. The turning point of the novel occurs when Jack and his

hunters have a feast to celebrate breaking away from Ralph and forming their own

tribe. During the sadistic event, the boys are invited to join Jack and many

accept. Everyone begins to dance and lose touch with reality and all

civilization, and when Simon crawls out of te forest with his message about the

beast, he himself is mistaken for it and is torn apart by the frenzied children.

At this point Ralph loses most of his control over almost all the kids, and Jack

begins to take over. After the feast, things get worse for Ralph and his

remaining followers. Jack and his warriors attack them one night and steal their

source of fire ? Piggy?s glasses. The next day Ralph, Piggy and Samneric

journey to Castle Rock to try to talk some sense into the savages, but they

don?t succeed. Piggy still holding to the conch, desperately tries to be heard

over the scuffle but Roger, the most evil of all the hunters, heaves an immense

boulder upon him, crushing both Piggy and the symbol of sanity and order ? the

conch. The next day Jack organizes a manhunt for Ralph. The leader of the

savages sets the bushes on fire in an attempt to flush him put. The fugitive is

chased across most of the island and finally collapses at the feet of a naval

office who was attracted by the smoke. William Golding stated that the theme of

Lord of the Flies as ?an attempt to trace the defeats of society back to the

defects of human nature?. The only thing I disliked about this book is that

sometimes Golding?s writing style was a little hard to follow. The main

problem was that the boy?s talk was hard to understand. This problem appeared

in few spots, however, and for the most part the book was easy to read. There

are many themes in the novel: the aspects of social activities, basic needs of

society, ecological balance and use of resources, the problem of evil in man.

These all themes were very well revealed. Especially the problem of evil in man

and the basic needs of society are very well showed. He 3 main characters of the

novel to my mind are: Ralph, Jack and Piggy. Ralph is an attractive boy and a

natural leader, the sort of intelligent, well-adjusted, athletic boy who easily

might become the idol of his schoolmates. We meet him in the first chapter as he

leads the way out of the jungle while Piggy lumbers after him. That he is

fair-haired suggests that he is a child of fortune, one who is blessed by nature

with grace, strength, and luck. There is recklessness to his manner. He seems

happy at the prospect of living on a deserted island, away from the influence of

adults. The setting fosters dreams of heroic adventure in which he is the

protagonist. He will overcome all of the difficulties present in his

surroundings, lead a joyously exciting jungle life, then optimistically await a

glamorous rescue by his naval-officer father. Unfortunately, his dreams are

frustrated when nature and his fellow youths refuse to cooperate with his

romantic vision. And, as his dream becomes more difficult of attainment, he

loses confidence and calmness and begins to indulge himself in escape fantasies

and dreams of the past. Gradually, he forfeits the respect of the other boys. A

contrasting characteristic to his tendency to dream is his common sense. He is

quick to assess the situation of the boys in realistic terms. He sees what must

be done for their survival and rescue and sets about arranging parliamentary

meetings, building a signal fire, and constructing huts. He appraises the advice

of Piggy according to its practicality. He fights against the superstition and

terror of the boys as being detrimental to the organized progress of their

society. Ralph is by no means a perfect character. He is often mean to those

weaker than himself, particularly the faithful Piggy. Occasionally he performs

rash and foolish actions. He even joins in the murder of Simon. He shares in the

universal guilt of man. But he does show a clear sightedness that none of the

others possess in the same way. It is his common-sense view that prevails at the

end of the novel when he graduates from his experience on the island with a more

mature knowledge of himself and the world around him. He recognizes the

universal presence of evil as a condition of life. He is capable of appreciating

the tragedy of the loss of innocence that is the common heritage of man. More

than any other character, Ralph represents the outlook of the author-and the

outlook that he expects his reader to share. He is not as intellectual as Piggy

and he is not as religious as Simon, but he dreams the dreams of freedom and

adventure that enliven the progress of western society. He is the most complete,

most human, and most heroic of the characters in the novel, and the one with

whom readers most readily identify. Jack Merridew: "He was tall, thin, and

bony, and his hair was red beneath the black cap. His face was crumpled and

freckled, and ugly without silliness." A cruel and ugly bully, he early

develops a taste for violence. He is a leader of the choir at first, and then of

the hunters. His leadership resides in his ability to threaten and frighten

those under him. He is always ready for a fight. His victory over Piggy

represents the triumph of violence over intellect, as he smashes one of the

lenses of the fat boy’s glasses. The knife that he carries is a symbol of the

death and destruction that accompany his every act. He does have some attractive

qualities-bravery and resourcefulness. But these are easily obscured by his

wrath, envy, pride, hatred, and lust for blood. He is constantly attempting to

weaken Ralph’s hold on the boys. He suggests opposite measures, he shouts

abusively, he threatens, he is constantly demanding to be made chief. In all, he

is a complete stranger to polite behavior. In his constant rivalry with Ralph,

and in his constant preoccupation with killing, whether it be pigs or fellow

human beings, he is a diabolical force, plunging the boys into a chaos of brute

activities. His egotistical outbursts and his temper tantrums suggest that he is

immature in his social development. But as hunter and killer he is extremely

precocious. The readiness with which he throws himself into the existence of a

savage, as he pauses to sniff the air for scent, or falls to his knees to

inspect the pig droppings, or runs naked and painted through the forest,

suggests the flimsiness of the restraints and patterns of civilization in a

personality in which the destructive passions flow strongly. If the novel is

read as religious allegory, Jack emerges as an envoy of the Devil, enticing the

other boys to sin. If the novel is read as a representation of Freudian

principles, Jack represents the primitive urges of the id. In the symbolic

representation of the processes of life and death, Jack suggests, both in the

black cloaks which he and his followers wear and in his association with

darkness, the power of death. In his first appearance, coming out of the

"darkness of the forest" to face Ralph, whom he cannot see because his

back is to the sun, Jack represents the Satanic and deathly force coming to

confront the divine and life giving man of light. The blood that he wallows in

is a further representation of deathliness. When, after his first kill,

"Jack transferred the knife to his left hand and smudged blood over his

forehead as he pushed down the plastered hair," he unconsciously imitates

the ritual of the tribal initiation of the hunter, whose face is covered with

the blood of his first kill. Finally, if the novel is read as the story of human

civilization, Jack represents the influences of unreason and confusion and

violence as they operate counter to the progress of human virtues and social

institutions. Piggy: This intellectual is an outsider. He manages for a time to

have some influence on the group through Ralph, who recognizes his brilliance

and puts into effect several of his suggestions. But, generally, the boys are

quick to ridicule him for his fatness, asthma, and lack of physical skill. An

orphan brought up under the care of an aunt, he has developed into a sissy. He

cannot do anything for himself, whether it be to gather fruit, blow the conch

shell, or build huts. He always tries to hide when the other boys are involved

in manual labor. At home, presumably, his favorite pastime would be sitting in a

chair, reading. His frequent appeals to the adult world, and his attempt to

model his behavior on that of teachers and other grown-ups evokes the contempt

of the boys. Further, he makes the mistake of pressing too hard for acceptance.

In his first appearance in Chapter 1, he attempts so diligently to win the favor

or Ralph that he only alienates Ralph at the same time that he gives him

personal information about himself that Ralph can then use to hurt him. His life

on the island is a series of unhappy embarrassments, including being taunted by

the boys, being beaten, and having his glasses broken and stolen. Finally, at

the instigation of Jack, he is killed by Roger. He represents an attitude of

mind that is conservative and civilized. His eyeglasses, which are constantly

steamed, and that he absolutely needs to see anything, separate him from the

world of activity and adventure in which he cannot participate as freely as the

other boys, and confine him to the realm of his own mind. Possibly because he is

the bookish member of the group, he tends to be more scientific than the rest,

and also more skeptical. His knowledge of science is shown in his plan to build

sundials. His skepticism keeps him from participating in the superstitions of

the other boys. He knows that the world of adults and books would not abide the

legend of the "beastie." Piggy is necessarily more civilized than

anyone else because, with his meager physical equipment, only in the most

civilized of societies could he survive. Ironically, with his build, his

nickname "Piggy," and his squealing, he resembles the sacrificial pig.

When he dies, his "arms and legs twitched a bit, like a pig’s after it has

been killed." His superior intellect is of little use to him in the later

stages of the novel. In the increasingly more degenerate society of the boys,

the intellectual is lowered to the status of the beast. Then he is sacrificed

and symbolically eaten. I think these three characters are the most

characteristic to the kids of nowadays. We can divide them into Ralphs, Jacks

and Piggies. In conclusion I would like to say that I think this book is a must

to read for every person to understand the essence of a human being.

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