Compare And Contrast Essay, Research Paper

Only when the olives are pressed the true richness of the oil is present. * This proverb can be used to simplify even the most difficult book, such as Lord of the Flies, by William Golding or the simplest book, such as The Children s Story by James Clavell. The books parallel the world today in many ways. Power, prestige and manipulation are a major part of every day life. Specifying the particular minds of people when power is abused, confronting the fear that lies within each character, and recapturing the universal theme of a totalitarian society will aid in comparing and contrasting both books, Lord of the Flies, by William Golding and The Children s Story by James Clavell.

People will abuse power when it is not earned and by manipulating the minds of others, this is successfully done. This is evident in both novels. In Lord of the Flies, the power struggle to maintain leadership between Ralph and Jack is very evident from the begin in Chapter One. At the beginning of the novel, Ralph is chosen as the tribes leader because of his ability to control situations and maintain order among the big boys and the littl uns. Throughout the novel, Jack is always attempting to overthrow and abuse the power of Ralph s leadership. After Ralph and Piggy stumbled over a conch shell, Ralph is able to unify his newly found civilization and conduct meetings. In doing so, this allowed a form of democracy among these children. Jack challenges this newly established law and order and forms his own tribe, consisting of no social order, no law and no rational control. Jack s tribe was embodied as a life of savagery, with a lust for blood by those opposed to it. In The Children s Story, the abuse of power is seen when the new teacher comes into the classroom and says to Miss Worden, I am taking over your class now. You are to go to the principal s office. (Clavell, 12) The new teacher literally lets the reader know that she has taken all the power and intends to really take over the class. The new teacher abuses the power that she has acquired by manipulating the children s naive minds and persuading them to abandon their own faith. She begins to cut through their believes and loyalty when she suggested to cut the flag. She also sought to bring to every ones attention the power of rational control over innocence.

Each character in both novels depicted a sense of fear that came from the inside and either led to hysteria or change of mind. In Lord of the Flies, the fears ranged in intensity. If it wasn t the hissing snakes during the night, the rattling of the beast during the day, or the lack of necessities almost always, it was something else that these children were afraid of. However, the two children that were the most afraid of the unknown were Ralph and Jack. Ralph is a good leader, but that was his weakness as well because he was afraid to fail, surrender or lose and show his true self. For example, when Jack wants to go investigate the beast and Ralph says it is to dark and he doesn t want to go, its because he is afraid of what else might be out there. (Golding, 145-148) Jack knows exactly what to say to make Ralph change his mind and he does, proving how manipulative and smooth Jack really is. By provoking Ralph and questioning his leadership, essentially threatening it, Jack manages to get Ralph to investigate the mountaintop, for the so-called beast. As Simon sat alone in the scorching hot jungle, he is terrified of his own hallucination of the fly covered head of the dead pig, hence giving Golding a perfect title. In The Children s Story fear is present among both Miss Worden and her students because they do not know what they, the unknown antagonists are planning for them, leading them to change their minds and conform to the new. Since the new teacher must establish a sense of security and calmness between her and the children, she comes in acting somewhat savoir-faire, knowing Mary s name without even doing the role call or interacting one on one on the floor. Having the students cut up the flag, throwing the flagpole out the window, and siting on the floor, which is the best place to sit, as everyone in the class knew, (Clavell, 13) the new teacher implanted this fear amongst the children. They are used to a ritual, a routine that was done each day, getting them used to the whole of idea of school, respect, honor and obey. And suddenly, this teacher just throws all that out the window with the flagpole. The only child that has a sense that something was wrong and that the new teacher was not all that exciting was Johnny. He went against all the other children, facing his fear right in the face, when he did not close his eyes like the teacher asked when they all had to meditate to get candy. (Clavell, 70) He peeked and again confronted his fear by revealing who the true leader was that gave them the candy. The fear inside these children ran deeper than that because the new teacher was presenting them with ideas and thoughts they had no answer to. She became their leader 25 minutes after she walked through the door, changed their faith and, later became somewhat of a surrogate mother, once the school day was extended.

Authority in all categories is the principal force in both works. Conformity in each book, proving that for a society to thrive and have ideals, values, and the basics of right and wrong judgement, a democratic society must be established. Without these conditions society cannot be held together and this is proven in Lord of the Flies. A conch shell sound, which sounds like a dense horn, reunites the disarrayed children in the beginning and later was used as a symbol of unite among the group. A totalitarian government is formed on the island when the conch shell was discovered, allowing the leader, Ralph, to have complete control over the group, until Jack manipulates the situation. The dividing force was Jack and the unifying force was the conch shell on this boat shaped civilization of an island. The island, in general, represents the world in which man lives and what to much of a good thing or not enough destroys the very essence of life, completely proven by both Lord of the Flies and The Children s Story. This civilization on the boat shaped island and the civilization in the classroom were both directed on the same path, that of good and bad. It was the freewill in protagonists, Ralph and Ms. Worden, and antagonists Jack and the new teacher, which led to the ultimate dictatorship or anarchy. Both societies had different set of people, minds, thoughts and feelings that led them to either success or degeneration. Maintaining order was not an easy task to uphold and was later rejected by all, something completely relevant in today s society as well. While in The Children s Story the reader can clearly see that the children are being taken over by another force other then their own government. The new teacher is the sole authority in the classroom questioning their patriotism, family life, and being. Intriguing the students repeatedly with questions of why, how and when is the perfect ingredient in utilizing her power of authority. Out with the old and in with the new, these children were wide-eyed ever since this strange person entered their territory and changing all the rules, for better or for worse. Innocence faced the calamity of disaster and if luck would have it, the good would prevail the evil. In this case, it is not known. The Children s Story starts with questions and ends with antagonizing questions that can be answered by everyone, since really there is no right or wrong response. This society in the classroom resembles the Fascist days, where questions were asked but no answers were given.

In conclusion, it is clear that both works parallel the world today. Morals come directly from our surroundings and if there is no civilization, no authority, or no society in which we fall back on, then all those values are destroyed. Both of these works express truth, meaning, and most importantly give value to our world. It is true that when power is abused, people are unlawfully utilized, manipulated and exploited. It is also true that fear overcomes the strongest being, but once it is confronted, life will go on and the sun will shine after the rain. Just like the richness of the olive oil, only after a person is pressed or show their true self, we will see their true richness. But the most truthful and absolute theme of both of these works is that a totalitarian society determines the behavior in all.