Lord of the Flies Essay

I believe that the boys in Lord of the Flies suffered from loss of innocence in a very fast and drastic way. They had to learn how to move on from such a tragic and traumatizing situation and learn on the spot how to survive as well as well as how to thrive as a society and work together. Although the boys might not have succeeded in their objectives, but the efforts made to work towards these

No one would think kids could turn to cruelty, but in this book, you can see how human nature turns people against each other. Not all the boys turned to savages, but there were times when there actions were questionable. Take Ralph for example, he was probably one of the least barbaric of them all, yet he still joined in on the murder of Simon. While most boys were oblivious to their descent into savagery, people like Ralph realized this ongoing turn, “I’m frightened. Of us. I want to go home, Oh God, I want to go home” (Golding 157). The boys change into savagery was not gradual, and even some of the boys, such as Ralph or Simon, noticed this trend, and as young boys it frightened them to realize the fact that they were altering towards inhumanity. As well, the book represents that evil is in all of us. The Beast, which was the main source of evil in the book, was not real. It was only a figment of the boys’ imaginations. While the Beast wasn’t a physical thing it represented

In William Golding’s, Lord of the Flies, a few dozen boys are stranded on an island after a plane crash. The six to twelve year old kids turn to savages under the lead of the older males, and ultimately cause their own deaths. However, the smaller boys, such as Piggy and Sam and Eric, are the hope and reason of the group. Golding’s purpose of writing the book was to show that the defects in society originate at the defects in human nature. Golding allows the little ones to have no identities or personalities. This is symbolically showing that in society, the ignorant and innocent children are the only hope to a humane society. Innocence is purity, and the innocent children, in which are not corrupted by the bad people and things in the

William Golding’s masterful use of symbolism is exemplified in his book Lord of the Flies, in which he uses masks to represent . These masks come in many forms, and by careful study of events throughout Golding’s novel, one discovers their significance. Physical masks are used by many characters such as Jack and Piggy, and they are perhaps the least ambiguous forms found in the book. The idea of a mask encompasses more than just these literal interpretations, however. Metaphorical masks are used in abundance throughout the book, and much can be revealed about the characters based on how or if they chose to wear their masks. The significance of these masks is also tied closely to the theme stating Man’s heart is evil.

“In absence of orders, go find something and kill it” Erwin Rommel world war II 7th panzer division general. It doesn’t seem to have much to do with lord of the flies but it does. When these boys are in left alone they start fighting and pick sides. In the Second World War people picked sides. These boys go into a small war of their own and it is brutal and has one evil over powering faction in this book the history’s most notorious generals, leaders, and even dictators are represented by these boys.

The boys were playing a game that started out with attacking a boar for fun, but got out of hand when “Ralph, carried away by a sudden thick excitement, grabbed Eric’s spear and jabbed at Robert with it” (114). During the game, the boys become carried away and drunk on their newfound power. Ralph initiates using Robert as the boar and attacking him, which demonstrates loss of humanity on the island. Leaning “all his weight on the lever,” Roger killed Piggy “with a sense of delirious abandonment"(180). Roger is the one who starts the chain reaction that kills Piggy, by releasing the rock that kills him. This is no surprise, as Roger is the silent troublemaker of the group. Jack “began to dance and his laughter became a bloodthirsty snarling" as he “capered toward Bill”(64). This quote represents the book as a whole. It demonstrates how the boys’ innocence at the beginning of the book turned to violence and hatred. The murder of Piggy and Simon can both be blamed on Jack’s desire for

William Golding’s Lord of the Flies is a fictional work about the struggle of good and evil in man. It uses a group of British boys to show the deterioration of one’s innocence through savagery and slaughter.The boys are forced to maintain order on a deserted island where adults do not exist to maintain it. As the protagonist, Ralph, tries to keep the order and be rescued, the antagonist, Jack, wants to only have fun and hunt for meat. Ralph and Jack fight for the control of the boys, which leads to the rise of darkness and the death of a few boys. Golding shows that through the deaths of Simon and Piggy, social

In Lord of the Flies William Golding uses images of light when describing Simon’s body to prove he is a sweet, thoughtful, and spiritual guy who was killed by mistake due to savagery. He was pretty much the only guy on the island that brought even the slightest positivity on it by being blatantly nice. As, Ralph and Jack Merridew went to go explore the island in the early chapters of the book, they chose Simon to go along with them, “no lack of boys to choose from, and Simon” (24). Immediately, from the start even though the early chapters of the book didn’t focus on Simon, his sweet and spiritual personalities started to show. For example, when Simon makes the comparison between the flowers and the candle buds, ¨Like candles. Candle bushes. Candle buds. The bushes we dark evergreen and aromatic and the many buds were waxen green and folded up against the light” (30). Simon takes the second to admire the beauty of nature where the other two boys disregard his “connection”. The way he described the flowers as candle buds and taking a second to admire them made it spiritual. Ralph disregards Simon by saying, “You couldn’t light them. They just look like candles” (pg. 30). Ralph isn’t making a connection like Simon is. As for Jack, he has no respect, he just thinks of it as food, “Jack slashed at one with his knife and the scent spilled over them…Green candles, we can’t eat them” (pg.30). The way that Simon described the flowers as candle buds, plus taking a second to admire

Toward the end of the book, Ralph claims that its "the end of innocence," and this is one of the book's major problem resulting in everyone being savage and uncivilized. When the group of boys is first deserted on the island by crashing a plane, they were behaving like children, either enjoying

The boys in the book, Lord of the Flies, were losing their innocence little by little. The end of their innocence completely was when the children killed Simon. On the island, there was a so called “beast”, and they had to track

To make matters worse, Jack decides to play a ‘game’ by putting Robert in the center of a circle while chanting and abusing him, as they do to pigs in an insidious manner. Jack then suggests to use a little one for the game, implying that they are no good. Since the beginning, he has never cared for them because they could never gain him any power. In chapter nine, the boys release their energy into what they believe is the beast crawling from the forest. However, they soon realize they had killed Simon, and have no remorse. As the game continues, his behavior becomes worse as the location of the beast is revealed. Jack states, “This will be a real hunt.” Jack is implying that the hunt for a pig, the game and killing Simon were all twisted preparation for their largest and most meaningful hunt. Gaining a sense of power, though the thought of killing pigs and the games, Jack reveals the evil and cruel qualities he holds within. Now that the boys are split, Roger informs the boys that Wilfred, one of the little ones, is being beaten. There is no given reason why, so, the boys believe that Jack is doing it simply because he can. Jack is able to show his authority as a chief and does this to fulfil his cruel needs.

In the novel The Lord of the Flies, by William Golding survival is seen to outway the built in need to behave as though one might usually and in some cases abandon their innocence in return for their life. The boys in the novel that are stuck on the island are forced to do things they wouldn’t even think of doing if they were under different circumstances. These actions may prove to be the end of this individual’s innocence as a child and turn them into something else. This is seen with Jack’s murder of the first pig, the brutal killing of Simon, and Sam and Eric betraying Ralph in order to not be harmed themselves.

In the final stage of the story, when the shift of power is absolutely in Jack’s favor, he invites everyone that is still holding on to Ralph’s side of the island over to his for a feast, a feast that will show the appeal of his group over Ralph’s. However, during the feast, a form of hysteria takes hold of the boys led by Jack, and the character Simon is brutally murdered by the rest of the kids, under the guise that he could have been the “beast.” (Golding 151-154). This blind killing shows how the children’s fear of the beast, which is really the fear of the unknown, has taken control of them, allowing Jack to fulfill his ultimate political goal, which is to lead them.

The main source of the the problems are due to Jack’s behavior, he bosses the boys around and they listen to him because of peer pressure. All of the boys joined together and killed Simon because Jack said that Simon was the “beasty” and he ordered them to beat him to death. The boys most likely knew that Simon was not the beast but they did so anyway because Jack was in charge of them and they felt pressured to. If one of the boys was to not beat Simon they would have had to face Jack and all of the other boys and ran the risk of being beaten

The boys on the island are fearful, and this plays a huge role in their decision making throughout the novel. One instance of this is during the assembly Ralph held following the passing ship sight. The crowd gets anxious and scared as more people fall victim to the belief that there is a beast. Once Ralph notices this change in mood, he thinks, “The word, that understandable and lawful world, was slipping away. Once there was this and that; and now-and the ship had gone” (91). Not only is fear of the beast taking over the boys, but the fear of never being rescued is taking them over as well. When this fear reaches the boys, they lose their sense of reason and sanity. This fear causes a change of perspective, leading them to change their aspirations of the society. Another prime instance of fear taking over the boys which affects them running an ideal society is during the dance at Jack's tribe’s feast. During the performance, Simon rolls out of the woods and the boys react out of terror by murdering him. When Ralph and Piggy are discussing the murder the next day, Piggy says, “We was scared!... Anything might have happened. It wasn’t- what you said”(128). In this discussion, Piggy explains to Ralph fear and confusion were the reasons for Simon’s death, not the desire to kill. This fear of a beast caused Simon to die, therefore proving the loss of sanity and responsible decision making from the boys. With the loss of these fundamental aspects comes the breakdown of society, causing fear to be a paramount reason for the destruction of an ideal