ipl-logo

Lord Of The Flies Culture Analysis

1143 Words5 Pages

First world countries are seen as civilized and advanced compared to third world countries that are less “advanced”, however in Lord of the Flies, boys who raised in a civilized society and culture are brought back to primitive actions and society because of the society they were placed in. The boys started with a democratic system but slowly realized that it would not work out the way they would like it to. The conch shell was supposed to be the signal of democracy and fairness for the boys on the island, but as time went on, and their situation began to set in more; slowly, parts of democracy were stripped away because of the stress and pressure of the situation, this ended when the conch shell was shattered by Jack and declared himself …show more content…

This started with the death of Simon, and then to the death of Piggy, intentionally killing him for threatening their power and authority. “The rock struck Piggy a glancing blow from chin to knee; the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist. Piggy, saying nothing, with no time for even a grunt, traveled through the air sideways from the rock, turning over as he went Piggy fell forty feet and landed on his back across the square red rock in the sea. His head opened and stuff came out and turned red. 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. D’you see? You’re not wanted. Understand? We are going to have fun on this island. Understand? We are going to have fun on this island! So don’t try it on, my poor misguided boy, or else–” The Lord of the Flies derives power through intimidation. Jack uses fear and threats as a way to control the people that follow “his tribe” at first they were empty, but now that he and roger have killed piggy, they now have legitimate authority over the people that are scared of stepping out of line. Democracy has been dismantled by the situation they are in, where there is no real authority besides

Show More
Related
920 Words | 4 Pages

Jack makes the boys believe that the beast will not hurt them as long as they do what he says, this gives Jack more control over the boys. When Jack and his hunters go hunting, they find a sow and kill it. When they

Read More
822 Words | 4 Pages

The conch was the last thing that held onto democracy, and after the conch had been destroyed, everything that Piggy and Ralph had fought for had been demolished and disappeared forever on the island. Overall, the conch symbolized order, law and democracy in the beginning of the Lord of the Flies. It was mainly used to call assemblies and allowed the person that held it to share their thoughts without being interrupted by another. As the novel advanced, the boys grew more savage which lead to the diminishing of the conch and Piggy. Along with the conch, the civil instinct of the boys had

Read More
959 Words | 4 Pages

With absolute power comes absolute corruption, but with limited power comes limited corruption. In the novel Lord of the Flies, the arbitrary need for a leader brings forward strife and competition between characters that desire power. Ralph with his old democratic leadership style clashes with Jack’s unethical style to rule. In the book Lord of the Flies, we learn that eagerness for power is strong enough to break the boys’ fragile civilization, which is demonstrated by the characters Ralph, Piggy and Jack.

Read More
700 Words | 3 Pages

The author proves this by showing the gradual decline of the boys in the forest when they are without strong leadership. Golding links human society found with the conch shell found on the beach. In the book, the conch shell is used as the symbol of Ralph’s power and jurisdiction over the island. However, Jack seeks to discredit the power of the conch by challenging Ralph at every turn.

Read More
736 Words | 3 Pages

Fear has the ability to manipulate people into believing there is danger when there is not, causing them to make rash decisions. These decisions can result in a disobedience to one’s cultural beliefs, as seen in Lord of the Flies and Beowulf. Even though the characters from Lord of the Flies and Beowulf come from cultures built around nobility and loyalty, fear tears them apart from the society they had worked hard to achieve. Although the boys from Lord of the Flies tried to keep their culture’s morals, the fear of the unknown caused the children to betray their Culture.

Read More
867 Words | 4 Pages

This is a novel about the uprise and downfall of a new civilization dictated by one symbol. Symbols can be metaphors for the real world, and play a pivotal role in the novel’s plot. They are not signs that are put there by accident, they are well thought out and are used to make a statement. William Golding stresses the importance of symbols and illustrates how and why they are used. In Lord of the Flies, William Golding depicts the conch shell as the most meaningful symbol in the novel because it represents civilization.

Read More
739 Words | 3 Pages

The boys in the book lord of the flies came from a life in Britain. They came from having tea time to being trapped on an island with no parents to exert authority. The ‘savagery’ is not ‘savagery’ at all, it is simply just them losing the innocence that they once had. Yet this ‘loss of innocence’ In The Lord of The Flies is represented by not just foreshadowing but by

Read More
731 Words | 3 Pages

In the novel “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding the ultimate one responsible for the destruction of the island is Jack. In the novel Golding has wrote about how a group of british boys crashed on a plane and landed on a island where there are no adults,just little british boys stranded on a island .In the beginning one of the boys Ralph was the responsible leader where he knew what to do an how to manage. But of course there was this one cureles jealous boy that wanted to be a leader,the one in charge. Because of how ruthless and savage Jack was he took the fear that the boys had within them and used it against them to make them join his tribe which started the destruction of the island.

Read More
882 Words | 4 Pages

Symbolism of the Conch in Lord of the Flies by William Golding represents civilization. The novel Lord of the Flies is about a group of boys from England who have been stranded on an island after an airplane crash. They are expected to fend for themselves and are slowly reverting back to their primal savage ways. The group is quickly split into two a savage side and a rational, civilized side. Throughout the novel a key symbol was the conch.

Read More
726 Words | 3 Pages

William Golding’s fictional, British novel, Lord of the Flies, presents a character that serves a two-part function as a “scapegoat” and a certain commentary on life. During WWII, a group of British boys are being evacuated via plane when they crash and are stranded on an island without adults. As time progresses, the innate evilness of human nature begins to overcome the savage society of young boys while Piggy, an individual representation of brains without brawn, becomes an outlier as he tries to resist this gradual descent of civilness and ends up shouldering the blame for the wrongdoings of the savage tribe. Up until his untimely death, Piggy is portrayed as the most intellectual and most civil character in the group of stranded boys. Right from the beginning, Piggy realized that “[they] got to do something,” (8) and he recognized the shell Ralph had picked up as a conch.

Read More
1217 Words | 5 Pages

To Hunt or Kill: The role of the conch as a symbol in Lord of the Flies Many authors rely on symbols as literary devices to convey themes and underlying meanings within their works. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, the conch is a symbol of unity, bringing the boys together at the beginning of the novel, and it is used to establish rules and a society among the boys. William Golding uses the conch as a tool to express the theme of good versus evil through the relationship between Jack and Ralph. In addition, because of the organization and civil habits that emerge when Ralph has the conch, Golding can display a connection between Ralph and morality. When Jack begins his own tribe and spreads savage behaviours across the island,

Read More
835 Words | 4 Pages

“Power is dangerous. It attracts the worst and corrupts the best.” When the young boys first gathered after the crash, they were civil, mostly well behaved boys until the need for power took advantage of them. Two crucial symbols from the novel are the sow’s head and the conch shell. Each of these symbols represent power however, their powers have different meanings.

Read More
1057 Words | 5 Pages

Jack proposes that he forms his own tribe.. Within this rebel tribe he suggests that they act only as savages. The temptation to hunt won many of the boys over in favor of orderly society as suggested by Ralph. The two groups of boys reach the culmination of the conflict when logic battles savagery; “ ‘Which is

Read More
1560 Words | 7 Pages

Everyone, “even the tiny kids”, follow Jack without questioning his reasons for the orders. The people on the island lost their own sense of identity and instead they follow Jack and his behaviors. This passage from the novel proves that when people join a group or a mob, they lose their identity and follow the group's actions instead of their own. In the passage, all the boys on the island are following Jack and are forgetting about their own identity. The mob does whatever without even considering each individual’s

Read More
684 Words | 3 Pages

In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, Golding attempts to compare and contrast two opposite strategies of control. Golding portrays that while Ralph and Piggy’s government may have been a morally sound solution, the boys chaos is too strong to be controlled by a democracy. It must be controlled by a feared dictator. While the idea of democracy, represented by the conch, is a pure concept and can provide an equal opportunity for all of the boys on the island, the animalistic need for power and chaos that controls the boys can only be reined in by a powerful dictatorship. Democracy on the island could have provided an equal opportunity for all the boys on the island.

Read More

More about Lord Of The Flies Culture Analysis

Related Topics

Open Document