Comparing The Most Dangerous Game And Lord Of The Flies Analysis

Similarities and Differences Though they do have differences, the short story “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell bears a great resemblance to William Goldberg’s Lord of the Flies. In both stories, morals of people are lost through time as they become more savage. Though the Lord of the Flies focuses on younger children, in both stories the setting, attitudes, and ironies have similarities and differences.
Though they arrived to their setting in different fashions, both the children and Rainsford accidentally end up on large islands that have many trees. An apparent difference between Ship-trap island and the island in the Lord of the Flies is that Ship-Trap Island is inhabited by humans while the children’s island is only inhabited by kids, pigs, birds, and other animals. Another similarity about the setting is how the most feared part of both islands, such as the quicksand on Ship-Trap Island and Castle Rock on the boy’s island, are

In the Lord of the Flies, Jack tells the boys that “We’ve got to have rules and obey them. After all, we’re not savages” (Golding 42). This is ironic because Jack later becomes an uncivilized savage. This can be related to how the general says, “Oh yes, we try to be civilized here,” (Connell 64) though he speaks of barbaric things such as murder for sport. Although Jack in the Lord of the Flies is not gentleman-like at all, it is ironic that General Zaroff does act like a gentleman. As barbaric as he is, he is also fair and gives his opponents several chances for survival. This is shown when Zaroff says to Rainsford, “on guard” (Connell 74) allowing a fair fight between both sides.
Though the Lord of the Flies focuses mainly on children, both stories compare and contrast many characteristics including setting, personalities of characters, and ironies. By comparing and contrasting these stories, it becomes easy to see how different, yet similar these two selections