ipl-logo

Fear In Lord Of The Flies Essay

1497 Words6 Pages

The book Lord of the Flies, written by William Golding, is a young adult fiction novel that shows the journey of British school boys stranded on an island with no adults in the middle of a war. Throughout the novel the boys had many hardships and struggled to find an equilibrium between all the kids. The book itself highlights the thin line between being good and evil and that’s why some people may believe that the most important theme of Lord of the Flies is that all people have cruel impulses they must try to control, which makes sense since there were many acts of cruelty even shown by the “good and logical” kids. However, the theme that it is crucial to think and act logically is more important. Some examples of logical acts in the novel …show more content…

Several people may believe that the most important lesson of Lord of the Flies is that everyone has cruel impulses they have to shove deep within them. A good example from the book would be when Simon is confronted by the Lord of the Flies himself. On page 147 the beast taunts Simon about him being something physical he could kill, then he says that Simon knew he was a part of him, “‘Close, Close, Close! [he’s] the reason why it’s no go? Why things are what they are?’”. This interaction indicates that the Lord of the Flies is a part of everyone as well as the fact that he is the indirect reason why the boys have been struggling to maintain peace and structure on the island. The beast is an embodiment of cruel impulses and he reflects that in this quote by saying he’s the reason “why things are what they are”. More events take place that prove everybody has cruel impulses they need to manage such as Piggy and Ralph joining in on the dance that killed Simon. After the sudden death of Simon Ralph lashes out on Piggy saying “‘That was murder…Don’t you understand, Piggy? The things we did-”’(160). Not only does murder take away someone's precious life, it is morally wrong. If you’re a …show more content…

For instance, the boys coming together and setting the island on fire on two separate occasions is very illogical. The book states, “Beneath the dark canopy of leaves and smoke the fire laid hold on the forest and began to gnaw” (43). Prior to this incident, the boys were tasked with maintaining a lit fire for a rescue signal. This soon went haywire when the kids let their immaturity and impulses consume them. All actions have consequences and that’s proved when Piggy starts becoming frantic shortly after that. Piggy goes on searching for a little ‘un who had a distinctive birthmark on his face, he happened to get lost in the midst of all the chaos. On page 46 Piggy states, “‘That little ’un that had a mark on his face-where is-he now? I tell you I don’t see him’”. Their grave mistake potentially caused a kid their life as well as brought them one step closer to losing themselves. With tension continuing to build up throughout the book, the boys start to lose control and another fire incident occurs. As smoke was consuming the whole island “the patch of blue sky overhead turned to the color of a storm cloud, and then the smoke billowed round him” (200). Fires cause destruction and none of the boys even took a second thought on what they were doing which led to the fire becoming uncontrollable and huge. In civilization (life off the

Open Document