ipl-logo

Hoffer's Lord Of The Flies Essay

1568 Words7 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: How lord of the flies relates to society

A nuclear war displaces a group of English schoolboys on an uncharted Island in William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies. Without adult supervision, the older boys must assume roles of power and authority in order to create a system of structure on the island. However, as Eric Hoffer in his article “How Natural is Human Nature” noted, “such power is never free from the tendency to turn man into a thing and press him back into the matrix of nature from which he has risen”(Hoffer). Lord of the Flies explores this “matrix of nature” through the symbolic essence of the war, and the downward spiral of the boys away from civility. Though life without adults at first provides a sense of liberation, this great vicissitude turns once-proper English …show more content…

Throughout their lives, the boys have been conditioned to believe that with maturity comes knowledge and superiority. Many of them perceive adulthood as a rite of passage to righteousness, and try to imitate adult behavior to maintain order on the island. Ralph and Piggy, two of the boys trying most to preserve civility on the island, hold a particularly glorified image of adulthood. However, as the first signs of savagery emerge, the boys begin to question their successfulness at modeling adult society and become exasperated at their inability to maintain order. They use their immaturity and ignorance to justify their failure. Piggy states, “‘Grown-ups know things’...the three boys stood in darkness, striving unsuccessfully to convey the majesty of adult life”(Golding 94). Here, Piggy suggests that a direct correlation relies between adulthood and knowledge, yet struggles to identify exactly what causes this link. Their belief in the “majesty” of adult life implies that they believe adulthood is something of grandeur, and as one matures they adopt a life of nobility. However, through the boys’ inability to fathom the “majesty of adult life”,

Show More
Related
486 Words | 2 Pages

Stuck on an island with kids and an unknown “beast” what is it? The story of Lord of the Flies occurs during World War 2 on a deserted island after a plane filled with children crashed and where a new beast takes over . What is the beast? The beast in Lord of the Flies is constantly changing from fear to war then to savagery. So what is the meaning of the beast in the Lord of the Flies?

Read More
1484 Words | 6 Pages

It provides one with more worries about the logistics of the issue rather than fixing the problem. Many of the boys are under the age of 12 and would rather play and talk than take on heavy responsibilities. They are purely innocent, but as time goes on, they all relish in the brutal killing of others, depicting their loss of innocence as chaos ensues. Piggy is the only one who is able to keep his logical reasoning away from savagery and therefore represents innocence. The audience notice that others recognize the importance of Piggy’s slow, thoughtful insight in the face of disaster because Ralph “wept for the end of innocence” (202) and he acknowledges Piggy as a “true wise friend” (202).

Read More
365 Words | 2 Pages

A perpetual, age old question: where does the power go? The debate of whether certain rights belong to the state or the federal government has been argued in America since its creation up to modern times. Out of necessity during the war, The Articles of Confederation were created, and shortly after that, The Constitution of the United States was written in light of the imperfections of the Articles of Confederation. The Articles of Confederation originated the Federal versus states’ rights debate in America, giving the states large amounts of power, and congress almost none. The Constitution of the United States furthered the debate later on creating tensions between those who favored states’ rights and were against the ratification of the

Read More
612 Words | 3 Pages

“We saw-” “-the beast-”. In the Lord of the Flies by William Golding, there were a group of English Schoolboys. They roamed around on a deserted island, a war was going on in the near future. There are many possible things a “beast” can be. The definition of a “beast” evolves throughout the story.

Read More
1243 Words | 5 Pages

In Lord of the Flies, William Golding tells the story of a group of once-innocent schoolboys who flee their homes during a world war. However, the plane they traveled in crashed on a deserted island far from any civilization on the way to safety. Trapped with no adults or authority figures, the boys have to survive on their own with little or no guidance. As the boys stay on the island and try to find outside help, their humanity shifts into savagery. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, he shares his belief that without the structure of society, humans are savage by a conch shell symbolizing structure and humanity on the island, as well as using juxtaposition to contrast those who represent humanity and savagery.

Read More
827 Words | 4 Pages

Subject matter such as extreme anger, violence, and even death are typically associated with novels and movies about adults. Most people do not usually relate these things to young children, but the in the dystopian fiction novel Lord of the Flies, boys as young as six years old are exposed to all of this. Changes within the characters coupled with the presence of several key symbols show how separation from civilization can corrupt the minds of young children. From examining the characters and symbols in the novel Lord of the Flies, one can see that the author William Golding is showing the immense importance of civilization and how a lack of it can result in chaos and savagery. Civilization is proved to be of extreme importance in this novel, and the lack of it has a profound effect on the boys.

Read More
1156 Words | 5 Pages

The boys' disdain for order reveals humankind's descent into chaos when they are taken from a stable environment. After working all day on the island building huts with only Simon and Piggy, Ralph says, “‘They’re hopeless, the older ones aren’t much better… They're off bathing,

Read More
922 Words | 4 Pages

William Golding’s Use of Rhetorical Strategies to Illustrate Society in “Lord of the Flies” Written in the 1950’s by William Golding, Lord of the Flies is a novel that follows a group of young boys,stranded on an island with no contact to an adult world. Throughout the novel Golding elicits how savage humans can be when there is no authority controlling them, and Golding’s use of thematic vocabulary conveys how power and corruption can lead to a dismantling of order. As a result, this disruption in society causes people to reveal their true savage human nature. In Chapter 9 of Lord of the Flies, William Golding employs repetition, diction and symbolism to convey the theme that civilization has become a shield that conceals humanity 's natural wildness and savagery.

Read More
902 Words | 4 Pages

Although Ralph may be a good leader and Piggy may be smart, they both have evil inside of them and want to be a part of Simon’s murder. Ralph and Piggy are nowhere near being savages at this point, but their love of death still shows, even if they regret it later. Their savagery is just the result of the evil human nature inside of them that is left unchecked by civil society. On the island, the boys do not have the benefit of civilization, so they revert to human nature and instinct for survival.

Read More
709 Words | 3 Pages

In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, young boys get stranded on an island with no adults in the midst of a war. The boys were orderly and civilized in the beginning but then as they began killing pigs they slowly became savages and lost their civilization. The boys began turning on each other and the evil within them became present. Golding uses a variety of literary devices including personification, symbols, metaphors, and irony, to project the theme that pure and realistic people in the world can be unheard and destroyed by evil.

Read More
480 Words | 2 Pages

Lord of The Flies Essay By: Carmin Taggart In the book The Lord Of The Flies by William Golding. A plane crashes but the only adult onboard was the pilot but he was presumed dead . A group of boys get stuck on a deserted island to fend for themselves.

Read More
1140 Words | 5 Pages

Meanwhile, in Lord of the Flies, the situation is very different- several young boys have crashed onto a uninhabited island and have to find a way to survive. In the absence of any structure, the boys wreak havoc on the island, despite their efforts to create a working system of authority. George Orwell’s 1984 and William Golding’s Lord of the Flies provide differing views on the relationship between individuals and society, understood through characterization of Winston and Jack, and the social hierarchies present in each text. Orwell and Golding’s opposing views on the relation between society and the individual are apparent in their uses of characterization concerning Winston and Jack, respectively. In Golding’s Lord of the Flies, after Jack neglects building shelters in favor of hunting, Ralph is unhappy.

Read More
462 Words | 2 Pages

William Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies, shows an allegorical take on the classic coming-of-age story. Throughout the book, the boys' newfound freedom on the island turns into a “dystopian-esque” society, where their duties get forgotten in place of childish antics. On the surface, the island seems to be a paradise for the boys. From the warm water in the protected reef, the lush forest, and the fruit growing on the trees, they assume their time on the island will be like a vacation. However, looking deeper into the text, it is clear that the author is showing the imminent danger that the island poses.

Read More
562 Words | 3 Pages

Having no rules and no obligations is a dream for many people. In William Golding’s book Lord Of The Flies this is just the case for group of schoolboys. They are stranded on a deserted island away from all guidance of the outside world, and have to learn how to survive. Through Golding’s exploration of the setting that changes from a place of paradise to a place of fear, he shows us that people will destroy their own world to gain what they want.

Read More
1434 Words | 6 Pages

Imagine a plane that crash land on a tropical island with a fairly large group of boys, with no adult supervision during World War II. Lord of the Flies by William Golding is an exact example of this scenario with a young boy named Ralph. Ralph is an English boy; tall, fair, and handsome. His character traits are a good leader, a good friend for those who help, and a genuinely nice person. Also, Ralph represents law and government.

Read More

More about Hoffer's Lord Of The Flies Essay

Related Topics

Open Document