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The human condition in the lord of the flies
Survival in lord of the flies
Survival in lord of the flies
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More handpicked essays just for you.
The human condition in the lord of the flies
Survival in lord of the flies
Survival in lord of the flies
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
The novel Lord of the Flies by Robert Golding is a story about a group of boys stuck on a tropical island. In chapters seven and eight, the power struggle between Jack and Ralph is becoming more prominent, eventually causing Jack to go off and form his own group. As the plot develops, the boys are becoming more and more savage. One example of this is when the boys have a mock hunt, using Robert as the pig. On page 114, Golding writes, “Kill the pig!
In the novel Lord of the Flies written by William Golding, mob mentality is the main factor in the loss of civilization amongst the boys’. Mob Mentality is when people become followers and do what they ordinarily would not do if they were by themselves, instead of in a group. Which happened in this case; Jack felt embarrassed when Ralph scolded him for not catching a pig yet. Jack decided to prove Ralph wrong, which led to the hunters becoming obsessed with killing one. When they did, the hunters started chanting “Kill the pig.
In the fiction novel Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, English schoolboys 6-12 years old crash land in a plane on an uninhabited island as they leave their war-torn country. An older boy named Piggy takes charge of organizing the boys, however, Piggy’s days of leadership are short-numbered as others soon cast his opinions aside believing they are unnecessary worries. As a result of his death symbolizing the end of all reason, Piggy illustrates the negative effects of lacking an open mind to create a system of rules in society. In an environment that is rapidly changing from seemingly innocent boys to savage animals, Piggy is able to keep his sanity and common sense that helped suppress the amount of chaos caused by the boys up until his
Instead of responding to Piggy’s arguments, the savages use violence and noise to drown out any opposition with no real reasoning to back them up. The main theme emphasized in Lord of the Flies is that humans are by nature corrupt and evil. This passage embraces that theme because the savages make immoral decisions to gain power and silence the voices projecting against them. It is a turning point in the book where the darkness in the boys’ hearts wins over their compassion and empathy. The real struggle for power is over and hatred has proved to be stronger than kindness and
The evil within the boys has effected more on their existence as they do spend more time on the island and away from the society for a long time and this is shown by Piggy’s specs. Throughout The Lord of The Flies novel, Piggy’s character represents the civilized and rules which the other boys have been separated from and surprisingly the boys lose their vision on what civilization is as Piggy loses his ability to see clearly . When the story of The Lord of The Flies begin , Piggy could see with both lenses of his specs clearly and the boys were still civilized . For an example , at their first meeting the group of boys decided that the boys “can’t have everybody talking at once” and the boys “ have to have their hands up like in school “ (p. 33) . But as time passes by, the hunters as in Jack and his group/tribe became more obsessed about slaughtering a pig than lighting a fire to be rescued or about going back to the civilized world .
The boys were running as fast as they could to keep up with the pig they hit with the spear. They all haven’t had meat in days and they were craving it, they were losing their innocence and becoming savages. This is one thing in the book, Lord of the Flies, that shows a loss of innocence. This is a common theme throughout this book, a loss of innocence. Some examples of this are the killing of Piggy, the hunts, the actions of the tribe, and just Jack in general.
Ultimately, the boys give into their own evil and the largest example of this, is in the slaughtering of the pigs: hunting. Most the group find amusement and excitement in these hunts. Eventually the boys hurt each other, due to their hunting mindsets, and this is proven when the Lord of the Flies says to Simon “We are going to have fun on this island. Understand? We are going to have fun on this island!”
In Chapter 7 of, “Lord of the Flies,” the boys recreate the scene of hunting down the boar, which is transforming them into kids that are willing to face fears. This behavior between all the boys is ritualistic and extremely important. The recreation of hunting down the boar with Ralph trying fighting to get a handful of the flesh and Jack trying to finish off the pig, really describes an act of ritualistic behavior between the boys. During this recreation, Robert acts as the pig and all of the other boys swing at Robert with twigs. This reenactment gets out of hand quickly.
Golding uses the word pig in the beginning of the story to show a peaceful creature who shows the slow descent into savagery with the lack of civilization . In an article written by Hussein Tahiri, he writes about how at the loss of civilization, people can become more wild-like than normal, which can be seen throughout their actions. As Jack, Ralph, and Simon explore the forest, they see a pig stuck in the creepers. Jack raises a knife to kill it, but hesitates and the pig runs away. Ralph asks Jack why he did not kill the pig, to which Golding writes, “[he] knew very well why [Jack] hadn't; because of the enormity of the knife descending and cutting into living flesh; because of the unbearable blood” (Golding 31).
In the Lord of the Flies, most of the boys are immature and aggressive, especially Jack. These traits are what boys are known for and are also what caused the boys to become less civilized. Most of the boys join Jack, who leads them to hunt and kill. By the end of the story, through Jack’s leadership two boys are killed by their own hands. It started with hunting pigs and painted faces and gradually got more violent.
In the novel, Golding uses the pig hunts to symbolize how when fear replaces reason, violent actions become appropriate. The book starts with Golding establishing that the pig hunts are needed for means of survival,” ‘We'll get food," [cries] Jack. " Hunt. Catch things.
Jack and the rest of the hunters boast about how they killed the pig as if they enjoyed it. The novel takes place during World War II, and this is very significant because it helps the author convey the theme of civilization versus savagery. The boys are able to establish a sort of community in the beginning but as the book goes on the boys, mainly the hunters,
The Beast in Every Human Thesis Statement: The novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding portrays the theme that regardless of each person’s different background and characteristics, every individual has the ability to commit brutal acts. While this book depicts Ralph and Piggy as the most civilized characters, and Jack and his hunters as young English choir boys, their actions reveal that they all have the capability to act violently. While Jack and his hunters started out as just choirboys, they become obsessed with violence and are driven to kill. At the beginning of the book, Jack hesitates and misses his chance to kill a trapped pig. Later on, as Jack and his newly formed tribe hunt in the forest, they discover a sow.
“Kill the Pig, Cut his throat, Kill the Pig, Bash him in. ”(Golding 114) Upon hearing this phrase, an ordinary person may imagine an endless amount of things; but it is highly unlikely that an image of a group of little boys would pop up. Children usually represent purity and innocence, but is that really true? William Golding’s Lord of the Flies shows how quickly one descends into the darkness of human nature when rules and societal expectations diminish through Jack’s desire to hunt and kill the pig, and through Roger’s disregard for Piggy’s life at Castle Rock.
In the Lord of the Flies the boys lose their innocence in exchange for savagery or for maturity because of the attitudes towards killing animals and people. Ralph and Piggy lose their innocence and transform into mature people because they oppose killing people and do not enjoy killing animals. While Jack and his hunters are out hunting Ralph and Piggy focus on the more important things such as shelters and the fire. Jack and his hunters are also supposed to keep the fire going but they continuously forget.