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Insecurity In Lord Of The Flies By William Golding

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Dalai Lama stated, “A lack of transparency results in deep distrust and a sense of insecurity”. William Golding faces this topic of insecurity in his book, Lord of the Flies, in this book a group of schoolboys, after crashing on an island, become trapped, and succumb to their insecurities so tremendously that it leads to distrust between them. His book reveals that one’s insecurities lead to changing oneself and putting on a show, as done by the antagonist, represented through the juxtaposition of treatment towards a side character and the character vs. character conflict. In Lord of the Flies the antagonist, Jack, puts on airs and applies a new persona to himself. He is described as “ugly without silliness,” with a “crumpled” face and a “bony” …show more content…

character conflict. Jack’s need to be controlling, mixed with Piggy’s fatness, need for glasses, and asthma causes them to butt heads toward the end of their story. During a speech Piggy was giving to the other boys on the island he said, “Unless we get frightened by people.” (Golding 84) followed by the laughter of the boys. Golding stated this to directly relate Piggy’s insecurities and how they affect him negatively to how people treat him; he is very likely afraid of people, hence his thought process. Later in the book, once Jack has split from the regular tribe, creating his own, (which was caused by his insecurities about his physical features) he attacks and steals Piggy’s spectacles as a supply to create his fire. Piggy was so insecure about speaking up for himself that he never truly did, until the night he died. That night, he told Ralph that he was going to go to Jack, conch in hand, and tell him that although he is “stronger than [him]… [does not have] asthma [and]… can see with both eyes” he needs to “give [him his] glasses” (Golding 171). Piggy sticks up for himself despite his insecurities and faces Jack and his insecurities, causing him to be so arrogant and deceiving. A person's insecurities cause conflict and pain, as it had between two highly self-conscious characters, Jack and

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They had kept Piggy purely for his main attribute, knowledge; otherwise they would have ostracized him completely. When they had first needed fire, they had swarmed Piggy and taken them against his own free will, Piggy was always the kid who everyone picked on. So, when Jack was feeling humiliated in Chapter 4, he had taken it out on Piggy and broke the glasses. The treatment descended into further cruelty when Jack had attacked and stolen the glasses from him, at the end of chapter 10.

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Piggy’s outsider status highlights how often people replace logic with desperation in a state of war. Jack does not intend on giving any meat to Piggy when he first kills a pig and gives the excuse that Piggy did not help hunt. Knowing that others got meat when they did not hunt, Piggy responds, “No more did Ralph…nor Simon” (74). The boys are collectively working together to survive on the island, even though they do not all get along. Piggy speaks calmly and coherently, for he trusts that he will be part of the group and get the meat.

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The boys took advantage of his weakness to make a fire but they also degraded Piggy. Piggy complains that he can’t see and that everything is just a blur and the glasses symbolize how the boys made him feel weak by taking them away from him. Finally, later on in the book Jack hit Piggy on the back of his head and that is when his glasses fell and broke on the rock. Then “Ralph made a step forward and Jack smacked Piggy’s head. Piggy’s glasses flew off and tinkled on the rocks”(71).

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They figure out how to use these glasses to make a fire which is then used to cook and make the signal which stood for civilization on the island. The one thing Ralph reiterates is the importance of the signal fire; however, Jack makes hunting as his only priority and this leads to tension among the two. During one particular scene, Ralph and Piggy chastise Jack for leaving the fire when a ship passed and there was no signal which could had led to their rescue and with that news Jack “smacked piggy’s head. Piggy’s glasses flew off and tinkled on the rocks” (70), He takes the opportunity to not only be the first person to physically hurt another boy, but he ruins one of the only source of technology the boys had available to them. Inevitably, when Jack makes his own tribe he needs everyone on the island to know he’s in charge and does the one thing

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(Golding 2). Piggy shows he is scared that they are stuck on the island on their own with no adults. You can tell Piggy is scared by the tone of his voice when he replied to Ralph. Thus, showing that Piggy wasn’t the bravest out of all the other boys. Here 's an example of Piggy’s character transforming.

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He uses it to compare the characters Jack, Ralph, and Piggy in the way each boy has different levels of respect from the boys. While at the top of a mountain on the island a heated argument breaks out between Jack and Ralph, “You’re always scared-yah fatty.” (Golding 38). Piggy is already established as fat and short and using this to his advantage Jack can bully Piggy with no repercussions. Earlier in the novel Jack is described as “Ugly without silliness” and the boys know not to mess with Jack based on physical appearance (Golding 20).

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Piggy is fat, brilliant, lacking in social graces, and wears glasses, in other words the outsider on this island. Due to Piggy being such an foreigner, Jack feels that he is above Piggy, and feels better when he causes Piggy pain and sorrow. For example, “‘You’re talking too much,’ said Jack Merridew. ‘Shut up Fatty,’” (21). In this scene you can see power in Piggy’s lack thereof.

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In addition, some of the boys want to keep their power or even gain more power, in order to do that, some of them are ready to kill. Jack is one of them, he maintains his position by becoming more evil in his behaviour, he knows how to get other boys into his evil plans and the influence he has on the group is all because of his power. In the first place, since the beginning of the journey, Jack always picks fights with Piggy to show him who’s the chief and who has the priority to speak. He loves to show that he is better and stronger than Piggy but in reality Piggy is stronger mentally. During the night, Jack’s tribe attacks the shelter where Piggy and his tribe is sleeping.

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Part of Piggy’s appearance is his glasses, and they constantly get Piggy harassed or bullied, Without the aid of his glasses, Piggy is practically blind, and as a metaphorical aspect, Golding tries to tell us that Piggy is blind to the word if he isn’t wearing his glasses. When Jack constantly hits Piggy and ends up cracking the lenses of the glasses, Jack is breaking apart of Piggy; Jack is taking parts of Piggy and shattering them, making it almost impossible for Piggy to see what is going on around him. In another perspective, Piggy uses his glasses almost as a safety net, relying on them to help him survive and get through the rough times. When the boys realize this, they start taking his glasses from him to light the fire without even asking for Piggy’s permission, Jack starts slapping Piggy which breaks the glasses and causes Piggy to

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“Vote for me or else.” When you hear these words, you know something is wrong. William Golding provided strong thoughts that contributed to his message of the novel. All authors include a deeper meaning to their writings, and they all give the audience something to relate to. William Golding introduced a theme that a community, society, and even a nation can understand.

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Power and manipulation takes over people’s minds and turns us into egotistical people without even knowing and the sense of having control or authority can brainwash us into the people who we despise. William Golding fabricates his ideas around the time period 1933 after he received his English degree where he mostly wrote poems. Golding’s world consists of writing novels, pulling ideas from the real world into his own creative words on paper, this is where he developed his most famous book, Lord of the Flies, throughout 1954. The perspective of Lord of the Flies is through the eyes of the Second World War and since he was in this war, his point of view on violence changed and gave him a different outlook on society. In the Lord of the Flies

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Another place where one can see that man is inherently born evil is through the interpretation of Simon’s personality. After Simon witnesses the killing of the sow and how brutally Jack and the Hunters hung its head, he begins to confront reality and the thoughts that haunt mans evil mind. He realizes what the beast truly is, that being, our own selves. The beast is within all of us as human beings. Jack’s tribe, including Ralph and piggy participated in killing Simon during their feast, when Simon ran out of the forest to inform the boys of the dead soldier on the island.

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Everyone has this underlying darkness within them that is hidden away deep inside the nooks and crannies of their hearts. Golding demonstrates this through the use of his major characters, Ralph and Jack. In the novel, Lord of the Flies, the author William Golding utilizes character development to suggest the idea that when individuals are separated from civilization, dark forces will arise and threaten unity and harmony. Golding presents the protagonist, Ralph, who is decently intelligent and completely civilized, to demonstrate how once individuals are pulled away from civilization, the dark forces within them will arise and change how they are for the time being.

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To approach a neoteric condition, one must abandon one’s original position; whether such an endeavor to alter one’s state is to be termed progression or retrogression is entirely a matter of perspective. Simply put, the departure from one’s locality and the arrival at one’s destination are two sides of the same proverbial coin. Such was understood by William Golding and was consequently exemplified in Lord Of The Flies. The novel explores a journey of the human condition from the comfortable shadow of civilization into the blinding veracity of reality, with the end result often being considered representative of humanity’s nethermost manner of existence. However, such is a subjective deliberation, which was evidently understood by Golding;

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People that have power can make detrimental things happen. Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, is about how a plane full of young boys crashes on a deserted island, and they have to survive together. They struggle to work cooperatively together. Unfortunately, they are unable to create a sustainable society and it does not end well. Having power and authority while trying to resolve an encountered conflict is symbolized by the conch shell.

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