Human Lord Of The Flies Character Analysis

William Golding’s Lord of the Flies depicts aspects on what it means to be human. Being human means that you act morally and in a way that allows you to interact with others. This is not always the case in humanity, there is always an evil that lurks beneath the surface. There are conflicts that make people act in an irregular way. This novel exhibits that the human will to live and prosper can make people do inhuman things.

William Golding was born in 1911 in Newquay, Great Britain. He is best known as the author of Lord of the Flies and the recipient of the 1983 Nobel Prize for literature. Golding had a very normal childhood, his dad was a teacher and he attended very prominent schools. Once he had finished college at Oxford University, Golding

The protagonist, Ralph, is the first leader of the school boys, he symbolizes democracy and order on the island. Even though Ralph symbolizes these things, he is open to struggles. The main conflict that is going on with Ralph is the fight to stay humane and ethical. He struggles to find himself and remain the leader on the island. The first example of this is the “mock hunt”. In this hunt Ralph trails behind Jack and his group when they are looking for a pig. He is overwhelmed with excitement when he knicks a pig in the snout. Ralph realizes he lost his humanity while on the hunt and it confuses him. Another instance of Ralph being influenced by fear into doing inhuman things is the scene where Simon is murdered. It starts out when the boys are eating the pig and it starts to rain. The little children get scared of the thunder and start running wild. In order to keep them together, Jack orders they start the dance. During this time, the children run wild and act crazy, but under Jack’s rule. Unfortunately, Simon comes back to the group at just this time. Jack refers to the Simon as the beast and all the boys run over to Simon and stab him, as if he is the actual beast. The boys eventually realize it is Simon but the bloodlust powers the boys to keep stabbing him. Even Ralph is apart of this group, his want to be apart of the safety in the group overpowers his moral duties as a human. The final example of Ralph doing inhuman things because of fear is the scene where Jack and his followers steal Piggy’s glasses. Jack and his tribe need fire in order to cook the meat from the pigs, but the only mean of fire is the glasses. Jack and two others decide to go out and steal the glasses from Ralph’s tribe. While the heist is taking place, Ralph and his followers think it is the beast that is attacking them. In this time of struggle, “Ralph prayed that